Prairie State Wire

The Illinois State Board of Education officials pushed back on Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s proposal to keep Illinois’ K-12 education funding flat in FY2022.

The board is demanding $362.1 million to the state’s evidence-based funding formula and $50 million in early childhood education grants, the Capitol Fax reported.

The evidence-based funding model was enacted in 2017 as a fresh approach in distributing funds to the worst-funded school districts first.

There were 168 school districts in FY2018 that were at or lower than 60 percent of funding adequacy according to ISBE Superintendent Carmen Ayala and only 10 districts are at or below that number after three years.

Ayala additionally explained that if the funding formula becomes successful in thrusting districts to the 90 percent adequacy level by 2027, an added $799 million each year for the next six years needs to be allotted by the state. For this reason, the current request to increase it to $362.1 million is only half of what’s supposed to be given in the stated period.

Rep. Will Davis, who primarily supported the formula, said there are several House Democrats who “are not happy with the governor’s introduced budget” in connection with the education fund.