Feb. 19--Aurora and Naperville school leaders met Gov. Bruce Rauner's budget speech this week with a mixture of cautious optimism and questions.
West Aurora School District 129 Superintendent Jeff Craig said he was encouraged by the governor's proposals, which included fully funding state aid and providing additional money for early childhood education, but remained skeptical it would become reality.
East Aurora School District 131 Superintendent Mike Popp said he was hopeful about the proposals but wanted to continue pushing for a complete overhaul of the way education is funded.
In Indian Prairie School District 204, which includes Naperville and Aurora, Superintendent Karen Sullivan said school funding shouldn't be addressed without taking into account an expected freeze in property tax rates and shifting of pension costs onto school districts' shoulders, which will also affect schools' budgets.
Meanwhile, Naperville School District 203 administrators said they wanted to get a better handle on the effect of the proposal before commenting.
Rauner, in his speech Wednesday, proposed an additional $75 million for early childhood education and fully funding state aid for schools for the first time in years, which he called "a first step toward reforming our school funding formula."
The state provides aid to districts to help them meet a base level of $6,119 per student, but in recent years the state has made across-the-board cuts to the funding. Poorer districts that rely more heavily on state dollars say the cuts have hurt them more than the affluent districts that receive less state funding.
This year, the state promised districts 92 percent of the money owed to them, though some local school leaders said they worry the state will end up paying less before the year ends.
District 204 is so accustomed to the state's funding being prorated, Chief School Business Official Jay Strang's budget forecast presented the day before Rauner's address projected the same 92 percent level for the next five years.
Fully funding state aid would give District 204 an additional $2.3 million, "which is not insignificant," Sullivan said. But she said the current base level is not even close to the $8,899 per student recommended by the state's Education Funding Advisory Board, a figure that reflects a more current cost of education.
Sullivan said District 204 and other local school districts are trying to get the message to legislators that in order to create more financial stability for schools, school funding, pension costs and an expected property tax freeze should be addressed at the same time.
"They all go hand in hand," she said, likening the school issues to a three-legged chair. "I've got to know all three legs are there before I know if it will work."
East Aurora is also likely to receive more than $2 million in additional money if state aid is fully funded, Popp said. He is "cautiously optimistic" about the proposal.
"It's not necessarily going to give us anything extra," he said. "It's going to help us pay the bills next year."
But he is concerned about the remaining aid payments this year, which he said could be cut further -- as happened last year -- or simply not come through. That would drive the district to dig into its reserves to balance its budget, he said.
Still, he said he was encouraged by the discussion among state leaders about overhauling education funding and plans to continue pushing for changes to make funding more equitable.
More-affluent districts, meanwhile, have pushed back against any proposals that would cut their already-small share.
In West Aurora, Craig said he was encouraged to see the state place a high priority on education funding and early childhood education, which aligns with the district's focus on preschool services.
But he was skeptical it would become reality. Lawmakers have not been willing to work together, he said, and the governor did not identify where the extra money for education would come from.
Any proposal that takes money away from wealthier districts is unlikely to pass, he said, so any new formula must fully fund every district. A helpful education funding formula would not force districts to be as dependent on property values, he said.
In the meantime, he said, he hopes the current proposal moves forward.
"Having seen a lack of partisan agreement and being able to work cooperatively, I hope this moves forward and manifests itself in a budget that supports itself like (Rauner) talked about," he said. "But I'm a little skeptical because I haven't seen people reaching across the aisle. It's a nice thing to talk about, but we have to take some action."
Freishtat is a Beacon-News reporter. Baker is a Naperville Sun reporter. The Chicago Tribune contributed.
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