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The Examiner U-46 News Feed

What is U-46 definition for equitable funding?


By Seth Hancock
  Is it time for School District U-46 to stop focusing on class warfare and focus on its primary mission, educating the students of the district?
  About a year ago, The Examiner gave the board members (Traci Ellis, Sue Kerr, Veronica Noland, Donna Smith) who have been vocally supportive of the district’s lobbying for so-called “equitable funding” reform at the state level a chance to define what equitable funding and adequate funding mean to them. They did not respond.
  Getting an idea of just what the goal is, other than taking from the haves to give to the have nots, has been tough, but the district and organizations supportive of such reforms are presenting information that appears misleading.
  In a recent U-46 press release, the district claims “for every dollar Illinois spends on a non-low-income student, it spends 81 cents on a low-income student.”
  “While we appreciate that the state fully funded General State Aid for the first time in seven years, that projected $4 million increase for U-46 does not mean equitable funding and does not offset the state’s lagging payment of $20 million to our District this year for transportation, special education and other mandated categoricals,” U-46 CEO Tony Sanders said in the release. “The time to stand up for all children and fix the school funding formula is now.”
  That claim from the release comes from Funding Illinois’ Future (fundingilfuture.org) which obtained those numbers from Education Trust (edtrust.org).
  However, in Illinois the state actually pays substantially more to districts with higher low-income populations, so says Rep. Jeanne Ives (IL-42).
  U-46 board member Jeanette Ward recently shared a social media post from Ives where Ives said: “The truth is low income kids receive 4 times more funding from the state than those in wealthier districts.”
  Ives’ post came in response to a media report, which she called “fake news,” that simply took the word of those seeking “equitable funding” without doing independent research.
  “And of course - NO discussion on outcomes - just inputs,” Ives added. “I tell you right now that money does not solve the education problem. Illinois is number 13th on per pupil spending in the US. Suburban taxpayers - I am warning you that this does not end well for us.”
  The Examiner did research and found that Ives’ “4 times” claim is pretty close on the micro level of U-46.
  Sanders has previously singled out “wealthier” districts, such as Barrington, in the past for losing less money to proration, but as has been reported those districts already receive substantially less from the state to start.
  The Examiner compared U-46 to seven other nearby districts using data from the Illinois State Board of Education’s report card finding that U-46 receives $3,435 per student from the state compared to $860 in D304 (Geneva), $1,185 in D101 (Batavia), $1,190 in D203 (Naperville), $1,192 in D303 (St. Charles), $1,339 in D220 (Barrington), $1,412 in D200 (Wheaton) and $1,424 in D202 (Lisle).
  How much does funding really affect outcomes?
  Education Trust’s “Funding Gaps 2015” report states it gets its figures from U.S. Census Bureau’s Public Elementary–Secondary Education Finance Data with an average between 2010 to 2012. According to the website, the highest poverty districts in Illinois spend $10,874 per student compared to $13,415 for lowest poverty districts between state and local funding.
  The Examiner reviewed Education Trust’s data for all 47 states in which data was provided. There was no data for Alaska, Hawaii and Nevada. If their data is accurate, the $10,874 figure for Illinois’ highest poverty districts actually exceeds the amount spent on students in the lowest poverty districts of 25 states and is within $1,000 of nine other states.
  Further analysis of data shows that funding may have little effect on outcomes using the Education Trust’s data alongside data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The Examiner looked at the data from the NAEP including fourth and eighth grade reading and math point gains from 2003 to 2013 along with the percentage of free and reduced-price meals eligible students scoring “proficient” or better in 2013.
  Illinois was tied for 29th in fourth grade reading point gains while 15 states spending less for high poverty districts and 20 spending less for low poverty districts outperformed, and for eighth grade reading Illinois was tied for 39th with 19 states spending less on high poverty and 25 states spending less on low poverty outperforming. In math Illinois’ fourth grade stats were tied for 34th, 16 states spending less on high poverty and 23 less on low poverty outperforming, and for eighth grade the state was 20th, nine states spending less on high poverty and 10 states spending less on low poverty outperforming.
  On the free and reduced-price meals measures The Examiner looked compared states on their high poverty numbers: Illinois fourth graders in reading were tied for 43rd (worse than 21 states spending less) and 42nd for math (worse than 20 states spending less), and eighth graders in reading were 29th (worse than 13 states spending less) and 30th in math (worse than 12 states spending less).
  Comparing Illinois and Education Trust’s top spending state, New York which spends a whopping $19,927 on high poverty districts and $22,069 on low poverty, to the bottom seven states, of the 47 available, showed those bottom seven states consistently outperforming both. Most notable were Florida (ranked 41st in both high poverty-$8,519-and low poverty-$8,181- spending) which outperformed Illinois and New York in every measure and Utah (46th in high poverty spending-$7,167-and 47th in low poverty-$6,725) which outperformed New York in every measure and Illinois in all but one.
  Education Trust, Funding Illinois’ Future and U-46 have put a primary focus on money without providing any data to show that added funding will make a difference, and Education Trust illuminates that their goal is simply redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor and their focus is “particularly for students of color and low-income students.”
  Education Trust, while providing no data other than figures on money spent, said “a district with more resources, for example, can pay teachers more, making it easier to attract the strongest educators.” U-46, which claims to not receive adequate or equitable funding from the state, has paid its teachers $3,781 more than the state average over the last 10 years.
  Board member Cody Holt has said the district should focus on structural reforms rather than “equitable funding” and recently made a social media post claiming the district could save $40 million if reforms such as eliminating the prevailing wage and reforming workers compensation and collective bargaining were enacted.
  “The reality is that the only way to put more money back into the classroom and lower the growing cost of government is for the Illinois General Assembly to pass commonsense, pro-taxpayer reforms,” Holt wrote.
  Illinois’ debt currently sits at $153.6 billion according to usdebtclock.org, and Internal Revenue Service data shows that the state lost the most residents in the nation for the third straight year in 2016.
  Those advocating for “equitable funding” have had a singular focus on revenues without answering important questions: How can you expect to receive more money from the state? If you were to get more money, how would a state in such poor fiscal health pay for it? If you get more funding, will that drive more people away from the state meaning less money in the future?

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