From the Desk of Robin Steans – Supporting Students and Strengthening the Road to Recovery in 2023
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
After three difficult years, all signs point to the fact that Illinois has turned a corner. COVID-19 rates are down, and the latest Google COVID Community Mobility Report shows that most forms of activity have returned to near normal relative to the pre-pandemic baseline. And despite all predictions to the contrary, the state is undeniably in a strong fiscal position. Revenue is up--in fact, General Revenue Funds for FY23 are predicted to be the highest they’ve been in the past 10 years--Illinois has paid down debt, and we are now adding to our rainy-day fund. But our outlook can be even stronger.
As state leaders make key decisions on how to direct these increased resources, the research is clear: investments in education pay off. Better academic outcomes, enabled by adequate investments in education, translate to economic growth, increased earnings, and decreased unemployment. In fact, nationally, research has found that on average, every additional bachelor’s degree provides states with a net benefit of $2,500 per person per year in increased individual-level taxes and decreased consumption of social services. Additionally, a well-educated population is associated with increased civic engagement, volunteering, happiness, life satisfaction, and better health and wellness, as well as lower incarceration rates.
There is no question that strengthening our state starts with investing and improving our birth- post-secondary education system.
As we look ahead to 2023 and the 103rd legislative session, Advance Illinois will support this vision for a stronger Illinois. Our focus is on ensuring more stable, adequate and equitable education funding from cradle to career, prioritizing supports for the whole child, strengthening and diversifying the educator pipeline, and putting to work more relevant data to address the impact of years of disrupted learning and development. Our agenda is big, as is the need!
STABLE, ADEQUATE & EQUITABLE FUNDING ACROSS THE BIRTH-POSTSECONDARY (B-20) CONTINUUM
It is vital we take a birth-postsecondary (B-20) funding approach to ensure that every part of the education and care continuum is stably, adequately and equitably funded. Every step of our education system relies on the health and success of the previous steps. K-12 students thrive when they have had access to high-quality early childhood experiences. Post-secondary students persist at higher rates when they have had a strong K-12 education. And, all students perform better when they have access to quality educators and caregivers.
This year, we will advocate for:
Increasing state early childhood investments by at least 20 percent.
While Illinois has begun new efforts to improve access and quality in early childhood education and care (ECEC) over the last year, there is still much work to be done. The governor’s Early Childhood Funding Commission reports that we are underfunding ECEC by roughly $12 billion. Accordingly, the state needs a long-term plan that (a) puts us on a clear path towards fully funding the system, and (b) aligns state governance and funding systems to prioritize equity and access. In the meantime, we urge the state to increase state funding for ECEC by at least 20 percent in the FY24 budget. While, alongside our partners and the field, we look forward to developing a longer-term plan, including learning more about and engaging with Governor Pritzker’s plan to expand preschool access to all families in our state and eliminate child care deserts, we need to ensure we’re making bold steps now to close the multi-billion dollar gap to full funding.
Accelerating our path to fully-funding the Evidence-Based Formula.
Five years into the implementation of the Evidence-Based Funding (EBF) formula for K-12 schools, data shows that the formula is working to dramatically reduce the number of severely underfunded districts in our state. This represents meaningful progress, but the state has a long way to go with over half of Illinois’ students in districts still at or below 75% of adequacy. If we continue to add an additional $350 million each year in new funds (roughly the pace we’ve been going), it would take at least fifteen years to fully fund our schools. Parents, educators and local leaders from across the state have been raising their voices to share that Illinois students cannot wait that long. We must increase the minimum funding we add to EBF each year by at least $550M, and ensure our schools and students have a stable source funds, to get us to full funding in half the time.
Restoring enrollment, investment, and equity in the state’s higher education system.
Funding for higher education is fundamentally broken in Illinois. Current costs are pricing too many students out of college, especially students from low-income households and students of color. Moreover, institutions that support a high percentage of these same students are disproportionally harmed by current state funding structures. In the FY23 budget, Illinois made a significant commitment to higher education affordability by appropriating a $122 million increase for the Monetary Assistance Program (MAP), that for the first time in 20 years allowed us to support all eligible applicants. While this investment will have a substantial impact, on average, MAP still only covers 38% of public university tuition and fees. If we are serious about equitable access to post-secondary opportunities, we must increase the amount of individual grants; investing an additional $50M in MAP will build on recent progress and take us one step closer to putting college in reach for all students.
Scholarships alone are not going to resolve our resource challenges in higher education. Decades of disinvestment have placed stress on our public universities and community colleges, impacting enrollment and programing. Therefore, in the near term, we are recommending a 7.5% increase in institutional funding that also prioritizes equitable distribution of these funds. In the long term, we are participating in the Commission on Equitable Public University Funding and Coalition for Transforming Higher Education Funding, to both raise awareness of these needs and help propose equity-oriented funding reform.
HEALING-CENTERED ENVIRONMENTS
Even before the pandemic began, the social, emotional, mental health, and trauma related needs of students in Illinois were not being fully met by school and community supports. For many students and staff, COVID-19 has only exacerbated these needs. As Illinois continues to take strides towards becoming a trauma-responsive state and leverages federal stimulus funds to invest in the resources and systems required to provide all of our young people with healing-centered communities, it’s vital that we articulate a long-term and systemic vison for this work. Last year, the Whole Child Task Force issued a set of comprehensive recommendations intended to support all schools and districts in becoming trauma-informed and healing-centered environments. This legislative session, we plan to help advance legislation that begins implementing the Task Force’s recommendations.
STRONGER, MORE DIVERSE TEACHER AND PRINCIPAL PIPELINES
The single most important role the state has is to ensure our students have well-prepared, capable educators, and that we give those educators the support and development they need as the world continues to throw them new and challenging curve balls. Illinois has been making thoughtful, coordinated investments to strengthen and diversify its educator pipeline, and that work has been paying off and is garnering national attention. Indeed, while Illinois continues to struggle with teacher shortages in certain subject areas and geographies, we are faring better than other states (thanks in large part to these concerted efforts). That said, these efforts must not only continue, but also expand – too many students in Illinois do not have access to fully certified, diverse teachers. Notably, the majority (about 54%) our state’s current educator pipeline investments come from short-term federal stimulus resources. As these funds begin to expire, it is critical that the state determine how to maintain and grow its comprehensive, coordinated, ambitious plan to build a stronger, more diverse educator pipeline – one that recruits and retains talented, diverse educators and closes gaps in high-need subjects and regions.
We will continue to develop and advocate for a set of evidence-based strategies that address the entire educator pipeline from recruitment to preparation to placement and retention. This includes:
Supporting a $2.8 million increase (for a total of $7 million) for Minority Teachers of Illinois (MTI) scholarship in order to support more teaching candidates of color, including Black male and bilingual candidates (a modest increase for an outsized impact);
Developing and investing in a state infrastructure (such as a unified portal) to simplify access to financial aid and licensure information;
Evaluating the impact of Illinois’ 2017 minimum salary legislation on our teacher pipeline; and
Sustaining investments in early pathways, educator induction, mentoring and development for new teachers and leaders, and alternative pathways.
COVID-19 LEARNING RENEWAL
The state must continue to address ongoing immediate needs, but also focus on recovery and rebuilding plans. Research continues to highlight the impact of the last three years on students, academically and emotionally. In addition, reports from the field outline the challenging instructional conditions affecting many students, especially students from low-income households, of color, English language learners, and with special learning needs. To attend to the significant needs in our state, Illinois B-20 systems have received billions in federal education relief funds to support recovery. In order to inform and strengthen ongoing rebuilding, the state should collect and make transparent data capturing student and staff needs, the distribution and use of federal relief funds, and the impact key interventions have had across Illinois.
Illinois continues to have the 5th highest GDP in the nation, and our current outlook is undeniably strong. We can be even stronger. If we are going to weather future ups and downs in the economy and beyond, secure our economic future while tackling some of our most stubborn systemic inequities, we must prioritize education in 2023. Where we have taken informed, coordinated, and bold action, we have seen powerful progress. Let us continue that winning strategy, now more than ever.
Robin M. Steans