(Photo courtesy Steven Depolo/flickr)
By Illinois Radio Network
SPRINGFIELD – Lawmakers tasked with changing how Illinois pays for public schools are trying to zero in on the true cost of educating kids in the state.
The State of Illinois pays almost $7 billion for public schools, and local districts pay nearly$16 billion more.
However, State Rep. Robert Pritchard, R-Hinckley, said lawmakers on Gov. Bruce Rauner’s education funding task force want to know how much each school needs to spend to give students a baseline education.
“This formula, the evidence-based model, gives us a quantifiable number as to what you really need for the type of students you have,” Pritchard said.
That number will be different in Chicago vs. the suburbs vs. downstate.
For example. Oak Park River Forest High School in the suburbs spends $14,944 per student per year, while Anna-Jonesboro High School in southern Illinois spends $5,623.
Lawmakers on the task force said the state will never end disparities like that, and they don’t want to do so.
Pritchard said the task force simply wants to find a base-line cost, essentially what local districts need to spend to educate their students adequately.
“We’re really quantifying, ‘What is the cost of education?’” Pritchard said. “We’ve not really done that before.”
Pritchard said lawmakers are plugging along toward the task force’s February deadline.
