“Illinois taking a step in the right direction”
By: Jonathan Baymon
The new Illinois funding plan will greatly
improve the education potential in underfunded schools throughout the state.
This remedy has been hard fought and it’s time is long
overdue. The funding will not be a success
overnight though. This is an important time in Illinois for lawmakers,
school administrators, educators and parents in low income areas. With great wealth comes great responsibility.
An increase in funding could mean a chance at closing important education
gaps.
How can legislators help.
Legislators can help by keeping this topic in
the forefront and continuing to advocate for improvements in state funding.
This bill is highly related to local property taxes and districts that
are wealthy in property taxes will receive less money from the state. It
is important that new funds can continue to go towards education in areas that need it the most. Low income areas will need allies in all parts of the state to advocate for equity.
How can school administrators help.
Administrators can help by being innovative and
fiscally responsible. School districts that survived on less than 70%
adequacy will receive the biggest increases. This is a great time to make
improvements that will make a school more attractive and help improve
curriculum. There are so many ideas to choose from and it is extremely
important that schools have a plan that can sustain time. Schools with
such an inadequate funding will need a long time to catch up. Looking for quick fix solutions is not the
answer.
How can educators help.
Educators can help by being innovative and
fiscally responsible as well. The new funding is public record. Teachers will ask for improvements that
benefit them most and they have every right to. However, the best way to
look at these improvements is sustained growth.
This increase is just a patch and will take years to reach adequacy.
Teachers can come up with ideas that will be useful to the school as a
whole and will be good for the next group of educators that will come into
their building.
How can parents and community members help.
Attend board meetings and Local School Council
meetings. Encourage other parents to come along. Ask for transparency from your school.
Ask that your school involve stakeholders in it’s decision making. Ask that the school share information in a
way that more people are aware that changes are taking place.
This is an exciting time in Illinois.
After years of debate and research to prove the inadequacy of our funding
system, a change was actually made. This is something that the state can
be proud of. However, this is an
improvement that needs the help of the entire community of stakeholders in
order to be truly successful.
For more information on this topic see the
Advance Illinois website below.
