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News > Features
Blagojevich will name members to the Education Funding Advisory Board by month's end and promises an updated school-finance report by early April, a spokeswoman said Wednesday. A Feb. 4 letter from the governor's education aide laid out plans to complete background checks on potential board members and appoint them by the end of February . The decision comes at a crucial time for Blagojevich, whose budget proposal, released last week, has been assailed by typical Democratic allies, including Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and Senate President Emil Jones, as shortchanging public schools. Created by a 1997 law, the advisory board recommended in a 2002 report that the state should significantly increase the income tax, accompanied by a reduction in property taxes, to mend what many say is a broken system of paying for elementary and secondary schools. The law requires a report from the board on Jan. 1 of each odd-numbered year, but many of the original board members had resigned or their terms had expired, and Blagojevich did not replace them. Sen. Miguel del Valle, D-Chicago, said he pleaded with the administration for months to name a new board, to no avail. Finally, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund in January wrote Blagojevich, threatening to sue unless he followed the law, named a board and delivered a report by April. "The last time they issued a report, it didn't have the impact we expected, but at least it is something we can use to hold the public officials accountable with respect to the schools," MALDEF attorney Alonzo Rivas said. Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch said the administration had not moved more quickly on forming a new board because of the multibillion-dollar budget deficits the governor faced in his first three years in office. "It was not a top priority of this administration because we're still fighting to increase education funding, and we hadn't achieved the last EFAB recommendation," Blagojevich spokeswoman Rebecca Rausch said. That recommendation was to raise the "foundation level" - the minimum amount guaranteed for each of the state's two million students - by $1,000. Blagojevich promised to do that during his first term in office. He boosted the level by $250 in his first year, but only $154 this year. In the budget he proposed last week, Blagojevich offered only $140 million in new money for kindergarten-through-12th-grade schools. Even if all of that went to the foundation level, ignoring other needs such as early childhood education, special education and transportation, the foundation level would rise by just $87.50. Illinois school districts currently get the bulk of their funding from real estate taxes based on property values that vary widely throughout the state, creating canyons of disparity in spending between schools in wealthy areas and those in less-affluent locales. The advisory board's initial report in the fall of 2002 called for a massive income tax increase - as much as $3 billion - to fund schools more fairly and sufficiently. It would be accompanied by a similarly large property tax rebate. But Blagojevich has repeatedly said he would veto sales or income tax increases despite growing pressure from the Legislature. Jones, a Chicago Democrat, has vowed to make the so-called "tax swap" a legislative priority. Daley, who also backs the swap, complained Tuesday that Blagojevich's school-spending blueprint didn't go far enough. With so little time to produce a report, del Valle fears the new board will be too reliant on staff from the Illinois State Board of Education, over which Blagojevich now holds considerable sway, thanks to legislation passed last year that allowed him to name a majority of the members. Even so, "I'll take that over nothing," del Valle said. On the Net: Education Funding Advisory Board: www.isbe.net/efab |
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