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Educators, parents, and advocates lobbied the Illinois State Board of Education to request an additional $550 million for K-12 schools from state lawmakers for the next school year during a Thursday budget hearing.
That increase would be $200 million more than what state lawmakers put into the evidence-based funding formula for K-12 schools for the current budget . When the state created its school funding formula in 2017, legislators reached a bipartisan agreement to increase funding $350 million each year. But K-12 advocates have said for the last few years that schools need more money to deal with a variety of urgent issues, from staffing shortages to newcomer students.
The deadline for spending or earmarking the state’s almost $7 billion in federal COVID relief funds was at the end of last month, although Illinois indicated it would seek an extension for spending the money . But as a result, local schools could see a reduction in staff and programs next school year, if they haven’t already experienced cuts this year.