By Eric Stock and Cynthia Grau/WJEZ
NORMAL – Several local school superintendents are speaking up about the urgency of Illinois finally getting a state budget in place.
Pontiac grade school District 429 superintendent Brian Dukes said schools can’t operate with the uncertainty any longer.
“Pass a budget, a simple state budget so that we know what we are going to able to get moving forward and be able to find the things we need to fund,” Dukes said. “We’ve about bled ourselves out at this point with not receiving those payments we were promised to get.”
At a town hall meeting at Heartland Community College Thursday, Unit 5 superintendent Mark Daniel was among the school officials representing the ‘”Fix the formula Illinois campaign who expressed support for a plan which would fund schools based on more than two dozen factors.
“Each district is unique,” Daniel said told news partner WMBD-TV. “This model allows us to use best practices to drive what it the best decision and strategic plan to implement to improve our overall delivery of education.”
State Sen. Jason Barickman of Bloomington is one of the sponsors of the school funding proposal.
Daniel said Unit 5 is owed $8 million by the state for things like special education, transportation and bilingual education, while District 87 is owed $2 million.
As for the state budget, the Illinois Radio Network reports there’s a difference in opinion in how a Thursday meeting between Gov. Bruce Rauner and longtime House Speaker Mike Madigan went. Madigan said in a statement he urged the governor to focus on the budget. Rauner said in a statement Madigan hinted he may be willing to enact a truly balanced budget with changes to help create jobs, fund schools and lower property taxes.
State lawmakers have gone nearly 22 months without a full year’s spending plan.
Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].
