ISBE members unanimously supported Superintendent Robert Schiller's budget proposal, which includes an increase in General State Aid.
Illinois State Board
of Education (ISBE) members voted unanimously (with one member absent) to support the FY
2004 budget proposed by State Superintendent Robert Schiller.
Highlights include:
General State Aid:
The proposed budget includes an increase in
2004 of $200 per pupil for the foundation level, requiring an increase in state
funding of $252.5 million ($273.8 minus the accompanying decrease in
hold harmless). Progressive increases are recommended by the Board through FY 2007 to
reach a foundation level of $5,665 per pupil as recommended by the
Education Funding Advisory Board (EFAB) following a study by Augenblick and Myers on the cost
of an adequate education. Supt. Schiller's recommendation is very close to the
increase of $5,500 advocated for by Network 21. Their proposal is to reach
$5,665 by increasing the foundation level by the amounts indicated according to
the following timeline:
FY 2004 - $200
FY 2005 - $240
FY 2006 - $300
FY 2007 - $365
This would result in a total foundation level increase of $1,105 over the current
$4,560, phased in over four years, bringing this level to $5,665 by FY 2007.
Apparently, inflationary adjustments to the foundation level increases so
as not to lose further ground are not part of the current ISBE proposal though
Chairman Ron Gidwitz asked ISBE staff to collect data not only on Consumer
Price Index increases but on specific increases in education expenditures.
With respect to the FY 2003 budget, a supplemental appropriation has been
requested by ISBE of approximately $22 million to fully fund the current year's
general state aid commitment. The Senate has approved this supplemental
appropriation though the House adjourned before taking action.
Poverty Grant:
Supt. Schiller's proposal recommends no change until
Fiscal Years 2005-07. Proposed changes for those years were not spelled
out. Presumably, neither the poverty measure (the census) nor the poverty allocation
formula would be changed at this point. Both Network 21 and
EFAB recommended adopting an unduplicated Illinois Department of Human Services
count for the measure and changing the allocation formula to more accurately
meet the needs of high poverty students and schools.
Hold Harmless: The proposal recommends that these payments
be phased-out eventually (presumably by
FY 2007), but kept intact for FY 2004 (though reduced accordingly —
$21.3 million for FY '04 — proportionate to the increase in general state aid).
Mandated Categoricals: The proposal recommends returning to 100 percent state funding for mandated categoricals,
beginning with FY 2004, which would generate an increase of $211 million
for that year. There was debate on the "100 percent" figure, which some argued gives
a distorted impression that this will meet the needs of school districts in areas
like special education, student transportation and others. Chairman Gidwitz
recommended that the General Assembly review all of its funding formulas — general state
aid as well as mandated categoricals — to determine their
effectiveness. Special education funding, for example, is considered to be
fully funded at the $8,000 level for full time personnel — a dollar amount that
has not changed for 25 years! The Chairman also noted the wholly
inadequate funding on the part of the federal government in the area of special
education, which upon creation was mandated to be funded at the 40 percent level
but is currently at only 17 percent.
The costs of mandated categoricals have risen dramatically in
recent years, Mr. Gidwitz observed, and with inadequate federal and state funding,
this has hurt school districts' abilities to maintain their operations
without deficit spending. With more than 80 percent of Illinois school
districts projected to be deficit spending in the coming months, a review of
mandated categorical expenditures is critical.
ISBE did not request a supplemental appropriation to fully fund
mandated categoricals for this year as was done for general state aid, because
the increased cost was unlikely to be met by the General Assembly given the state's
fiscal crisis.
Non-mandated Categoricals: Most line items in this area
would be kept level with FY 2003 funding according to the proposed ISBE
budget. Targeted initiatives, however, that are believed by the Board to be
critical to addressing the achievement gap — such as teacher quality issues
— would be increased.
These include:
-
Early Childhood Education: ISBE recommends an increase of $27.7 million
to provide services to all on the waiting list of at-risk students —
approximately 8,000 statewide. The Board would recommend moving towards
the governor-elect's recommendation of spending $90 million to advance a
universal Pre-K agenda.
-
Bilingual Education: With growing needs in this area and the need
to disaggregate data by subgroup under No Child Left Behind, ISBE recommends
increasing the line item for bilingual education by $2.2 million.
-
New Technology Plan: $5 million would be added to the
budget for FY 2004. ISBE acknowledges that this amount is inadequate, and
does not begin to make up for the disproportionate cut to education technology in
FY 2003, but believes that other limited state revenues allow only this
increase. With a new state technology plan recently approved, the state
will begin to try to restore the reduced funding and move beyond this level in
coming years.
-
System of Support: Funding would be increased in this area by $17
million under the proposed budget. Programs including the Regional Safe
Schools Program, Summer Bridges and others would receive additional funding to
better meet students needs in schools failing to make adequate progress under
ISBE standards.
-
Highly Qualified Teachers: In order to ensure a highly
qualified teacher in every classroom by 2005-06, as required by No Child Left
Behind, ISBE recommends focusing resources on two key
initiatives:
-
National Board Certification : Increase funding by
$1.86 million, to a total of $6.6 million, to cover expanded stipends, registration
costs and other assistance for teachers interested in acquiring this
certification.
- Mentoring and Induction: With an attrition rate for new teachers
that is extremely high, an additional $2.5 million would be put into expansion
of mentoring and induction opportunities. In the out years of the ISBE
recommendations, funding would rise to $28 million from its current FY 2003
level of $8.5 million.
In addition, the professional development
block grant would not be reinstated. Though in an ideal world board
members would set aside money specifically for professional development, the
decision was made to give school districts flexibility on spending by increasing
general state aid.
Teacher Pensions:
Board members debated inequities between the downstate teachers pension fund (TRS) and
the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund. The FY 2004 budget proposed by Superintendent
Schiller included a $110 million increase for the downstate pension plan but no
increase for Chicago. Under this scenario Chicago would continue to
receive $65 million from the state. Chairman Gidwitz recommended
that the Chicago teacher retirement contribution from the state be increased by
$30 million for FY 2004, but this amendment to the ISBE budget was defeated.
Pension formulas, like other funding formulas, however, ought to be reviewed
by the General Assembly, the Board agreed.
Total ISBE Expenditures for FY 2004: Without teacher
retirement expenses, the increase over FY 2003 spending for all programs is $518
million, with a total proposed budget of $5.7 billion for FY 2004. In the
multi-year budget, this amount would increase to $7.7 billion by FY 2007.
With pensions included, the General Revenue Funds (GRF) budget for FY 2004 is
increased by $628 million over FY 2003, bringing the total to $6.8 billion.
Including other non-GRF funds and federal funds, the
grand total is $8.8 billion for the ISBE FY 2004 budget.
Other issues:
Chairman Gidwitz observed that the Legislature may
have to set aside a certain amount of money for schools in budget crisis, as
happened to Hazel Crest District 152 1/2 in 2002. ISBE staff will be
tracking how many districts will reach the dire financial status suffered by Hazel Crest
in the coming months so that such emergencies can be anticipated and adequately
addressed.
To view the full budget, on the ISBE Web site, please click here.