From the Desk: The Work Ahead

Hello, 2024. The General Assembly is now in session, and we are all bracing for a lean budget year. In spite of this, the Illinois State Board of Education put forth a commendable budget proposal - one that grows the Evidence-Based Funding (EBF) formula and early childhood programming, and that proposes to invest state dollars to continue federally-funded programs that have been strengthening the educator pipeline and bringing badly-needed mental-health supports and systems to districts and families.  At the postsecondary level, state higher education agencies are asking for 50 million new dollars to expand need-based scholarships (MAP). Notably, IBHE asked for more dollars to be directed to state universities, but called for them to be distributed equitably, rather than evenly – a recommendation that is consistent with the state’s ongoing work to develop a more equitable, adequate and sustainable approach to higher education funding.    

Put simply, while we cannot ignore the possibility of an $891 million budget deficit in FY25, agencies identified what they believe our students need.  And their priorities line up with serious work underway in the field.   

• This spring, the General Assembly will vote on a plan to establish a new, stand-alone early childhood agency, a critical step in creating a more coherent, strategic, and effective system of care for our youngest learners. 

• In March, the Commission on Equitable Public University Funding will release long-awaited recommendations for how the state might take a more adequate, equitable, and sustainable approach to funding its public universities. 

• As federal relief funds disappear, the state will make hard decisions about how to maintain programs for student well-being and programs to grow our educator pipeline.  

As state leaders this year make key decisions on how to direct scarce 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. Nationally, research has found that the median increase in tax income for every additional bachelor’s degree, when compared to a high school diploma, is $7,800 per person per year, which also results in a corresponding decrease in the use of social services. As or more importantly, a well-educated population is associated with better individual and family well-being - increased civic engagement, volunteerism, happiness, and better health and wellness. Suffice it to say, investing in education means ensuring a brighter future for our children and for the state as a whole. 

Advance Illinois Policy Priorities for FY25 

ADEQUATE & EQUITABLE FUNDING ACROSS THE BIRTH-20 (B-20) CONTINUUM 

Every step of our education system relies on the health and success of the previous one, so it is vital that Illinois take a Birth-20 (B-20) funding approach to ensure that every part of the education and care continuum is adequately and equitably funded. While funding is not the only answer to what ails public education in Illinois, years of under-investment and inequitable investment—from early childhood through higher education—have taken a toll on student achievement and progress, and the impacts of COVID-19 disruptions have only exacerbated inequities. Accordingly, this legislative session, we are advocating for:  

• Increased state early childhood investments and celebrating and supporting the work underway to create a stand-alone early learning and care agency.  

• Continuing to move the needle on adequately funding our 850+ public school districts by adding $550 million in new funds into the Evidence-based Funding Formula (EBF) if at all humanly possible 

• Taking the necessary next steps to create a public university funding formula that centers equity and student need. This March, the Commission on Equitable Public University Funding will release its recommendation for how the state might distribute funding resources to the state’s 12 public universities. It is critical that we take this opportunity to reimagine how Illinois can provide reliable, equitable, and sufficient funding for our public four-year institutions to effectively serve their diverse student populations.  

A STRONGER, MORE DIVERSE TEACHER AND PRINCIPAL PIPELINE 

The impact of educators on students’ experiences and outcomes cannot be overstated: Teachers play the single most impactful role in a student’s academic growth and broader well-being, and school administrators are the driving force in the recruiting, retaining, and developing teachers and shaping school climate. We applaud the thoughtful and coordinated investments Illinois has been making to strengthen, grow, and diversify its teacher pipeline. That work has been paying off, but as our recent report The State of the Educator Pipeline 2023 found, there is significant work still to do to address shortages and increase educator diversity. This session we are continuing to advocate for evidence-based strategies that address the full continuum of the educator pipeline, from preparation and recruitment to placement and retention. It is critical that Illinois:  

• Sustains its investment of $8 million in the Minority Teachers of Illinois (MTI) scholarship to support candidates of color, including Black male and bilingual candidates; 

• Uses state funds to replace lapsing federal stimulus dollars to continue important programs including ECACE, teacher and principal mentoring, affinity groups, educator rising; and  

• Takes action to strengthen the student teaching experience, addressing the significant financial barrier this experience can present and finding ways to better support cooperating teachers, who play a critical role.  

WHOLE CHILD SUPPORTS  

Even before the pandemic, students experienced significant needs related to social, emotional, and mental health well-being. The COVID-19 pandemic and its broad disruptions only exacerbated these challenges. We applaud the strides Illinois has taken to become a trauma-responsive state and the ways it has leveraged federal stimulus funds to invest in the resources and systems required to provide our children and youth healing-centered education and care. 

But while students continue to rebound, COVID’s impact on well-being persists, with students of color and students from low-income households disproportionately affected.  

• We continue to prioritize efforts that support all Illinois school districts in becoming trauma- informed and healing-centered environments. This includes supporting development of a Childhood Adversity Index, laying out the training and ongoing development that both new and current educators need, and updating the State Report card to include district level data on mental health resources and staff currently available to support students. What is more, as ESSER funds disappear, the state must step up to support critical efforts like the REACH pilot and SEL hubs. 

DATA AND RESEARCH 

Research, data, and analysis are linchpins of good policy and evidence-based practice. Accordingly, the state must continue to prioritize data collection and reporting, even as it attends to learning renewal. As an organization, we will continue to support investments in our education agencies’ capacity to collect and make data available for state leaders and stakeholders, and work to ensure we sufficiently fund our statewide longitudinal data system (ILDS) so that we can better understand the impact of our investments in education from birth to post-secondary and workforce.  

If we care about our students’ futures, the work is never done. The good news is that Illinois has been making progress—growing and diversifying its workforce, supporting students in renewal and recovery, building equity into its funding mechanisms, and investing in the data and research policymakers and practitioners need. Let us continue this work in the year ahead. 

Onward,

Robin  

From the Desk—Reflecting on A Significant Year for Illinois Education

As the year comes to a close, it feels right to reflect on an extraordinary year for education in our state. In 2023, Illinois invested powerfully in its children, financially and beyond – a testament to what can be accomplished when we have clear plans, when we work collaboratively, when families and educators advocate, and when elected officials exercise political will and leadership.  

I will resist the impulse to do a laundry list, but here are a “few” highlights that I am carrying with me into the New Year:  

In 2023, the General Assembly passed the FY24 budget putting $1.1 billion new dollars into education, from birth through higher education – an investment that reflects the priority this work deserves amidst the ongoing, deep, and uneven impact the pandemic continues to have on learners of all ages. Governor Pritzker’s Smart Start Illinois comes with the ambitious goal of closing early childhood deserts and reaching another 20,000 children during the course of his administration. Historic investments in need-based MAP scholarships and institutional funding mean that virtually every eligible MAP applicant will receive a grant – a grant that should cover 100% of community college costs and a growing share of four-year costs.  And an increase to the Minority Teachers of Illinois scholarship means the state has more than tripled the number of candidates it can serve, to over 1,000 a year. 

On the legislative front, the General Assembly took some important steps to expand access, increase transparency, support equity and inclusion, and leverage evidence-based practices in classrooms and programs. Specifically: 

• By SY27-28, every school district will offer families the option of sending their children to full-day kindergarten;  

• A statewide Literacy Plan, coupled with other resources and supports, will increase access to evidence-based, culturally inclusive core reading instruction; 

• Changes to Illinois’ Articulation Initiative will improve Illinois college students’ ability to transfer credits across schools; and 

• Having formally adopted key recommendations from the Whole Child Task Force, the state will develop a Childhood Adversity Index, publicly report student support staffing levels, and design appropriate training and development – steps that put Illinois on a path to more holistically and systemically supporting student (and teacher) well-being.

And early childhood deserves a special shout-out. First, Governor Pritzker announced Smart Start, designed to expand and deepen investments in early learning and care systems in the state by expanding preschool, childcare, early intervention, and home visiting, while also working to address issues around workforce, compensation, and capital improvements.  This fall, the Governor formally announced plans to combine early childhood programming (currently administered across multiple agencies) into a new stand-alone early childhood agency—a much-needed development for Illinois providers and families, and one that delivers on goals set forth by the Governor’s Commission on Equitable Early Childhood and Care Funding. We’d be excited about this even if the Governor hadn’t had the good sense to hire our own Ann Whalen to lead the transition, and we look forward to collaborating closely with partners, community-based organizations, agency leaders, families, and providers to ensure this critical next step is data-informed and puts families and equity at the center. And if that isn’t enough, 2023 was an important year for growing the pipeline for early childhood educators.  Using federal funds, ECACE (the Early Childhood Access Consortium for Equity) has now supported over 4,000 candidates take advantage of scholarships and mentoring to pursue early childhood teaching credentials.  What an extraordinary amount of progress! 

Closer to home, I am proud of a few organizational accomplishments.  First, Advance Illinois released its State of the Educator Pipeline 2023 report and data dashboard – the first time we’ve taken such a comprehensive and in-depth look at the complex and interconnected array of programs, issues and data points that paint a more complete picture of how well Illinois is doing at recruiting, preparing, placing, and keeping teachers and administrators around the state and in high-need areas. It was a timely report with many important take-aways, including the fact that while our state has the largest educator workforce it has had in a decade, shortages remain, and they disproportionately impact students of color, from low-income households, English learners, and students with IEPs. We applaud current and ongoing state efforts to grow and diversify the pipeline, and will continue to pay close attention to need, progress and opportunities going forward.   

Finally, it was a special joy to celebrate our 15th anniversary with so many longstanding partners! One of the many things we’ve learned is that nothing important is accomplished without collective input and effort. Thank you for your partnership over the years and across a wide range of issues that support higher quality and more equitable opportunities and outcomes for children from birth to career.  

From all accounts, we are heading into a lean budget year, and facing growing politicization of our schools at the local level. Given that, we will have to work smarter and harder to make the most of scarce resources, and to ensure we create a policy environment that supports, enriches and challenges the next generation.  

As we look ahead to 2024, there is room for still more powerful progress, even as there continue to be real and serious challenges. This spring, the General Assembly will vote on the contours of a new early childhood agency; the Commission on Equitable Public University Funding will release long-awaited recommendations for a more adequate, equitable and sustainable method of funding our public universities; and as federal relief funds disappear, the state will make hard decisions about how to maintain programs for student well-being and programs to grow our educator pipeline. But we have proven that we can and will rise to such challenges, and that we can and have made investments and policy decisions that are improving opportunities for all of our children. Let us continue.  

Here’s to ongoing partnership in the year ahead!  

Sincerely,  

Robin Steans