SPRINGFIELD — As budget negotiations kicked into high gear at the Illinois Statehouse this week, lawmakers from both chambers have begun to assess how much progress has been made under the Evidence-Based Funding formula for public schools.
That was the formula lawmakers passed in 2017 that was supposed to bring about greater equity in school funding by increasing the state’s share of overall school funding and directing the new money to the most underfunded districts in the state.
The budget lawmakers pass this year will be the 10th written under that formula. But as the anniversary approaches, state records show that despite an additional $3 billion in state funding for public schools during that time, most of the state’s 851 districts remain underfunded, including dozens that receive less than 70% of what the formula says they need to operate effectively.
“That underfunding is not theoretical. It has real consequences across the state,” Crystal Mallory, a lobbyist for the Illinois Federation of Teachers, told a Senate committee Tuesday. “We are beginning to see staffing shortages and increased attrition. program cuts and loss of student supports, districts developing deficit-reduction plans due to uncertainty.”
How EBF works
Under the original bill, the state is supposed to add $300 million each year in new funding for PreK-12 schools plus an additional $50 million for property tax relief grants that are awarded to certain high-tax districts.
The law also uses a formula to calculate an “adequacy target” for each district based on its size and demographic factors, such as the number of students from low-income households or students who are English language learners.
The law then uses a formula to calculate each district’s current adequacy percentage, taking into account how much they can raise from local taxes, how much they receive in federal funding and how much they currently receive from the state.
Under the law, every district is guaranteed to receive at least the same amount of state funding as they received the previous year, but priority for new funding is given to districts that are furthest below their adequacy target.
Since its enactment, the cumulative increases have totaled more than $4 billion in annual funding for public schools. That includes just over $3 billion through the EBF formula. Lawmakers have also increased funding for items outside the formula such as career and technical education as well as transportation and other “mandated categorical” expenses.
That has brought total General Revenue Fund spending for PreK-12 public schools to $11.2 billion this fiscal year.
Still, according to Illinois State Board of Education officials, bringing all districts up to at least 90% of their adequacy target, which was the original goal of the EBF formula, would cost yet another $3 billion. Fully funding the mandated categorical expenses would cost another $600 million beyond that.
Funding inequities
According to ISBE data, of the 851 elementary, high school and unit school districts in the state, 532, or 63%, currently receive less than 90% of their “adequacy target” under the formula, including 48 districts, or 5.6%, that receive less than 70%.
There are 223 districts funded at 100% or more of their adequacy target, including 14 that are funded at greater than 200%.
The Ohio Community School District 505, in Bureau County, has the highest funding ratio, at 354%. Carbondale Community High School District 165, at 61% of adequacy, is the least funded district.
Stacy Schulte, a middle school teacher in the Grant Community Consolidated School District 110, outside East St. Louis testified about the conditions in her school. ISBE records show that district in Fairview Heights is currently funded at 75% of adequacy.
“Our students don’t have health programs, music classes, the opportunity to learn languages or anywhere close to a technology curriculum,” she said. “Just now, we’re trying to buy textbooks that haven’t been replaced in a decade. Keeping things current and up to date is pretty important in the world these kids live in, and we haven’t had the funding to do it. Our students have been sitting with outdated material as the world moves on.”
Cost of full funding
Mallory and Schulte both testified in favor of Senate Bill 3701. Sponsored by Sen. Graciela Guzmán, D-Chicago, it would require the state to fully fund the formula. That would mean providing enough state money to bring all districts up to at least 100% of their adequacy target, starting in the upcoming fiscal year.
The bill also calls on the state to fully fund the additional costs districts incur, known as “mandated categorical” expenses, which are not covered by the EBF formula.
SB 3701 would not actually provide that additional funding. That would still have to be approved separately each year as part of the regular budgeting process.
“If the state says that a service is required, the state should fund it,” Guzmán said of her bill. “And then if the state has defined what adequate education looks like, the state should also fund that. So, if we’re serious about equity, property tax relief and supporting public schools across Illinois, then we have to stop treating underfunding as if it is normal.”
Republican Sen. Terri Bryant, of Murphysboro, who voted for the original EBF bill in 2017, said she supported the concept of the bill but questioned whether the state could afford to pay for it without raising taxes.
“I don’t have a problem with doing it. I want to do it,” she said. “I’m not supportive of new taxes. I am supportive of priorities. So provided this becomes priority driven, I’m all for it.”
Results of increased funding
During a House budget hearing in April, ISBE Chairman Steven Isoye said the increased funding the state has put into the formula so far is paying dividends.
“After nine years of investment, the number of districts at or above 90% adequacy has grown from 194 to 313, and outcomes show real progress,” he said. “Graduation rates are at a 15-year high. Achievement gaps are narrowing. Student growth exceeds pre-pandemic levels, and Illinois eighth graders now outperform national averages in reading and math.”
But during a separate hearing Tuesday on the EBF formula in the House’s K-12 education budget committee, Rep. Blaine Wilhour, R-Beecher City, expressed skepticism that Illinois students are performing any better today than they did before the formula was adopted, despite the increased spending.
“You’ve set real benchmarks in the formula, as far as what you expect on spending,” he said. “We need real benchmarks on what we expect on student outcomes in conjunction with that spending. Because it looks to me like there’s really nothing.”
Cynthia Lund, ISBE’s chief governmental relations officer, explained that the funding formula is not tied to student performance outcomes. But she said the state tests students each year and reports the results of those tests on the annual state report card, adding that those reports have indicated strong growth in student performance in recent years.
“Well, I think that a lot of people would disagree,” Wilhour said.