ADVANCE ILLINOIS STATEMENT ON THE ISBE FY26 BUDGET RECOMMENDATIONS

Today the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) approved and sent to Governor Pritzker recommendations for its FY26 Budget. In the face of significant budget constraints, ISBE’s proposal maintains several key investments, underscoring its dedication to making sustainable progress on early education and K-12 funding. But the proposal comes up short in some important areas, which will challenge the state’s ability to comprehensively meet the needs of every child and maintain the steady progress that has been made to strengthen and diversify Illinois’ educator pipeline.  

Supporting our Youngest Learners 

We applaud the state’s goal of expanding access to high-quality early childhood education and care for all Illinois children. Through the continuation of the Governor’s Smart Start initiative, and the creation of the new Department of Early Childhood, Illinois is working to achieve its vision of quality, equitable, and easy-to-navigate early learning and care. We support ISBE’s recommendation of an additional $75 million for the Early Childhood Block Grant – funding that would help state-funded preschool reach an additional 5,000 children and narrow access gaps across the state.   

Navigating Progress and Challenges for K-12 Funding 

In the face of a projected state deficit, we applaud ISBE for recommending a $350 million increase for Evidence-Based Funding (EBF). The proposal makes good on Illinois’ commitment to fully funding K-12 districts, and this investment will help all districts, and particularly our most underfunded districts, continue to strengthen the educational experiences they provide as students continue to rebound from pandemic disruptions. But for some districts, that progress will not feel as game-changing as it would have five years ago. As inflation continues to raise costs, the classroom impact of the $350 million statutory minimum has eroded.  And for many districts, while annual incremental progress is important, the road to full funding is simply too long. Unless we do more, most of our current first grade students will likely graduate from high school before their district is fully funded. Furthermore, while ISBE proposes increased funding for Mandated Categoricals, those increases are just enough to maintain current proration levels – not to improve them. This means that across the board, districts will not receive adequate reimbursement for transportation and critical special education services, and will continue to have to look to EBF dollars to plug in the gaps.  

MISSING: Critical Programming to Strengthen the Educator Pipeline 

Excellent educators are the most important resource our schools have when it comes to offering students a high-quality education. Making progress towards ensuring every child has access to diverse, well-prepared educators means investing in efforts to strengthen and diversify our entire educator pipeline, from recruitment and preparation through induction and retention. Sadly, ISBE’s proposed budget fails to include dollars for critical new teacher, clinician, and principal mentoring programs. Such programs are critical to retaining educators and ensuring they have the support needed to serve students in those challenging first years. Data makes plain that educators are most likely to leave the profession in the first five years – 40% of principals leave the role in that time -- and Black teachers and principals are retained at much lower levels than the state average. While we are glad to see ISBE propose level funding for key programs such as affinity groups and new principal recruitment, the absence of mentoring programs leaves a gaping hole in state support at a critical time in educators’ careers. 

Need Remains Urgent to Support Student Well-Being 

We were disappointed to see that ISBE did not recommend full funding for the REACH pilot and SEL Hubs. REACH programming 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.  In FY25, these programs were funded with a blend of state and federal resources, but with stimulus dollars now completely dried up, maintaining level state funding (as ISBE is recommending) has the effect of cutting these programs to a level that may undermine their ability to operate.  Our Governor and the General Assembly must find a way to sustain funding for REACH and SEL hubs with state dollars in FY26.  

We recognize that in times of scarcity, state leaders face tough choices, and we appreciate ISBE’s leadership over the past few years in launching and growing critical programs.  We look to the Governor and the General Assembly to support ISBE’s proposals to grow early childhood and EBF, and to find ways to support higher levels of investment in programs students and educators need to thrive. Governor Pritzker has proven himself a champion of children and education. In lean budget times, our students need that leadership more than ever. Indeed, the future of the state depends on it.