District 87’s Reilly wants state follow through on evidence-based funding

Posted on February 21, 2019

By Howard Packowitz

BLOOMINGTON – The superintendent of District 87 schools, Barry Reilly, hopes the state budget is approved on time, and he noted that state dollars are even more important locally because of stagnant property values.

School districts rely mainly on property taxes to fund education, but taxable land values here have seen little or no growth.

Reilly wants to see the legislature and the governor earmark more funding based on the evidence-based formula adopted in August of 2017.

“It does need more money,” said Reilly.

“The state has shown in the last couple of years that they’re committed to putting more in,” he added.

“I understand that likely can’t get done all at once, but as long as they continue to make progress on that, that’s great. It’s becoming more and more important, especially at a time when locally our EAV (equalized assessed valuation) is very flat,” Reilly said.

According to Reilly, state dollars account for about 20 percent of District 87’s budget.

Howard Packowitz can be reached at [email protected]

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