Governor’s Proposed FY24 Budget is A Win-Win for Kids, State

Contact: 
Bravetta Hassell

communications@advanceillinois.org

CHICAGO (February 15, 2023)—"The Governor’s proposed FY24 budget prioritizes children and families and is a win for student and for Illinois,” says Robin Steans, President of Advance Illinois.

When Governor Pritzker came to office five years ago, he promised to make Illinois the best state in the nation to raise a family, and the investments he proposed today do just that, aiming to: strengthen and grow early learning, maintain forward momentum in public schools, address ongoing teacher shortages, and direct significant new dollars to put higher education in reach for dramatically more students. While there are opportunities for the General Assembly to push for greater equity and sustainability, the Governor’s proposed budget is a win for our state and our young people. 

With the Governor’s announcement of Smart Start Illinois, an ambitious plan to expand access to and deepen investments in Illinois’ early learning and care systems, we join many in this space in applauding the Governor for creating more opportunities for Illinois’ youngest learners and their families. As importantly, the Governor’s plan is rooted in the blueprint set forth by the Commission on Equitable Early Childhood Education and Care Funding and rightly takes a systemic approach – expanding preschool, child care, early intervention, and home visiting, while working to fix issues that must be addressed for our early childhood systems to be equitable and sustainable. Proposed investments of $130 million to stabilize and grow the workforce and increase wages, $100 million in capital spending for child care facilities, and plans to expand more equitable and stable funding mechanisms create the necessary environment to both drive and sustain greater access and quality. If approved, Smart Start Illinois would ensure dramatically more children and families can access quality early learning and care. We applaud the Governor for making good on his commitment to children and families with this thoughtful and comprehensive proposal.  

Over the past three years, every sector of society has been profoundly disrupted by COVID-19. Our schools had to rapidly adapt, student engagement and opportunity suffered, and many Illinois colleges saw their enrollments decline. So we were encouraged this winter when the Illinois Board of Higher Education and the Illinois Community College Board reported that enrollment this past fall was up, with Black and Latinx students driving the growth. The state's historic investment in the need-based Monetary Award Program (MAP) undoubtedly made a difference. Today, the Governor’s bold proposal to invest more deeply in MAP and institutional funding is an acknowledgement that Illinois can and must continue to improve college affordability and access. If approved, the Governor’s proposed $100 million in additional MAP funding would likely allow nearly all community college students and as many as 40% of public university students at or below median income levels to completely cover their tuition and fees with MAP and Pell grants. At a time when economic security increasingly depends on a postsecondary degree, this is powerful! 

In addition, we support the Governor’s recommendation to increase institutional postsecondary funding by 7%—the largest increase in 20 years. New funds are needed to ensure our public universities can better serve their students without increasing tuition. That said, it is critical that new funds prioritize student need.  For the second time, IBHE has recommended that the state use a short-term and more equitable system to allocate any new funds, and we will work with the General Assembly toward that end. 

In K-12, we appreciate the Governor’s continued commitment to closing deep funding inequities at a time when student need not only persists, but has widened in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. A $350 million increase to the Evidence-based Funding (EBF) formula is an important investment in our K-12 system that sends much needed dollars to students and districts that need them the most.  That said, we will work with the General Assembly to do more. Unless we increase our annual investment in the EBF, it will take us at least fifteen years to reach full funding.  That represents an entire generation of students, and that is simply too long.  Voices from the field—from parents to teachers, school district leaders and community members —are right in calling for more. We encourage lawmakers to build on the Governor’s proposal and to advance a budget that increases EBF by an additional $550 million. Investing at this level will move our schools to full funding in half the time, ensuring all students receive a high-quality education, regardless of their zip code.  

Finally, we appreciate the Governor’s commitment to strengthening our educator pipeline. It is terrific and right to deepen the state’s investment in growing and diversifying the state’s pipeline.  We look forward to working with ISBE and with legislators to ensure that new dollars are used in a way that supports high-need districts and invests in proven and sustainable solutions.  Indeed, we applaud the Governor’s proposal to increase the Minority Teachers of Illinois (MTI) scholarship program – a strategy that is successfully bringing new teachers of color into the profession. An additional $2.8 million will allow hundreds more aspiring teachers to receive financial support– a small investment with an outsized impact. 

Taken together, we celebrate the Governor’s remarkable budget proposal – one that prioritizes children, addresses serious issues comprehensively, and approaches education as the birth to higher education continuum that it is. Said Steans, “this historic budget proposal recognizes that education is the single most important investment our state can make in our children’s future, and in our state’s broader well-being. With the right priorities firmly in place and with some historic ambitions clearly articulated, it is now up to the General Assembly to stay the course for Illinois students and families.  

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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 and advocacy. To learn more, visit advanceillinois.org.

Advance Illinois Statement on the Illinois State Board of Education's New Superintendent Appointment

Today, the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) named U-46 Superintendent Dr. Tony Sanders the new state superintendent of education. Dr. Sanders has been an outspoken champion for equity during his tenure at U-46 and beyond. We applaud this appointment and look forward to working with Dr. Sanders and the ISBE board to continue the state’s efforts to advance equity and ensure all our students, from early childhood through higher education, have the care and education they need to thrive and succeed. 

Advance Illinois Statement on the Illinois State Board of Education FY24 Budget Recommendation

Today the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) approved and sent to Governor Pritzker recommendations for the FY24 Budget. While Advance Illinois commends ISBE for taking steps to ensure Illinois students, from early childhood through high school, have the care and education they need to thrive and succeed, today’s proposed budget didn’t go far enough.  

ISBE’s proposals of a $350 million increase for Evidence-Based Funding for Illinois’ K-12 and an increase of 10 percent for the state’s early learning and care represent critical investments in our public education system and the students and families it serves. Still, the voices of parents, teachers, school and district leaders, and community members were clear during ISBE’s budget hearings and public comment today; more funding than this is needed to ensure every student has access to high-quality education and care.  

Over the past five years, the Evidence-Based Funding formula has proven to be a successful tool for increasing funding in K-12 schools while driving resources to the most underfunded districts. To date, Illinois has invested nearly $1.6 million in new tier funding and drastically reduced the number of severely underfunded schools in Illinois, becoming a national model in the process.  

Despite the progress that has been made, however, there is still a long way to go. In FY23, over one million students -- half of the state’s students - are still in districts funded below 75% of what they need. If ISBE’s recommendation of a $350 million investment in EBF moves forward, it will take two decades from the passage EBF to fully fund our schools. That’s a departure from the state’s goal to fully fund EBF within 10 years from when the formula passed in 2017. More importantly, for a generation that has been buffeted by unprecedented challenges including the COVID-19 pandemic, it delays a promise the state made to students; their futures won’t wait. Illinois must increase its investment to an annual appropriation of at least $550 million each year to achieve full funding within 10 years.  

In addition, the research is clear—a high-quality early childhood education matters and is directly linked to success later in life. Adequate, equitable state funding for early childhood education and care, as well as for K-12 and higher education, is therefore critically important to Illinois being able to provide such opportunities. It is why Advance Illinois commended the Governor’s Commission on Equitable Early Childhood Education and Care Funding and its recommendations to both better and more equitably fund the entire early childhood education and care system. We know a 10 percent increase in funding for FY24 is simply not enough to make tangible inroads on these recommendations and meet the Governor’s goal of universal pre-kindergarten, closing childcare deserts, creating more equitable, streamlined and strategic funding and governance, and generally becoming the best place in the nation to raise children. Illinois must start building a path towards fully funding early childhood by increasing appropriations by 20 percent for FY24.  

Finally, while we appreciate its work and leadership to date, we were disappointed to see that ISBE proposed no new funds for developing and supporting a quality and diverse education pipeline. Given that Illinois continues to struggle with a teacher shortage in high-need areas and geographies, we know that targeted and stable investments into key programs and areas will help ensure all children and students have access to a prepared and qualified educator.  

We thank ISBE for its work to champion continued investments in Illinois’ students and children through its budget recommendation, and now look ahead to Governor Pritzker’s budget recommendation this February. On the road to learning more about the governor’s priorities for Illinois for FY24, we’re calling on Governor Pritzker to remember his campaign promises and keep our students and children front and center with the level of investment they need and deserve and that our state can well support. 

Advance Illinois Statement on the Illinois State Board of Education 2022 Illinois State Report Card and 2022 NAEP Results

Contact: 
Eucarol Juarez

communications@advanceillinois.org

CHICAGO, IL (October 27, 2022) - Today, the Illinois State Board of Education released its 2022 Illinois Report Card. The results, paired with recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data, confirm the historic and profound impact the events and disruptions of the past two years have had on all students, especially students from low-income households, Black and Latinx students.  What we are seeing in this newest round of data are setbacks that go far beyond normal fluctuations. And while both reports include some good news, the hard reality is that it is going to take significant and sustained support, investment, and effort to ensure all students have what they need to thrive. 

It is good news that freshman on track rates and graduation rates improved over the past year (to 86.6% and 87.3% respectively), and even better news that those increases were driven by gains among students who are Black, Latinx, and from low-income households.  It suggests that schools are working hard to engage and support students, and we applaud them.  But in districts across the state, chronic absenteeism – typically a powerful predictor of later academic success – has risen alarmingly (to 30%), especially among Black (48%), Latinx (36%), and students from low-income households (43%).   Academic proficiency also dropped significantly on the Illinois Assessments of Readiness (IAR) and SAT across demographics, and across the state.  While 2021 results previewed these declines, low participation rates made it hard to draw firm conclusions.  This new 2022 data, coupled with NAEP results, paints a much clearer and troubling picture – that students have been deeply impacted by disrupted and lost instructional time, in addition to broader loss, economic dislocation and trauma. 

It will be tempting to take comfort in the fact that fourth graders held steady in Reading and Math on the 2022 NAEP (something very few states can boast), and that Illinois students beat national averages in Math and Reading at both the fourth and eighth grade levels for the first time. And student growth numbers suggest that for many students, academic learning began rebounding in 2022.  This is better news than we might have expected. But steady NAEP proficiency in fourth grade overall masks the fact that disparities in outcomes grew by race and income, and this widening gap mirrors growing disparities on the IAR and SAT.  Taken together, the data underscores how deeply Illinois students have been impacted, how serious our equity gaps are, and, like other states, that Illinois must maintain efforts to accelerate learning generally, and intensify supports for students of color and from low-income households who have been most impacted by disrupted schooling, community trauma, and loss. 

Finally, it is worth noting that enrollment of recent graduates into postsecondary studies continues to decline, and we have not yet re-engaged all the K-12 students we lost in 2021.  In addition, we await release of the state’s kindergarten readiness data (Kindergarten Individual Development Survey), which will provide a window into how our youngest learners have been affected by pandemic-related declines in early childhood access and opportunity. 

There are indeed some bright spots in the two reports.  We can, will, and should celebrate them, as they underscore the level and impact of renewal work around the state in the wake of once-in-a-century health, safety, economic and social challenges.  But we should not lose sight of the bottom line.  Our students have been impacted in historic ways.  Our response and support – already underway and showing some early promise – must continue to be every bit as powerful and historic. 

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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 and advocacy. To learn more, visit advanceillinois.org 

Advance Illinois Statement on the Practice of Police Ticketing Illinois Students for Misbehavior in School

Contact:
Advance Illinois Communications
communications@advanceillinois.org

CHICAGO, IL (April 29, 2022) -  We want to bring to your attention a serious issue that was recently profiled in an investigative article by ProPublica and the Chicago Tribune as well as by a response from Dr. Carmen Ayala/ISBE. The article and letter outlined the practice of police ticketing students for misbehavior ranging from truancy to vaping to fighting.  While state law prohibits schools from imposing fines for misbehavior, it does not explicitly prohibit schools from alerting the police, who in turn issue tickets.  It turns out that many districts have reverted to this practice.  In addition to the hefty fees involved, this process brings students and families to court or administrative hearings (resulting in missed school and work) and creates legal records which cannot be expunged.

Many schools are reporting increasingly disruptive student behavior in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and we appreciate the efforts educators are making to respond to challenging circumstances at a time when everyone’s mental health and well-being are frayed.  That said, we urge you to read the ProPublica/Chicago Tribune article, as well as the letter from State Superintendent Dr. Carmen Ayala.  In particular, we hope parents and school personnel will consider the alternatives and resources listed in the letter that the state is making available to strengthen schools’ ability to respond to disruptive behavior by addressing underlying issues in a way that leads to longer-term peace, increased student belonging, and well-being. 

This is a trying time for everyone. It is critical that we focus on and address the issues underlying student behavior in a way that supports healthy child development, that we give schools as many tools and resources as possible to do so, and that we share successful examples of local efforts to provide services that address the root causes of students’ disruptive behavior and lead to improvements in how students interact with others.

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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.