SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois State Board of Education’s Finance and Audit Committee is hosting a series of budget hearings to gather public input as the Board prepares its Fiscal Year 2014 (FY14) education budget recommendation for the Governor and General Assembly. The first hearing will take place immediately after the Oct. 29 Board meeting at Southland Charter School in Richton Park.

“The past several years have seen nearly $1 billion in state cuts to the K-12 education budget; cuts that challenge our board’s fundamental mission to ensure  every child is prepared to succeed in college and career,” said State Board of Education Chairman Gery J. Chico. “We have advocated for funding increases in the past and will be working harder than ever this year to carefully craft and advocate for a budget that serves the more than 2 million public school students in this state who are counting on us.”

Consistent with The National Advisory Council on State and Local Budgeting principles, Illinois requires state agencies to use a `Budgeting for Results’ model to establish spending priorities, meet goals and deliver excellent services and value to taxpayers.  To meet the Budgeting for Results requirements, first implemented by law in FY12, hearing participants are asked to provide the following information when presenting their FY 2014 budget requests to the ISBE Finance and Audit Committee:

• Outcomes: What outcomes will the funding allotment achieve?
• Measures: What are the measurable results of these outcomes?
• Value: What is the value of the outcomes?
• Historicals: What outcomes have been achieved in the past?
• Moving forward: How does your organization plan to improve the value of services it provides using funding and other resources? 

The priorities and goals of local citizens and education partners are crucial for committee members to consider as they develop a budget with scarce resources. Budgeting for Results calls on every state agency to make the case for its budget based on its success delivering results and value to the people of Illinois.

The ISBE has continued to advocate for increased state funding in recent years while experiencing an overall drop of $861 million from FY09 to Fiscal Year 2013 through the state budget-making process. State Board of Education members note that it’s important to put Illinois’ education funding in context with the rest of the nation.

“Illinois ranks near the bottom in the nation in terms of state support for elementary and secondary education and maintains a heavy reliance on local resources to fund schools,” said Jim Baumann, Chair of the ISBE Finance and Audit Committee. “Those local resources have also dwindled due to the national and state recession, forcing schools to make difficult decisions such as cutting staff, increasing class sizes, cutting extra curriculum, and even core curriculum resources that help students succeed in the classroom and beyond. The need to resolve this funding crisis grows each year.”

Local resources have historically made up the greatest portion of education funding in Illinois as seen below:

 

The FY13 State Budget for Pre-K-12 education totals $6.5 billion, an overall reduction of $209.6 million from FY12 appropriation levels. Affected programs include:

• $161.3 million (3.6 percent) reduction in General State Aid
•  $24.9 million (7.7 percent) reduction in Early Childhood
•  $12 million (45.6 percent) reduction in Illinois Free Lunch/Breakfast
•  $2.8 million (30 percent) reduction in Alternative Learning/Regional Safe Schools
• $2.05 million (14.6 percent) reduction in Truant Alternative and Optional Education
• $1.3 million (81.5 percent) reduction in Children’s Mental Health Partnership

Those who are unable to attend one of the five public hearings are encouraged to email any guidance or feedback to ISBE at: ISBE​FY14@isbe.net. The public budget hearings for Fiscal Year 2014 will be conducted at the follow dates and locations:

• Monday, Oct. 29 – Immediately following board meeting – Richton Park – Southland Charter School
• Monday, Nov. 5 – 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. – Champaign – Champaign Public Library
• Thursday, Nov. 15 – 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. – Grayslake – University Center, College of Lake County, G Room 145
• Friday, Nov. 16 – 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. – Chicago  – ISBE Video-conference, James R. Thompson Center, Room 16-504, 100 W. Randolph St. (Revised Room)
• Monday, Nov. 19 – 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. – Granite City – Granite City High School (Revised Time)

The Illinois State Board of Education’s Finance and Audit Committee conducts public hearings each year to gather opinions about the education needs and priorities at the local level as they prepare the following year’s education budget. The Board generally recommends an education budget in January, several months prior to any General Assembly action on the next fiscal year’s budget. The Board can only make a recommendation. The Governor and legislators must determine how to generate revenue and set the final budget.