Reform commission begins work on school funding formula

Posted on August 4, 2016
Illinois School Funding Reform Committee
State Sen. Jason Barickman (center) serves on the Illinois School Funding Reform Commission which held its first meeting in Chicago on Wednesday. (Photo courtesy Facebook/Jason Barickman)

By Eric Stock

BLOOMINGTON – State Sen. Jason Barickman said he’s optimistic a new reform commission can come up with solutions to fix the state’s school funding formula.

“I think this is one of those instances where there’s probably more areas of agreement than disagreement, yet we’ve not gotten ourselves over the finish line,” Barickman said.

PODCAST: Listen to Scott’s interview with Barickman on WJBC.

Barickman serves on the 25-member commission which held its first meeting in Chicago on Thursday.

He told WJBC’s Scott Laughlin the sticking point so far has been funding for Chicago Public Schools.

“I didn’t think last year it was fair for Democrats to come to Springfield and say ‘Hey, we want to work with you to rewrite the formula but we only want to do it if you send more of your money to CPS,’ ” Barickman said. “I just thought that was characteristically unfair and we had a blowup on it.”

The commission, appointed by Gov. Bruce Rauner and the legislative leaders, has given itself a February 2017 deadline to present recommendations to the General Assembly to pass legislation next spring.

Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].

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