SPRINGFIELD – Public schools in Illinois have enjoyed several consecutive years of substantial increases in state funding, thanks largely to steady growth in state revenues and a new funding formula that lawmakers approved in 2018. But whether that can continue into the upcoming fiscal year is an open question that state lawmakers will have to face when they return to the Statehouse in January. With budget forecasters predicting flat revenue growth over the next year and continued demands for increased spending in other areas of the budget such as pension costs and health care, members of the Illinois State Board of Education were told Wednesday that they are now in a different fiscal environment. “I do not envy anybody involved in that process because it won’t be a fun time,” Eric Noggle, revenue manager of the legislature’s Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, or COGFA, told the board. COGFA is a nonpartisan agency that provides economic and budgetary analysis to the General Assembly. It operates independently of the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget, or GOMB, although the two agencies are often in agreement in their general findings and analysis. In November, GOMB issued a