U-46 laments lack of action on unfunded mandates resolution

A resolution calling for a review of unfunded mandates placed on schools quickly picked up dozens of co-sponsors in the state House's October veto session.

Cash-strapped school districts soon joined the chorus of support for the measure.

But with legislators now off on a two-month break, and the resolution still stuck in a rules committee, it's not going anywhere anytime soon.

School officials are disappointed. Those familiar with the inner-workings of Capitol politics aren't surprised.

"Now was really the time we needed them to reduce the number of mandates," Elgin Area School District U-46 spokesman Tony Sanders said.

The House resolution, introduced Oct. 5 by State Rep. Roger Eddy, calls for a committee review of unfunded elementary and secondary education mandates placed on school districts.

That committee, according to the resolution, would determine by March 30 which existing elementary and secondary education mandates are unnecessary and costly.

Criteria for determining which mandates to pitch include examining if they are necessary for the health and safety of students, essential to the academic integrity of the state's public school system, exceed federal requirements or superfluous to core academic programs.

Of the resolution's 34 co-sponsors, virtually all have voted for unfunded mandates in the past. Half have signed on as sponsors of unfunded mandate bills this past year.

In an interview last week, Eddy acknowledged that a majority of sponsors had likely voted for unfunded mandates in the past.

"Maybe it's a wake up call," the Republican from downstate Hutsonville said.

But David Yepsen, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University, suggests there may be "a little bit of politics" in the rush to support the resolution. "Everyone signs on knowing it's going to get killed in committee."

Still, it's a key issue to school leaders.

Jose Torres, superintendent of Elgin Area School District U-46, wrote legislators Oct. 16, asking them to support the House resolution.

Included in the letter was Torres' March 4 speech to the State Senate's Committee on Deficit Reduction asking for limits on the number of unfunded mandates.

According to the letter, unfunded mandates - including early retirement options for teachers, purchasing green cleaning supplies and lower emissions standards for school buses - made up nearly $12 million of his district's $350 million education fund budget. U-46 is the largest school district in the suburbs and second in Illinois behind only the Chicago Public Schools.

This year U-46 projects to be $53.5 million in the hole come June.

"We understand and appreciate that there are many special interest groups that have worked very hard to initiate and protect these mandates," Torres said. "We also know that these are extraordinary times, and extraordinary action is required by the General Assembly."

The Illinois Association of School Administrators also backs the resolution.

"While one (unfunded mandate) does not seem like that big of a deal, when you start adding these up and the time it takes, you can see that this could take a toll on the school systems," governmental relations Director Diane Hendron said. "We think now is a good time to strike. Obviously there's no funding."

The association has made it its mission to track unfunded mandates. In the past year, the General Assembly passed 74 education bills to the governor's desk. More than one in four were unfunded mandates.

Mandates may be a problem, Yepsen said, but likely not problem enough for legislators to place at the top of their list.

"If you're a legislative leader, why do you want to go stirring that hornets nest up? The only way to get rid of unfunded mandates is to fund them," he said. "And the state doesn't have any money to do that."

School districts, he said, just have to keep pushing for a change. "If the schools are serious about this, they ought to go to leaders and (ask) what was the problem here."