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SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, The State of Illinois has put forth a
3comprehensive plan to strengthen the State's public education
4system and improve student performance; and
 
5    WHEREAS, The State's education leaders raised standards
6for students, strengthened teacher and principal evaluation to
7provide feedback and improve instruction, redesigned school
8report cards, and intensified efforts to improve struggling
9schools - all of which pave the way for better outcomes and
10opportunities for students; and
 
11    WHEREAS, Four years of cuts to public education in Illinois
12threaten to derail much-needed improvements and strip away
13support for student performance; and
 
14    WHEREAS, When adjusted for inflation, the State of Illinois
15cut $1.4 billion from the total K-12 budget from Fiscal Year
162009 through Fiscal Year 2013; and
 
17    WHEREAS, The funding gap continues to widen between what
18the Education Funding Advisory Board deems necessary and what
19the General Assembly determines the State will provide; and
 
20    WHEREAS, In 2012 and 2013, the General Assembly did not

 

 

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1appropriate sufficient money to fully fund the statutorily set
2foundation level of $6,119, therefore triggering the proration
3of General State Aid dollars; and
 
4    WHEREAS, In Fiscal Year 2012, the State's school districts
5only received 95% of the foundation level and, in Fiscal Year
62013, they received just 89%; and
 
7    WHEREAS, When the State prorates General State Aid dollars,
8it disproportionately hurts school districts most dependent on
9State dollars and causes the highest-poverty districts to lose
10more than $500 per student in Fiscal Year 2013, totaling
11roughly $160 million; therefore, be it
 
12    RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-EIGHTH GENERAL
13ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
14CONCURRING HEREIN, that we state our disapproval of the
15prorating of payments to school districts, a budgetary tactic
16that has a decidedly regressive effect; and be it further
 
17    RESOLVED, That we further state our disapproval of the
18cutting of education funding and recommend the abolishment of
19the proration of General State Aid dollars, given the undue
20harm to the neediest school districts; and be it further
 
21    RESOLVED, That, in the event that the State of Illinois

 

 

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1does not fund the State Board of Education's budget request, we
2urge the members of the General Assembly to pass legislation
3that equitably spreads reductions among school districts by
4evenly cutting dollars on a per-pupil basis or using another
5non-regressive approach.