Advance Illinois Statement Regarding FY25 Budget
The Illinois General Assembly today passed a budget for FY25 that considers education but leaves gaps in key areas of need for children, students, and the systems designed to support them.
“If budgets reflect priorities, it is clear that the General Assembly understands the importance of investing in the next generation, even as it has left some important work undone,” said Robin Steans, President of Advance Illinois.
Taking Steps Forward in Improving Illinois’ Early Childhood System with Glaring Opportunities for More Strategic Investment
Learning begins at birth and sets the course for a child’s long-term growth and development, so we are pleased that the legislature continues to prioritize early childhood programs. The new budget provides increases for critical early childhood programs such as the Early Childhood Block Grant, home visiting, and Smart Start workforce grants. That said, still greater investment is needed for programs such as Early Intervention, which ensures families can access key services for young children who are at risk of or experiencing developmental delays.
As we celebrate the passage of SB1, which creates the Department of Early Childhood and the $14.2 million appropriated to fund its first year, we challenge legislators to do more to grow the pipeline into the early childhood profession in order to realize progress and impact. The state’s $5 million investment in ECACE, a scholarship program that helps working adults access higher education and complete early childhood education degrees and credentials, is simply not enough. Indeed, the investment – far short of the $28.6 million agencies requested – will leave roughly 2,400 early childhood educators without financial support to complete their programs. This, to say the least, is an incredible missed opportunity: Diminished funding for this scholarship runs counter to the state’s significant efforts to support a stronger, more equitable system that reaches more children and families!
Strengthening Opportunities and Outcomes in Higher Education
This spring, Illinois continued efforts to expand access to earning a college degree in-state, but they were decidedly more muted. The legislature’s measured 1% increase to MAP ($10M) and 2% increase to institutional general operating funding (nearly $40M) follow more significant increases in recent years. We hope and expect that greater increases are ahead, including when the state adopts a more adequate, equitable, and stable funding formula, as recommended by the Commission for Equitable Public University Funding.
Supporting K-12 School Districts
While we, together with many educators and advocates across the state, know a $550 million increase to the Evidence-Based Funding formula (EBF) will bring every school district to full funding faster, lawmakers approved a $350 million increase to the school funding formula for FY25. EBF continues to be instrumental in directing resources to schools, districts and students that need them most. Although data indicate that Illinois students are beginning to recover academically from the pandemic's disruptions, we are not yet to pre-pandemic academic proficiency, recovery is uneven, disparities persist, ESSER funds are nearly gone, and there is still a long way to go in supporting student well-being. The state must lean into EBF investments that go beyond the minimum funding level if it is to meet these challenges in earnest.
Investing in the Whole Child
As communities continue to recover from COVID disruptions, the need to understand and be responsive to student mental health has become even more urgent. We appreciate that the General Assembly appropriated modest funding for Resilience Education to Advance Community Healing (REACH) and SEL Hubs, programs designed to ensure all Illinois students and educators attend trauma-informed, resilient schools. These key investments are essential to supporting student well-being, which in turn helps students and schools thrive academically and beyond. That said, the funding provided in this budget falls far below the level of federal funding allocated to these projects in recent years. Indeed, these significant reductions will limit the number of schools that will benefit from these programs in FY25, if not sufficiently supplemented with extended ESSER funds. However, one important piece of good news is that the FY25 budget provides $250,000 for Illinois to develop a Children's Adversity Index that will give the state a first-ever window into trauma exposure at the local level—information that will help identify community and district needs and help direct resources, training, and support.
Strengthening Our Schools through Our Educator Pipeline, Key Early Career Supports Missing
As teacher and staff shortages continue to plague many schools and districts, the Illinois State Board of Education is to be commended for the strides it has taken to strengthen and diversify its educator workforce. But that effort depends on stable support from Springfield. We are pleased to see the legislature continue to a make strong investment ($8 million) in the Minority Teachers of Illinois scholarship program (MTI), which helps support candidates of color access the preparation needed to become teachers. Further, we applaud continued investments in the Teacher Loan Repayment program and principal recruitment, as well as uptake of previously ESSER-funded affinity groups as a state funded item. That said, resources for teacher and principal mentoring are nowhere in the budget, despite the important work these initiatives do preparing new educators for the demands of their roles and bolstering early career retention. These programs, currently supported through expiring ESSER dollars, must continue, especially as the state continues offering expanded routes into the classroom that require minimal to no preparation through provisional and short-term approvals, short-cuts that underscore the need to support new teachers.
Looking Forward, Difficult Choices Ahead
Amid a tough budget environment, we recognize the difficult decisions our legislators had to make to advance a budget, and we appreciate the important new investments in critical and foundational programs and budget lines. But with critical gaps in support for new teachers and principals, and insufficient funding to support student well-being and learning recovery, the impact of those decisions will now be passed to district leaders. Challenging choices lie ahead. So while we extend our gratitude to the General Assembly for the budget it has approved, we resolve to continue fighting. We will continue working alongside advocates and partners across the B-20 continuum to identify investments that sustain, strengthen, and accelerate our path to better opportunities and outcomes. Our choices as a state have real and lasting consequences for children, students and families.