Education Funding Advisory Board to hold
first meeting July 28 in Springfield

Springfield – The newly appointed Education Funding Advisory Board, charged with recommending legislative changes in school funding, will hold its first organizational and informational meeting from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. July 28 in Room 212 of the State Capitol Building.

Appointed by Governor George H. Ryan, the 18-member panel of education, business, legislative and community leaders must submit a report on the status of Illinois’ education funding formula and recommend adjustments to the school funding system to the General Assembly by January 1, 2001.

Springfield resident Robert Leininger, state superintendent of education from 1989-94, will chair the advisory  board.

The five statutory members vote on the report containing the board’s recommendations.    The other 13 individuals appointed serve as non-voting members.

“This will be a difficult process, but one that is absolutely necessary if we ever hope to give our students in all parts of the state the education they need and deserve,” Leininger said.  “Governor Ryan deserves praise for calling together a group of people embodying such a diversity of experience, insight and vision, and for supporting education throughout his career in public service.”

Legislation in 1997 created a  “foundation level” of funding to guarantee local school districts a minimum dollar amount of support per student, including state and local resources. 

That foundation level was guaranteed for three years through a continuing appropriation, that bound future legislators to the levels adopted in 1997.  The continuing appropriation expires June 30, 2001.

In Fiscal Year 1999, the statutory foundation level was $4,225 per student. That figure rose by $100 in Fiscal Year 2000, and again in Fiscal Year 2001.