Press Release from State Senator Dale Fowler

SPRINGFIELD, IL – Following several previous attempts to fix the school funding formula, State Senators Dale Fowler (R-Harrisburg) and Paul Schimpf (R-Waterloo) are supporting a more fair and equitable school funding plan that avoids picking “winners and losers

Senate Bill 1124, Senate Floor Amendment 3, is a Republican compromise proposal to fix Illinois’ nearly 20 year-old school funding formula, in order to more equitably fund schools across the state.

“The old funding formula leaves a large amount of my district’s schools on the ‘short end’ when it comes to equitable funds. It is imperative that we put all of the state’s schools on a level footing,” Fowler said.

“This compromise represents a unique opportunity to give our Southern Illinois school districts the resources they need to educate our children,” Schimpf said.

SB 1124’s newest funding formula is supported by the latest dataset from the Illinois State Board of Education. A key feature of this proposal is that, unlike previous measures—including Senate Bill 1, there would be fewer dollars of the top that are immediately distributed to the Chicago Public School system, which continues to struggle after years of fiscal mismanagement.

In fact, Senate Bill 1124 SFA3 would drive more funding to low-income students across the state’s 852 school districts than previous measures, including Senate Bill 1. The ISBE analysis shows Senate Bill 1124 provides every single school district with more evidence-based tier funding than Senate Bill 1. When including both base funding and tier funding, every downstate and suburban school district would receive more funding through Senate Bill 1124 than under Senate Bill 1.

The Governor has already indicated that he would veto Senate Bill 1, and voicing his support for SB 1124 as the next best set of negotiated school funding terms—with much of the proposal having been agreed to by both sides of the political aisle. Senator Schimpf said he hopes that SB 1124 will be taken up during the current remaining days of Special Session.

The updated funding formula for Senator Fowler’s 59th Senate District can be found at www.senatorfowler.com. The funding information for Senator Schimpf’s 58th District can be found at www.senatorschimpf.com.

Both Fowler and Schimpf represent the all or portions of nearly 19 counties that are the southern third of Illinois. From a geographic area that stretches from across the Gateway Arch in Downtown St. Louis, to Hamilton County and as far south as Cairo and Metropolis and all points in-between, school funding formulas vary wildly.

Here is the school funding chart for the districts in the 59th District:

Press Release from State Senator Dale Fowler’s office 

Note – Please check out the video on franklincounty-news.com’s Facebook page as KFVS-TV’s Carly O’ Keefe interviews Senator Fowler.  He addresses education issues in detail.

HARRISBURG, IL – Budget inaction and continued uncertainty were on the minds of area superintendents during a June 20 meeting convened by State Sen. Dale Fowler (R-Harrisburg) to discuss area schools’ cash flow issues.

“Our school superintendents are increasingly frustrated with the ongoing impasse, and that associated uncertainty weighs heavily on their decisions when roughly 80 percent of my supers indicate that they have less than 120 days of working cash,” Fowler said.

“How can they think about improving educational quality for Southern Illinois students, when they are more concerned with ensuring that the doors are able to open in less than two months?”

The meeting was attended by 22 Southern Illinois superintendents, from 10 of the 13 counties that make up the 59th Senate District. At least four school districts indicated that they doubt they have enough working cash to open the doors in August. A series of education cooperatives throughout the 59th have already prepared to close without a budget. Those closures and other uncertainties have already resulted in dozens of educators and scores of other educational professionals knowing that they will not be retained for the 2017-2018 school year.

“I heard from one superintendent that he does his own diesel mechanicing on his district’s buses. These administrators have cut for years and now we are in crisis mode,” Fowler concluded.

The June 20 meeting was held on the eve of the Illinois General Assembly’s return to the State Capitol for a 10 day special session. Senator Fowler has been anxiously awaiting the return to Springfield to hopefully bring an end to the budget impasse.

Harrisburg Superintendent Mike Gauch offered the following comments: “I appreciated this meeting today, and I hope that we can do it more often. It was refreshing to have a legislator meet with us. We have a situation here in Southern Illinois where we need funding just to open our doors. We are all frustrated and we know that the taxpayers have done their part and we are obligated to open the doors.”

Vienna High School Superintendent Josh Stafford noted that, “We can’t continue to take in a nickel and spend a dime. Because of the absolute circus in Springfield, it’s putting our most precious resource, our youth, at risk because the school doors can’t open on time. The state cannot continue to pass along mandates without local control. We have to have a larger discussion on returning local control back to the local districts. On average, between the five schools in Vienna and the surrounding area that feed into Vienna High, we have approximately 85 days of working cash available.”