Hopes Dim For School Funding Formula Overhaul's Passage

(AP) — Despite a revamp to ease partisan and regional opposition, Illinois lawmakers now see little chance of passing legislation this session that would overhaul the state's outdated school funding formula for the first time in two decades. The intent of the original bill was to increase state support for poor downstate schools, but sponsors revised it to reduce corresponding losses for wealthier school districts in Chicago and its suburbs. A study released last month by The Education Trust, a nonpartisan advocacy group, found Illinois has the most unfair school funding system in the nation, with poor students receiving nearly 20 percent fewer state dollars than their wealthier peers. Since the state's funding distribution formula was last overhauled in 1997, the imbalance between poor and better off schools has increased as spending on specialized programs outpaced increases in general state aid to districts. Reform proponents say the poorest districts don't have the property tax base to supplement funding like Chicago area schools do. The new legislation also counts on an addition of $86 million to help boost so-called anomaly districts — ones that have high property tax rates but are still spending less than average on their pupils through a combination of state and local dollars.

Topics:  ap    despite   the education trust   reform   chicago   a   illinois   the   districts   poor   schools   property   spending   

 

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