Evidence-based funding not keeping up

In 2018, our legislators came up with a new funding plan for K-12 schools called evidence-based funding. The plan gave an additional $350 million, called new money, to schools each year. Of that, $300 million goes to our worst-funded school districts and the other $50 million goes to the neediest districts for property tax relief.

The biggest flaw in this plan is that the $350 million is not indexed for inflation. The Illinois State Board of Education proudly said that the state has given our schools about $2.2 billion of additional funding, new money, in eight years. Almost $2 billion was used up by inflation. The net funding is about $200 million. The lack of planning for inflation is why there were 324 of the worst-funded school districts, called Tier 1, after eight years of evidence-based funding. There were 312 Tier 1 districts in 2018.

The $2 billion of inflation comes from taking the 2018 state contribution of about $6.4 billion and indexing it to the consumer price index for eight years. The worst year was 2022 when inflation was 8%. In 2021 the state gave no new money to school districts.

Our worst-funded school districts, Tier 1 and Tier 2, get 99% of the new money. The wealthiest districts, Tier 3 and Tier 4, get 1%. In 2025, our Tier 1 and Tier 2 districts needed about $2.8 billion from the state to be considered fully funded. The newly released evidence-based funding FY2026 quick facts now shows that the Tier 1 and Tier 2 districts need about $3.3 billion.

The 2018 goal was to have all the school districts fully funded by 2027. The state falls further behind every year. Our kids deserve better planning from adults. Evidence-based funding gets a D.

Jim Yaworski

Crystal Lake