State Sen. Jason Barickman, R-Bloomington, announces his "evidence-based" school funding formula overhaul with several school officials at a press conference Thursday at the District 87 Headquarters in Bloomington. (Joe Ragusa/WJBC)

By Joe Ragusa

BLOOMINGTON – State Sen. Jason Barickman, R-Bloomington, is sponsoring legislation that will take an "evidence-based" approach to revamping the school funding formula. He said the approach will accomplish two things.

"One, we can make sure that money gets to the place where its going to have the highest probability of giving our children an opportunity to achieve success in the classroom," Barickman said at a press conference in Bloomington Thursday. "Two, it lets us as lawmakers understand what outcomes will occur from our decisions."

LeRoy Community School District Superintendent Gary Tipsord supports the bill. He said the current funding formula is confusing.

"Whether we were gaining revenues or losing revenues, there was no real understanding of why," Tipsord said.

Brent Clark, executive director of the Illinois Association of School Administrators, one of the six Illinois education associations that makes up the Vision 20/20 coalition, was another one of the officials at the press conference voicing support for the proposal.

"We needed to put together a comprehensive plan that would address not only funding, but the classroom, the 21st-century learning environment, the accountability model, all the pieces that really go into making a successful school and a school district," Clark said.

Barickman said the Evidence-Based Professional Judgment Panel will update a study already conducted in 2010 by the Illinois School Finance Adequacy Task Force. The deadline for that update is Dec. 1. State Senator Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, who has sponsored previous proposals to change the school funding formula, is a co-sponsor of this legislation.

Joe Ragusa can be reached at [email protected].