Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner on Monday continued to position himself as a friend of public schools ahead of a likely battle with Democratic lawmakers over funding for primary and secondary education.
The governor toured a Lawndale charter high school, his third school visit since he used a budget address last week to call on the General Assembly to send him a bill to increase state spending on K-12 schools even if a broader budget deal for the Illinois government can’t be reached.
Rauner praised Instituto Health Sciences Career Academy as a model of his vision for how to reshape public education in Illinois. The school offers curriculum that prepares students for entry-level positions in health care upon graduation.
“We need more entrepreneurs, we need more innovation in our school system,” said Rauner, whose financial and philosophical support of charter schools has brought opposition from teachers unions. “If we combine innovation and new leadership along with more resources in our schools, we could have the best schools in the world.”
Rauner is preparing for a springtime battle at the Capitol over a series of school-related disputes with Democrats.
The governor has resisted Democratic calls to change the way state money for primary and secondary education is doled out, instead calling for more spending on K-12 education despite a budget fight that has kept money from flowing to social service programs and higher education. Democratic Senate President John Cullerton has suggested that he’ll hold up spending on primary and secondary education this year until the funding formula is fixed to send more money to needy school districts, including Chicago Public Schools.
As Rauner has done throughout the past year, he tried to pin the problem on House Speaker Michael Madigan, saying the current school funding formula that Democrats now want to change was created by the longtime lawmaker.
“I did not create the school funding formula, I just got here,” Rauner said. “This has been in place for decades and you know who created? Speaker Madigan and the Democrats in the General Assembly. Somehow, I’m new, and it’s all my fault and I’m the defender of it. I mean, good grief.”
Rauner said he’s open to changing the formula, but he wants spending on K-12 schools to be ramped up first. He’s asked lawmakers to send him a bill to do that, but is unlikely to get it.
That’s because the steady flow of state tax dollars to schools has been a key driver in the eight-month budget stalemate. When Rauner vetoed a Democrat-passed spending plan last year at the start of the budget impasse, he also approved a portion of the plan that funded K-12 education at higher levels than the previous year. That shielded schools from much of the budget-related pain felt by others who rely on state tax money, and it allowed Rauner to claim credit for spending more on education even as the state’s finances are in turmoil. It remains to be seen whether Democrats will give him the opportunity to do so again.
Meanwhile, the governor’s State Board of Education has launched an investigation into the finances of Chicago Public Schools as Rauner has called for a state takeover of the troubled district. Rauner acknowledged Monday that he doesn’t have the power to seize control of CPS on his own. But he said if the state board determines that CPS is in “financial duress,” it can block borrowing by the district.
“I hope that never becomes necessary, but we’ve got to be ready to take action and step in,” Rauner said.
CPS CEO Forrest Claypool on Monday tried to blame the district’s financial problems on a flawed state funding formula that discriminates against low-income children. He said that CPS is just one of more than 100 school districts in Illinois on a financial watch list and that the governor chose “only Chicago to make a splash about.”
CPS’ money woes, however, are in large part due to the district’s decision to skip pension payments for many years. After state permission to do so expired, CPS has had to make much larger contributions into its employee pension system.
While Claypool said he welcomes the governor’s concern about CPS, he continues to insist that the state’s request on a financial probe has no legal basis. He asked that the governor instead focus his efforts on the funding formula.
“School districts like ours have high degrees of poor minority children who need more money, not less money, to receive a good education. Because of the disadvantages that they suffer from, they’re getting less money,” he said. “It’s a radically discriminatory funding formula and until the governor addresses that, we’re not going to see the type of education progress we all want to see.”
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