By Cole Lauterbach/Illinois Radio Network
SPRINGFIELD – Through all the drama and gridlock in Springfield, it looks as if lawmakers can all agree that they want schools to stay open.
The state Senate agreed with the House’s vote on a school funding formula Tuesday afternoon. The compromise struck by legislative leaders over the weekend would implement what lawmakers call an evidence-based model and would send significantly more state money to Chicago. In turn, Republicans would get passed a tax-deductible scholarship program for private schools.
“We will fund those schools fairly for the first time in decades,” said State Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill. The southern Illinois lawmaker has long-championed education reform but told the Senate that he was unsure about the agreed upon bill until the night prior to the vote.
“Students will get a chance to go to schools that they couldn’t go to before,” said Senate Minority Leader Bill Brady, R-Bloomington. “I think we’ve accomplished a lot.”
Also in the bill is a mechanism for residents of school districts that are cash-rich but still asking much in property taxes to lower their burden via referendum. “This is an opportunity for individuals to be able to band together, go to referendum, and try to get their property taxes lowered,” said state Sen. Dan McConchie, R-Hawthorne Woods.
Not everyone was a fan of the agreement.
“The introduction of a voucher system to direct public funds toward private schools is, for me, dangerous,” said Sen. Daniel Biss, D-Evanston. Biss is also running for Governor. His words echoed public teachers’ union objections to the private school scholarship plan.
But Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon, said that the private school scholarship program would incentivize people to donate, giving parents of kids in failing schools a chance to send them elsewhere.
“You’re gonna give them an avenue to access a reasonable education,” he said. “What is not right about that?”
Conservatives in the House brought up the spending aspect of the proposal Monday. “I don’t know where this money is going to come from,” said state Rep. David McSweeney, R-Barrington Hills. The new spending and tax rebates in the bill were not accounted for in the budget passed in July.
They criticized the hundreds of millions of additional dollars in state funds that Chicago would receive, calling it a bailout of a mismanaged teachers’ pension system.
Gov. Bruce Rauner joined Senators on the chamber floor shortly after to congratulate them on passing the landmark reform.
