Advance Illinois Statement Regarding the FY23 State Budget

Contact:
Advance Illinois Communications
communications@advanceillinois.org

CHICAGO, IL (April 9, 2022) - The Illinois General Assembly has passed a budget that invests critical funds in crucial parts of our education continuum.

There are many things to celebrate in this budget, especially when it comes to our state’s education system. Increased funding for the state’s higher education system is way overdue, and we are elated the budget includes a historic increase of $122 million to MAP grants, the state’s flagship scholarship program for college students. This increase should allow the state to grant aid to virtually every eligible student who applies while increasing average individual awards. This investment provides desperately needed support, especially for students from low-income households and students of color for whom the pandemic has seriously jeopardized postsecondary affordability and success.  

Additionally, we are encouraged to see an investment of $4.2 million for the Minority Teachers of Illinois (MTI) Scholarship. This investment will help address our state’s teacher shortage and support more teaching candidates of color, including Black male and bilingual aspiring teachers. 

We are also pleased to see the continued investment of an additional $350 million for Evidence-Based Funding (EBF). The formula is working to close funding equity gaps across our state, and this investment will help ensure we continue to make progress at a time when student need has never been greater.  

Finally, it is good news that the state is increasing its investment in the Early Childhood Block Grant ($54.4 million) as well as in Early Intervention (EI) ($7 million) and home visiting (roughly $1 million) programs. That said, given the historic challenges our early childhood and care system has endured, we believe there is more work to be done and encourage greater investments going forward. 

Bottom line, Governor Pritzker has proposed and the General Assembly has passed a budget that prioritizes students. Given the events of the day and challenges our young people face, this is both the right and necessary thing to do. Again, we applaud our elected officials and look forward to working with our partners and stakeholders to continue to close equity gaps.

###

About Advance Illinois
Advance Illinois is an independent policy and advocacy organization working toward a healthy public education system that enables all students to achieve success in college, career and civic life. Since its founding in 2008, Advance Illinois has become a nationally recognized thought leader in education policy advocacy. To learn more, visit advanceillinois.org.

Advance Illinois Responds to Governor Pritzker’s Proposed FY23 Budget

Contact:
Advance Illinois Communications
communications@advanceillinois.org

CHICAGO, IL (February 2, 2022) - We are delighted to see a proposed budget that is fiscally responsible, plays no games with federal funds, and includes powerful and needed investments across the entire birth through postsecondary (B-20) continuum. Students across the state, from early learners to college students, will find things to cheer in the governor’s proposed budget, and we appreciate his efforts to support students across the system.

While there is much to commend in the governor’s proposed education budget, we are especially pleased with the proposed 5 percent increase for our state’s public institutions of higher education and community colleges in FY22, and the whopping $122 million proposed increase to the state’s flagship scholarship program – its MAP grants. An increase of this magnitude will allow the state to help nearly every eligible student who applies, even as it allows the state to increase average individual awards. This change is good for the future of the state and extends serious support to students from low-income households and students of color at a time when COVID-19 has put postsecondary affordability and success in real peril.  

In addition, we applaud the governor’s proposal to increase support for the Minority Teachers of Illinois (MTI) Scholarship to $4.2 million, an investment which will help address the teacher shortage in our state while supporting more teaching candidates of color, including Black male and bilingual candidates. 

It is also terrific and important to see the governor propose an additional $350 million for Evidence-Based Funding, an investment that makes good on the state’s commitment to closing deep funding inequities at a time when student need has never been greater.  

Finally, we applaud the recommended 10 percent (or $54 million) increase in the Early Childhood Block Grant. That said, we hope the General Assembly will find ways to make additional (and complementary) investments in Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP), Home Visiting (HV) and Early Intervention (EI) programs. We know there is much work to be done to close the resource gap in the ECEC system and individual early childhood programs and look forward to seeing what more can be done to address this issue. 

Overall, this budget demonstrates Governor Pritzker’s commitment to ensuring that all Illinois students, from birth through career, receive the quality education they so richly deserve. We now look to the General Assembly to do its part to invest in a flourishing public education system in Illinois.  

###

About Advance Illinois
Advance Illinois is an independent policy and advocacy organization working toward a healthy public education system that enables all students to achieve success in college, career and civic life. Since its founding in 2008, Advance Illinois has become a nationally recognized thought leader in education policy advocacy. To learn more, visit advanceillinois.org.

Advance Illinois Statement on the Illinois State Board of Education 2021 Illinois State Report Card

Contact:
Advance Illinois Communications
communications@advanceillinois.org

CHICAGO, IL (October 29, 2021) - Today, the Illinois State Board of Education released its 2021 Illinois Report Card. On behalf of Advance Illinois, President Robin Steans shares the following statement: 

“As school communities across the state continue to address the ongoing challenges created by COVID-19, and amidst ongoing and serious data gaps and complexities, Advance Illinois applauds the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) for releasing important available information in its 2021 Illinois Report Card. We appreciate ISBE’s efforts to present data as accurately as possible and to indicate where data is reliable, where it should be considered with caution and where it is necessarily delayed.” 

“It comes as no surprise that schools across the state face real challenges in re-engaging students. Enrollment has dropped an unprecedented 3.6% from 2020, and chronic absenteeism has risen alarmingly 4.7 percentage points from 2019’s 16.5% pre-pandemic rate to 21.2% in 2020. Although high school graduation rates have remained strong, a dip in the 9th grade on-track rate suggests that students making their 9th grade transition experienced setbacks that may impede their chances of graduating. Taken together, these data underscore the need for strong student supports, intensive tutoring and student engagement and outreach.”  

“Amidst the discouraging news, there are some unexpected bright spots. It is terrific to see increases in the number of students enrolled in Dual Credit and Advanced Placement courses, more stability in staffing than we might have expected, and a modest increase in the number of teachers of color across the state. We are invigorated by ISBE’s inclusion of additional data on the diversity of administrators, which importantly highlights the work our state still needs to do to ensure school personnel, including school leadership, reflect the diversity of our students.” 

“Looking ahead, and knowing what a toll the past two years have taken on students and educators alike, it will be critical to gather additional data on school climate, social emotional learning and implementation of trauma-informed practices.” 

“It is essential that we understand the impact COVID-19 is leaving in its wake, identify places where students, schools and educators will need support and attention and monitor progress and challenges as we work together to rebuild and renew. Timely, reliable information will be key, and we appreciate ISBE’s ongoing efforts to illuminate this work under trying circumstances.” 

###

About Advance Illinois
Advance Illinois is an independent policy and advocacy organization working toward a healthy public education system that enables all students to achieve success in college, career and civic life. Since its founding in 2008, Advance Illinois has become a nationally recognized thought leader in education policy advocacy. To learn more, visit advanceillinois.org.

Joint Statement in Support of SB815 Commission

Contact:
Advance Illinois Communications
communications@advanceillinois.org

CHICAGO, IL – As members of the Illinois Higher Education Network, we applaud Governor Pritzker in signing SB815 into law yesterday. With SB815’s creation of a Commission on Equitable Public University Funding, Illinois is a step closer toward not only having a funding model that considers what it takes to ensure institutions have the resources to adequately support students, but one that targets resources to colleges disproportionately serving students from low-income households and students of color, and incentivizes better-resourced universities to ensure their student body reflects the population of Illinois.

Years of disinvestment, racial and socioeconomic disparities in access and inequitable distribution of state funds have forced Illinois' Black and Latinx students and students from low-income households to pay some of the highest college costs in the nation. The state's public universities that serve greater percentages of students from low-income households and students of color are also its most financially vulnerable. Although these institutions need more funding to support students, they instead receive a fraction of the state's annual appropriations.

The commission created by SB815 will research, model and ultimately recommend specific criteria and approaches for an equity-based higher education funding model for Illinois’ public universities. Governor Pritzker’s signing of SB815 yesterday starts the process of bringing equity and stability to higher education funding.

An adequate, equitable, and stable higher education funding model is critical to ensuring every university can provide adequate academic, financial, and social-emotional support to improve college access, persistence, and success. Such a funding model is also critical to rebuilding a prosperous and equitable future for Illinois.

We thank Governor Pritzker for signing SB815 into law and continue to applaud Leader Kimberly Lightford and Representative Carol Ammons for their steadfast leadership on this bill. 

Working together to create a more equitable higher education system, we are eager to support the Commission’s work and the much-needed transformation it is designed to spur. 

Advance Illinois
Partnership for College Completion
Women Employed
Young Invincibles
Illinois Higher Education Network

###

About Advance Illinois
Advance Illinois is an independent policy and advocacy organization working toward a healthy public education system that enables all students to achieve success in college, career and civic life. Since its founding in 2008, Advance Illinois has become a nationally recognized thought leader in education policy advocacy. To learn more, visit advanceillinois.org.

Advance Illinois Statement on FY22 State Budget

Contact:
Advance Illinois Communications
communications@advanceillinois.org

CHICAGO, IL – In the wake of a pandemic and with many competing priorities, we applaud the appropriation of $350 million for the Evidence-Based Funding formula. This is a direct investment in the next generation and in Illinois’ own future. As importantly, it honors the state’s commitment to continue investing in our schools with a goal of getting all districts to at least 90 percent adequate funding. Never has the need been greater. Never has it been more essential for schools and leaders to have long-term funding they can rely on to meet student needs. Thank you to our elected leaders for rising to this moment.  

The appropriation of state funds for EBF allows the state to use short-term federal funds as intended: to safely reopen schools for in-person learning and support students socially, emotionally and academically as they recover from the many ways in which COVID-19 has disrupted their development and learning. 

A successful recovery from the effects of the pandemic depends heavily on critical investments across the education continuum. Accordingly, we also applaud increases to MAP funding - always important to providing equitable access to higher education, especially now. With that said, we know that children need support starting at birth, including investments in such vital programs as the Early Childhood Block Grant, Child Care Assistance Program and Early Intervention. In the teeth of greater need for support and access, we are disappointed to see cuts and flat-funding in early childhood.  

Given the ongoing need to strengthen and diversify the pipeline for teachers, social workers and other school personnel, we are heartened to see significant investments of federal funds in state-level mentoring, induction and other pipeline strategies, even as we are disappointed not to see increases to Minority Teachers of Illinois Scholarship. 

Budgets reflect priorities. This budget makes clear that the General Assembly prioritizes investments in Illinois students, even as it serves as a reminder that there is much work ahead to ensure the entire education continuum – from birth through college – is properly funded so all Illinois students are able to receive the quality education they deserve. 

###

About Advance Illinois
Advance Illinois is an independent policy and advocacy organization working toward a healthy public education system that enables all students to achieve success in college, career and civic life. Since its founding in 2008, Advance Illinois has become a nationally recognized thought leader in education policy advocacy. To learn more, visit advanceillinois.org.