Illinois State Board of Education Requests $10.9 Billion for Public Schools Despite Property Tax Concerns
ISBE Budget Proposal Claims Evidence-Based Funding is Paying Dividends
The Illinois State Board of Education presented its budget request for Fiscal Year 2027 to a House appropriations committee on Tuesday. The agency asked for $10.9 billion to fund preK-12 public schools, a request that includes continued investment in the Evidence-Based Funding system that has been in place for nearly a decade.
Illinois State Superintendent of Education Tony Sanders and ISBE Chair Steven Isoye told the committee that the current system is delivering results. Graduation rates are at a 15-year high. Achievement gaps are narrowing. Student growth exceeds pre-pandemic levels. Illinois eighth graders now outperform national averages in reading and math.
The $10.9 billion request represents a reduction of $278.5 million from this year. This change comes mainly from the transfer of early childhood block grants to the new Department of Early Childhood. After accounting for that shift, the request represents a net $469.7 million increase for other areas of preK-12 education.
Evidence-Based Funding at the Center of the Ask
Roughly 75 percent of the requested increase, $350 million, is dedicated to Evidence-Based Funding. This remains districts top priority and the states most effective tool for addressing inequity.
The Evidence-Based Funding formula that lawmakers approved in 2017 was designed to shift a greater share of the cost of funding public schools onto the state and away from local property taxes. The plan called for adding at least $300 million in new state funding to public schools each year. It also included an additional $50 million in property tax relief grants for certain high-tax districts.
The formula established an adequacy target for each school district. This is an estimate of how much it should cost to operate the district based on cost-related factors like student enrollment, poverty rates and the percentage of English language learners. The bulk of new funding goes to districts with the greatest financial need.
Since enactment of that law, general revenue fund spending for public schools has grown from $8.2 billion in Fiscal Year 2018 to nearly $11.2 billion this year. Steven Isoye said that during that time the number of school districts funded at or above 90 percent of their adequacy target has grown from 194 to 313.
Governor Pritzker Excludes Property Tax Relief
The ISBE request includes the full $350 million for Evidence-Based Funding and property tax relief grants. This request is higher than Gov. JB Pritzker proposed budget. For the second straight year, Pritzker did not include funding for the property tax relief grants.
Pritzker said he was committed to addressing inequities in the property tax rates people pay to fund their local schools. But he did not believe the relief grants called for in the Evidence-Based Funding law were addressing the issue. We have got to figure out how do we do that better, Pritzker said. But it did not seem appropriate for us to just throw the money into the program without having a better potential outcome.
Republicans Question Property Tax Results
Republicans on the appropriations panel questioned why increased spending under the Evidence-Based Funding system has not resulted in lower property taxes throughout the state. Rep. Blaine Wilhour, R-Beecher City, asked State Superintendent of Education Tony Sanders why property taxes remain high.
I am just wondering, if they are 90 percent adequate, and we have got probably 25 percent of the schools in the state of Illinois that are at full financial adequacy, why are we not seeing property taxes come down? Wilhour asked.
Sanders replied that they still do not have all school districts to 90 percent or greater. They still have a lot of districts that are far away from 90 percent adequacy.
Sanders also pointed to other mandated categories of spending such as transportation. For transportation the state only pays a prorated portion of the total cost. So as costs increase for fuel, bus driver salaries, special education salaries when the states share is not made up, then it has to go someplace, Sanders said. You do not pick that up through your Evidence-Based Funding formula, so you turn to your local property taxpayers.
Committee Takes No Action
The committee took no action on the budget request. The panel ultimate recommendation for preK-12 school funding will be included in the final budget bill that lawmakers will vote on at the end of the legislative session. The session is scheduled to conclude May 31.
The upcoming fiscal year begins July 1 and will mark the 10th year of funding under the Evidence-Based Funding formula. ISBEs request includes increases in transportation and other mandated categories of spending that are not covered by the Evidence-Based Funding formula.