Schools Slashing as State Cuts Funding

April 15, 2010

Many suburban school districts already were wading in budget deficits before news of state-aid cutbacks threatened to plunge them knee-deep or waist-high into troubled waters.

Battered by adversities this year — from a flat property tax cap to late state payments — many school administrators were hoping to ride out the recession and weather the storm.

Then came news that state funding likely would be slashed because the state is broke, a reality partially masked for two years while Illinois used federal "fiscal stabilization" funds to pay some of its school bills.

With no relief on the horizon, and an income tax hike doubtful this election season, school superintendents have been issuing pink slips this spring in larger-than-usual numbers. A survey of Illinois school administrators in March suggested the state could lose as many as 20,000 education-related jobs pre-kindergarten through 12th grade by the time school opens in the fall.

"We are completely in unchartered waters," s aid Charles McBarron, director of communications for the Illinois Education Association, a union representing many suburban teachers.

"It is not uncommon for (Reduction in Force) notices to go out. What is uncommon are the kind of numbers we’re talking about, and the expectation that these will stick."

McBarron said the layoffs have been accompanied by cuts in non-core programs, languages, arts, sports, extracurriculars, plays and field trips, "everything that is about the whole student and the whole school experience."

In March, Illinois Governor Patrick Quinn unveiled a budget that called for a $1.3 billion reduction in state funding to school districts. The budget calls for a $664-million cut in the general state aid that is used to guarantee a basic funding amount for each school child from a combination of state and local resources.

With less money to pass around, the guaranteed amount — known as the foundation level — would drop from $6,119 for each student this year to $5,669 in fiscal 2011. Outlays for categorical funding, mostly tied to special education, would shrink by 21 percent.

This is a major shift: Education funding has been increased every since 2002.

"We have no idea what the final budget is going to look like," said Erika Lindley, executive director of ED-RED, a lobbying organization for suburban school boards. "It is not clear if the General Assembly will appropriate line items (for grants) or will give that authority to the State Board of Education," as was the case last year. "Depending on who gets that authority, the budget could look wildly different."

Quinn’s budget would trim $165 million from 15 grant programs, including early childhood education, bilingual education a nd reading improvement. Quinn also called for a 1 percent increase in the state income tax earmarked specifically to avoid the cuts in school funding.