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.

Chicago Urban League v. State of Illinois

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 “majority-minority” 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.

Carr v. Koch

In March 2010, two individual taxpayers initiated a new equity litigation, claiming that Illinois’ education finance system violates the state constitution’s equal protection clause. Carr v. Koch. The complaint alleges, among other things, that residents of property poor K-8 school districts pay a property tax rate that is 23% higher than that paid by similarly situated taxpayers in a property-rich K-8 districts, but that per-pupil spending in the property-poor districts is 28% lower than in the property-rich districts.

The remedy that the plaintiffs seek is a declaratory judgment holding that the present education finance system is unconstitutional. What changes would result from a plaintiff victory here is unclear. Plaintiffs reportedly worked with a public interest advocacy group, Business and Professional People for the Public Interest (BPI), in preparing the case, and by some accounts their aim is ensure that more resources flow to students in underfunded school districts. The fact that two taxpayers and no students or parents are plaintiffs in the case may, however, mean that any relief that may result from this case will inure solely to the benefit of taxpayers in property-poor districts and not to the students.

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: April 2010