Education funding formula dividing 41st House candidates

The proposed state law that would change the formula for how education funding is divided among schools also is dividing candidates for state-level offices.

State House District 41 candidates Grant Wehrli and Ed Agustin have different perspectives on the proposal referred to as Senate Bill 16, which would give more state money to school districts in poorer areas that don't receive as much from property taxes.

Both men seeking the seat to represent parts of Naperville and Warrenville say education funding could be adjusted. But Wehrli, a Republican, and Agustin, a Democrat, disagree on how close the proposal in Senate Bill 16 comes to creating a fair funding formula.

Changes in Senate Bill 16 would distribute money based much more heavily on a district's local wealth or poverty, with poorer districts receiving more. Proposed adjustments also would give districts different amounts of funding based on how many students they have in categories such as low-income, special education, gifted or English language learners.

Wehrli, a 45-year-old sales and business management consultant and Naperville City Council member, calls the new funding formula in Senate Bill 16 a "cash grab" to take money from well-to-do school districts in the suburbs and give it to less-funded districts downstate.

"I think the way it's written now isn't fair and equitable to all," Wehrli said. "You can't just come in and take the money without us having any input in the process. I think that's wrong."

Wehrli said he thinks residents and leaders in affluent areas such as Naperville want to help struggling school districts elsewhere, but only if the means for providing that help is discussed openly. He suggested a coalition of lawmakers from the collar counties be formed to "come together in a manner that's best for us all."

Agustin, a 70-year-old retired architect from Naperville, said he recently met with about 30 educators from the Illinois Federation of Teachers and heard mixed reviews of the proposed funding changes in Senate Bill 16. While some said it's unfair to suburban districts, Agustin said others supported it.

"If we share some of that with the downstate school districts, everybody can benefit," Agustin said. "We lose a little bit up here, but then they get brought up in other parts of the state."

He said the formula could be tweaked to be a better fit for Naperville-area schools, which stand to lose millions if Senate Bill 16 is approved as proposed. But he's not opposed to the idea of altering state education funding.

"It's a sharing of the wealth. I think there can be a better formula for it, but I'm not totally discounting it as being terrible and shouldn't be considered," Agustin said. "I think it needs to be modified so that more people can be satisfied."

Agustin and Wehrli are running in the Nov. 4 election for the 41st District House seat that will be vacated by Darlene Senger, who is running for U.S. Congress in the 11th District.