Suit seeks to compel reform in education funding
The state of Illinois is facing a new lawsuit charging that its method of funding education, based as it is heavily on property taxes, is inequitable.
The suit was filed in Sangamon County Circuit Court in Springfield by educators living in suburban Chicago Heights and downstate Cairo. The Chicago-based advocacy agency Business and Professional People for the Public Interest is backing and arguing the case along with the high-powered Sidley Austin law firm working pro bono.
Previous suits attempted to make the same basic argument in the '90s, that because property values vary so much from district to district it makes for an inherently inequitable way to fund education. But they were dismissed in allowing municipalities "local control" over schooling. The new suit argues that stricter state and federal school guidelines imposed over the last 10 years have undercut that argument.
"It is no longer the case that our schools operate primarily within the discretion of local school districts," said Hoy McConnell, BPI executive director. "The state has now dictated the standards for educational performance at the local level, and schools are compelled to comply... The 'local control' rationale for inequality in school taxation has been turned on its ear since the last time the Illinois Supreme Court looked at this matter."
The suit points out that the state holds districts to a certain minimum "foundation level" of expenditure, currently set at just more than $6,000 a student. Even with state contributions, districts where property values are low therefore have to pay a higher tax rate to get to that level.
Paul Carr, a high-school counselor living in Chicago Heights, and Ron Newell, a retired teacher in Cairo, were chosen to serve as plaintiffs in this case precisely to illustrate the inequity. Property owners in Carr's Homewood-Flossmoor district pay a tax rate of over 4 percent to arrive at $7,300 a student, while those in the more well-to-do New Trier district in the northern suburbs pay a 1.7 percent rate and still fund more than $10,000 a student, according to the suit.
Cairo pays a 6.95 percent tax rate to get to the bare minimum of just over $6,000 a student, while the Rockford area's Scales Mound district pays 3.3 percent to arrive at more than $8,000 a student.
"Illinois has one of the most regressive tax systems in the country, thanks to the reliance on property taxes," said Scott Lassar, a Sidley Austin attorney and former U.S. prosecutor working on the case.
The suit was written and designed to move swiftly through the courts. "It's not a fact-based case. It's primarily an issue of law," said Alexander Polikoff, BPI staff counsel.
It's also noteworthy in that it seeks no specific remedy. "The complaint does not propose a solution," Polikoff added. "The court should determine what the remedial response should be."
In that, it could potentially function like the Shakman suit or Duran Decree, with the court compelling Gov. Pat Quinn and the General Assembly to come up with a more equitable system without specifically dictating policy.
That raises the specter that, if Quinn is serious about tax reform, moving the responsibility for education funding away from property taxes and toward the income tax, as he has proposed in the past, he could potentially all but surrender on the suit and allow the court to dictate terms. Asked if Quinn intended for the state to mount a strong defense, Quinn's office declined to comment.
Quinn and Christopher Koch, state superintendent of education, were named as defendants in the suit, along with the state board of education. The Chicago Urban League has a suit pending that argues the state's education funding is inequitable on racial grounds.