Advance Illinois’ Statement on Governor Pritzker’s FY25 Budget Proposal
Today, Governor Pritzker presented his budget proposal for FY25, recommending over $13.2 billion in education spending—a 1.5% increase. Amid what is projected to be a challenging budget year, the Governor’s proposal provides both reason for applause, as well as opportunities for urgent attention and investment by the General Assembly to ensure Illinois students across the full continuum of our education system have equitable access to sufficient high-quality resources and support.
“We all knew this wasn’t going to be an easy year for the budget,” said Robin Steans, President of Advance Illinois. “Illinois school districts are facing unprecedented need on multiple fronts: Students continue to recover from the impact of COVID, but they need support to do so. Federal dollars that have been instrumental in learning renewal and in growing and diversifying the teacher pipeline are drying up. Newly arrived students coming into the state and its education system need help,” she said. “We know the Governor is committed to young people, and what he has proposed is responsible and pointed in the right direction, but simply isn’t enough.”
If approved by the General Assembly, the budget recommendation released today would further advance the Governor’s key early childhood initiative, Smart Start, and set aside funds to establish a new Department of Early Childhood. It would keep K-12 schools on a steady, but slow, path toward full funding. And it would continue slowly expanding access to higher education for Illinois students. But the budget leaves out critical work set to expire along with federal dollars. Highly-successful efforts to rapidly expand the pipeline into early childhood (Early Childhood Access Consortium for Equity (ECACE)) would get a small fraction of what is required to maintain this program. Efforts to create systemic mental health support are eliminated entirely, without dollars for the Resilience Education to Advance Community Healing (REACH) pilot and social and emotional learning (SEL) hubs. And while teacher vacancy grants are maintained, dollars for new teacher and principal mentoring and induction are nowhere to be found.
On the early childhood front, the Governor pledged additional investments that would expand access to and deepen investments in early childhood education and care through the Smart Start initiative. These investments come after the Governor announced plans to unite early childhood services into a single early childhood agency to make it easier for families to access services. We support the Governor’s proposal of $13 million for the new agency, a $75 million proposed increase for the Early Childhood Block Grant, which would help state-funded preschool reach an additional 5,000 children and narrow access gaps across the state, and $158.5 million for Smart Start Workforce Compensation Grants that includes funds to accommodate higher participation in the Child Care Assistance Program. Further, the Governor’s budget includes $5 million for increased expansion of Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS)’ Home Visiting Program, $6 million for Early Intervention, and $3.5 million for the Dolly Parton Imagination Library to support early childhood literacy. While these are important steps in the right direction, we feel obliged to point out that these investments require many more trained early childhood educators and staff. Accordingly, the modest $5 million allocated for the Early Childhood Access Consortium for Equity (ECACE) represents a significant missed opportunity. Since 2020, ECACE has been supporting upwards of 3,900 students and incumbent workers to earn early childhood credentials. The governor’s proposed budget reduces funding to just 17% of what was spent this year on scholarships alone, and far below what every agency involved has requested. We hope to see the General Assembly do more to sustain this effort and push for the full $60 million needed to maintain funding for scholarships, mentors, and navigators to support students to enroll, persist, and complete credentials and degrees in early childhood.
As a number of recent reports highlight, educator shortages persist in specific geographies and subject areas in our state, alongside a significant gap in diversity between teachers and students. In the past few years, the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) has done a commendable job in targeting areas of need through programs such as the Teacher Vacancy Grant, Affinity Groups, Teacher Mentoring, and Principal Mentoring and Recruitment. Many of these programs were launched using federal stimulus Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds, but must continue if we want to see real, long-term progress in expanding, strengthening, and diversifying the pipeline. As it is, the governor is proposing to end teacher mentoring, principal mentoring, and affinity group programs, rather than sustain them with state dollars. We urge the General Assembly to heed ISBE’s recommendations and prioritize continued funding for these programs.
On a positive note, we are pleased to see that the governor proposes to continue vital investments in scholarships and supports for future teachers, such as the Minority Teachers of Illinois scholarship, Golden Apple and Golden Apple Accelerators—programs that are critical to making the profession more accessible and diverse.
Like others, we await the March release of recommendations from the Illinois Commission on Equitably Funding Public Universities for reimagining how the state can ensure every student has the opportunity to pursue a degree, and that every college has the resources they need to support students to graduate. We appreciate the Governor’s efforts to build on historic investments in the Monetary Award Program (MAP) to make college more affordable. The proposed addition of $10M to the (MAP) is a step in the right direction, however we hope legislators will work hard to improve upon this recommended allocation. The payoff for making college more affordable extends beyond the students earning a degree and to their families and communities. Importantly, as we look forward to the Commission’s recommendations, we echo the Illinois Board of Higher Education’s (IBHE) call for an equitable distribution of any new funding for public four-year universities. Another year of the status quo will only further bake historic inequities into the higher education system.
The Governor’s recommendation for a $350 million increase for the Evidence-Based Funding (EBF) formula for Illinois’ K-12 represents a much-needed investment in our public education system and the students it serves. Having said that, we join others in the field in urging the state to push hard to allocate more than what amounts to a floor for investments into EBF. More than 1.3 million students in Illinois remain in underfunded districts; and they are disproportionately students from low-income households and students of color. EBF continues to be the most powerful tool we have to equip schools to sufficiently support students, and we urge our legislators to do everything in their power to push for more than the minimal level of $350 million to account for ongoing inflationary pressures while responding to ongoing, increased, and complex student need.
While data shows students are starting to rebound academically from the pandemic’s disruptions, there is still a long way to go, and investments in healing-centered, trauma-informed practices are essential. We were therefore disappointed to see that the Governor did not recommend the funds needed to support the REACH pilot and SEL Hubs, and did not to commit resources to develop a Childhood Adversity Index and fulfill the recommendations put forward by the Whole Child Taskforce. The REACH Pilot and SEL Hubs have been key to supporting hundreds of thousands of students’ social-emotional health, and have put Illinois on a path to systemic mental health and well-being for students and families. As the last round of federal stimulus funds totaling over $4 billion is set to run out this fall, and with widely disparate mental health resources available at schools across the state, local leaders will have to make difficult decisions on what critical programs and resources to keep for students. It is imperative that the General Assembly find a way to sustain funding for REACH and SEL hubs with state dollars in FY25, as proposed by ISBE.
We know the Governor is a champion for education, and we commend him for again making clear that he understands the value of a strong, well-resourced public education system. This budget works to grow investments in young people within the confines of a more challenging forecast. That said, it has some notable gaps – gaps we cannot afford to ignore. We now look to the General Assembly to support the Governor’s education proposal, and then fill in critical gaps to make sure we have the workforce and mental health services our students need.