•June 27, 2018•

By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist

When I was Gov. Jim Thompson’s aide for education in the late 1970s, there was an adage that only six people in Illinois understood the state school aid formula—and they weren’t allowed to fly on the same plane.
There is a new formula today, just as complicated. And state senators Andy Manar (D-Bunker Hill, Macoupin County) and Jason Barickman (R-Bloomington) would be among those six experts today.
Andy and Jason are highly capable, earnest Eagle Scout types. Over five years of hard work, they have taken the lead, along with scores of other participants, in crafting a new formula that will use evidence of best schoolroom practices to drive the allocation of increased amounts of state school dollars.
If the state can fund it, which is far from certain, the formula would put much more money into property-poor districts to provide them the teachers, staff and programs needed to give students a good chance at being successful.
Some background: At a statewide average of $13,000 per student times two million enrolled in our public schools, Illinois spends from all sources about $26 billion a year on pre-K through high school education. That’s real money.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.