Candidates press opponents on school funding legislation

Two Republican challengers in the Fox Valley have teamed up to question their respective opponents' actions on controversial school funding legislation.

Ruth Munson and Steve Rauschenberger filed a Freedom of Information Act request asking for records of any communication between state Rep. Keith Farnham, an Elgin Democrat, and Gov. Quinn's office related to the legislation, vetoed in late July.

The governor's office responded that it has no record of "letters, faxes, electronic communications and phone logs/records" with Farnham related to potential changes to the school funding formula for Elgin Area School District U-46. Munson and Rauschenberger contend Farnham overstated his activity on behalf of the funding legislation for political reasons.

Farnham begs to differ, saying he did call the governor and that he resisted pressure from Quinn to stop efforts to get the veto overridden.

"This isn't politics, it's about our kids," he said.

Munson, Farnham's Republican opponent for the 43rd Illinois House seat, and Rauschenberger, an Elgin Republican vying against incumbent Michael Noland for the 22nd Illinois Senate seat, are both former state lawmakers.

Both races are expected to be among the closest on the state legislative level.

The flap arises over Quinn's veto of school funding legislation, which would have directed an additional $22 million in state aid to U-46 this year, according to Farnham's estimates.

The legislation, introduced by Noland, passed the House and Senate by wide margins in the spring. Yet, Noland called the governor's veto an "understandably calculated political decision."

Farnham, in early September, issued a news release indicating he was getting pressure from Quinn's office to stop circulating a petition to garner support to get the governor's veto overridden when the legislature returns to Springfield later this fall.

"This was about re-electing Farnham," Rauschenberger said of the petition. "It gets family and kids and teachers excited. He cynically passes a petition as if he's in constant communication with the governor's office."

Rauschenberger also cut at Noland for releasing a mailer indicating on its front page he helped get the district an extra $22 million, after it was vetoed by the governor. Noland later said that mailer was printed before the veto.

The FOIA request, Munson said, indicates Farnham "has not made any contact with the governor's office himself. ... There's a process to get that bill moved through. To let the governor know it's coming your way," she said.

Farnham said he did place calls to the governor's office about the legislation "between May and July." He would not get into further specifics, but noted he's continued to hold town halls about the issue and pass around the petition, which he plans to bring to the House floor if the matter comes up for debate this fall.

Officials in U-46, the state's second largest district next to Chicago Public Schools, believe it is being shortchanged each year because of its location in three different counties Cook, Kane and DuPage.

District officials worked with lawmakers on legislation that would have forced the state board of education to stop using tax rate estimates but actual rates instead. Proponents say that would make U-46 "whole" again, by taking money from other districts that had been "unfairly" claiming it for years.

Upon vetoing the legislation, Quinn said he "could not approve a measure that would boost state aid to one district at the expense of others."

Noland said during a recent editorial board session that the only way the legislation could really work was if proposed tax swap legislation, that, he believes, would generate $7 billion in additional revenue over time for schools, was approved simultaneously. Rauschenberger called that method of thinking "bizarre."

"They're going to complain about every good deed we do. There's no getting around that," Noland said. "It's time to stop politicking. What's their plan?"

Elgin Area School District officials declined to comment on the sparring over the legislation, noting they did not want to get in the middle, but are in need of the additional funds. The district last spring cut hundreds of employees. Class sizes have increased, and elective programs and extracurriculars have been cut.