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By KIANNAH SEPEDA–MILLER The Associated Press
CHICAGO – A bipartisan group of lawmakers and other officials reached agreement Wednesday on a plan to bring more equity to the way Illinois funds its schools, although enacting the blueprint could be tricky amid the state’s budget stalemate. Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner convened the 25-member commission six months ago to address the growing spending gap between low- and high-poverty districts, one of the widest such gaps in the nation. The framework would create funding targets for districts based on the needs of a student population, rather than the current system in which every district receives the same base level of per-student funding. Under the new model, districts with high percentages of low-income or disabled students, for example, would get additional resources. Democratic state Sen. Andy Manar, who has sponsored previous school funding legislation, had hoped the commission would be able to introduce legislation Wednesday. But short of that, he said the fact that the group agreed that more resources are needed for districts with high numbers of low-income students is “substantial.”
ILLINOIS ROUNDUP
News from across the state
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Metra fare increase took effect Wednesday
CHICAGO – Passengers are paying more to travel on Chicago’s suburban commuter rail service. Metra’s fare increase took effect Wednesday. One-way tickets increased by 25 cents, or between 2.4 percent and 7.1 percent depending how far a passenger is traveling. Monthly passes are increasing by $11.75, while 10-ride tickets will cost $2.75 more a ticket. Metra’s board approved the increase last year. They said it will generate an additional $16 million, and all of that money will go toward a backlog of capital projects. The fare increase is Metra’s third in three years.
AP file photo
Illinois State Secretary of Education Beth Purvis smiles Feb. 18 at Riverton Middle School in Riverton. A group of Illinois lawmakers have agreed on a framework for making the way Illinois funds its schools more equitable. “Now today the task is to take this report and translating it into a bill,” Manar said. “The true measure of success will be ... whether or not Democrats and Republicans in the Legislature can come to an agreement with Gov. Rauner and enact a meaningful change.” Previous efforts to overhaul Illinois’
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Feds reimburse $4M for veterans home water system
QUINCY – The federal government is reimbursing Illinois more than $4 million for a new water treatment facility at a Quincy veterans home that was the site of a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak. Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner on Wednesday said the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs was awarding the money to the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs, which would reimburse the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. An outbreak of the disease killed 12 people and sickened at least 54 in 2015 and a federal report found the bacteria was likely spread by an aging water system. The bacteria that cause Legionnaires’ disease grow in warm water and are often present in water supplies. The disease is spread when a person inhales water mist.
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Chicago’s Willis Tower to get $500M face-lift
CHICAGO – Chicago’s famed Willis Tower skyscraper is preparing for a $500
school funding formula have failed, in part because bolstering poorer districts either shifted money away from wealthier ones or cost the financially struggling state billions more overall. And many obstacles remain. The group estimated it would cost an additional $3.5 billion to $6 billion to en-
million face-lift under an ambitious plan supported by Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The renovations call for six levels of entertainment, restaurant and retail space that could become an attraction for the building’s thousands of employees and the 1.7 million annual visitors drawn to its SkyDeck Chicago observation deck on the 103rd floor. The SkyDeck also would be improved under the plan. The owners also have agreed to offer 5,000 tickets annually to Chicago Public Schools. “A lot of kids don’t know about downtown,” Emanuel said. “Don’t see the office buildings. Don’t ride in elevators. This is going to make sure that this icon is part of all Chicago kids’ lives.” A revamped plaza will include a 30,000-square-foot outdoor deck and garden, as well as a three-story transparent glass structure set atop the existing plaza. The skyscraper, considered the second-tallest building in the nation, opened as Sears Tower in 1974. The building is owned by private equity and real estate
sure each district has adequate funding. Illinois Secretary of Education Beth Purvis – who was appointed by Rauner to lead the commission – said that amount would vary depending on how the legislation is written, what percentage of spending comes from the state and the demographics of individual districts. She said the increase would be phased in over many years and that no school district would receive less money than it’s currently getting on a per-student basis. The commission didn’t address where that money would come from. That decision would be left to the Democrat-led Legislature and Rauner. The talks about overhauling the school formula have progressed even as lawmakers remain unable to solve the state’s overall budget standoff, which is now well into its second year. Democratic and Republican leaders in the state Senate included school funding reform in a recent attempt to negotiate a “grand bargain” solution to the larger crisis. Illinois House Democratic Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, a committee member, said new resources are critical to the success of an equitable funding formula. She added that questions remain over how to increase funding without overburdening local taxpayers who are already “taxing themselves to the hilt” to fund their schools.
investment firm Blackstone Group and its Chicago affiliate, Equity Office Properties.
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Delayed payment ups costs in whistleblower case
CHICAGO – Chicago State University has been ordered by a Cook County judge to pay $4.3 million to a school official who was fired after accusing the school’s former president of misconduct. That’s about $1 million more than a jury awarded in 2014 to attorney James Crowley because the university has delayed paying damages in a whistleblower lawsuit. The jury in 2014 found Crowley was fired for turning over former university president Wayne Watson’s employment records to a faculty member under the state’s open records law, and for exposing questionable university contracts. Crowley said Tuesday he hopes a newly appointed university board of trustees brings the case to a close rather than spend more money contesting the case.
– Wire reports
The Herald-News / TheHerald-News.com • Thursday, February 2, 2017
Group recommends school funding fix