| Illinois
Recent Events |
Costing Out
Historical Background
Despite the Illinois Constitution's strongly worded
education clause, the Illinois Supreme Court has twice
rejected plaintiffs' challenges to the state's education
finance system, based on the separation of powers principal.
While rejecting "equity" claims and a quality-of-education
claim in Committee for Educational Rights v. Edgar,
672
N.E.2d 1178 (1996), the court held that "the
process of [school funding] reform must be undertaken
in a legislative forum rather than in the courts."
In Lewis E. v. Spagnolo, 710
N.E.2d 798 (1999), the court rejected plaintiffs'
attempt to distinguish its 1996 decision from their
"adequacy" claims and characterized the case
as "once again" asking the court to "enter
the arena of Illinois public school policy."
Recent Events
In November 2007, the legislature approved a $550 million
increase in education spending. This followed Governor
Rod Blagojevich’s August proposal to increase
spending on elementary and secondary education by $597
million, or nine percent, according to the Chicago
Sun-Times.
On August 20, 2008, plaintiffs in Chicago Urban League
v. State of Illinois filed a complaint seeking to declare
the state’s current school funding scheme unconstitutional.
Plaintiffs claim that the education finance system is
in violation of the education provision of the state
constitution which guarantees all students “a
high quality education” and that it also discriminates
against families based on race in violation of the Illinois
Civil Rights Act of 2003.
On April 15, 2009, the Circuit Court of Cook County
held that plaintiffs claim that the state education
finance system has the effect of providing substantially
lower dollar amounts per student in “majorityminority”
school districts states a valid cause of action and
that the case may therefore proceed to trial. Since
the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2001 ruling in Alexander
v. Sandoval, 532 U.S. 275, individuals can not file
discriminatory impact claims under Title VI of the 1964
Civil Rights Act in federal court, but a private right
of action is available under the Illinois Civil Rights
Act, the provisions of which are similar to Title VI.
The Illinois Court dismissed the plaintiffs’
education adequacy claims because of the binding precedent
of Committee for Educational Rights v. Edgar, 672 N.E.2d
1178 (1996), in which the Illinois Supreme Court held
that adequacy claims are not justiciable. Plaintiffs
are considering an appeal to the Supreme Court to ask
it to re-consider that precedent.
Costing
Out
The Illinois General Assembly established the Education
Funding Advisory Board to study the state's system of
K-12 school funding, recommend changes to the state
aid formula, and recommend a new foundation level. The
Board issued its first report in December 2000, recommending
minor changes for fiscal year 2001-02 and hired a nationally-known
school finance consulting firm to perform a costing-out
study on which to develop longer-term recommendations.
The costing-out
report was released August 7, 2001 and can be found
at the Illinois
State Board of Education website. It uses the "successful
schools" or "empirical" methodology and
incorporates costs for educating at-risk students. The
study does not include capital funding, transportation
or special education.
The Board issued its second report in 2005, in which
it used a 2002 cost study to determine that per pupil
spending for the 2005-06 school year should have been
$6,405. In 2004-05, per pupil spending was only $4,964.
Last updated: May, 2009 |
