Illinois Coalitions Act to Improve School Funding and Accountability

 For years, we've been urging that Minnesota advocates for public education form a robust coalition to reform Minnesota's dysfunctional school finance system.  But given the threat of truly catastrophic federal funding cuts, adequate state funding is imperative.  A significant portion of federal funding is targeted to students most in need.  That means reductions in federal education funding will disproportionately impact districts serving those students.  The Minnesota legislature failed to provide significant relief for English language learners.  Compensatory funding is inadequate.   If the federal government slashes federal education funding, Minnesota has a constitutional obligation to maintain adequate funding for those students.  Adequate education is a state responsibility, and cutting federal funding will not absolve Minnesota of that responsibility. 

To that end, we've begun a series of posts on coalitions and advocacy in other states. Today, we look at Illinois.

The Center for Tax and Budget Accountability is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization committed to advancing social and economic justice for all. Our evidence-based research has helped generate fundamental changes in education, healthcare, housing, economic development, and tax policy in Illinois and nationwide.  The Center has worked for years to promote and support legislation including the Evidence Based Funding for Student Success Act, or EBF—which is designed to work towards its promise of closing the drastic funding gaps between school in property-rich and property-poor districts,  as well as between schools in predominantly white communities and schools that serve predominantly Black and Latinx students

Funding Illinois’ Future (FIF) is a coalition of more than 100 school districts, leaders, parents, educators, community, civic and faith-based organizations that helped fix Illinois’ worst-in-the-nation school funding formula in 2017 with our advocacy for the historic implementation of the K-12 Evidence-based Funding Formula (EBF). We are now focused on the goal of equitable and adequate funding for all K-12 schools, and providing every Illinois student with the excellent education they deserve.

As a result of aggressive statewide advocacy, the Illinois legislature implemented a new comprehensive education reform system that combines better funding focused on under-resourced districts with a state level accountability system.  The Illinois legislature created an Evidence-Based Funding Professional Review Panel composed of a group of practitioners, experts, legislative leaders, and advocates tasked with reviewing the first year of the state’s historic funding reform implementation, as mandated by Public Act 100-0465. The panel will recommend continual re-calibration and other modifications to Evidence-Based Funding to meet the needs of all students in Illinois.

To assess progress on implementing recommended best practices, Illinois School Code80 created the Balanced Accountability Measure Committee within the State Board of Education. The purpose of the Committee is to develop recognition standards for student performance and school improvement for all school districts and their individual schools. The standards developed will be an outcomes-based, balanced accountability measure. 

Although Illinois Evidence Based Funding has created a robust structure to encourage best practices and direct more funding to the districts most in needs, unfortunately, the legislature has grossly underfunded the formula.  Illinois has no constitutional requirement for adequate funding, and so implementation depends entirely on political advocacy.  

Advance Illinois 

Motivated by the urgency that Illinois was not preparing its students to compete in a global marketplace, and with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Joyce Foundation, and the Boston Consulting Group, leaders from more than a dozen civic, philanthropic, business, and education organizations from across the state came together and founded Advance Illinois in 2008. The bipartisan, non-profit policy and advocacy organization was modeled on successful efforts elsewhere and founded on the shared belief that equitable, high-quality education is a shared value that unites all Illinoisans.

The Partnership for Equity and Education Rights Illinois is a statewide advocacy network dedicated to driving increased investment in our children.