Manar: Suing districts ‘desperate’ for fair school funding

SPRINGFIELD – State Sen. Andy Manar, a Bunker Hill Democrat and an advocate for reforming what he says is the nation’s worst school funding formula, says 17 Illinois districts cannot be blamed for suing the state over unfair funding:

Several of the districts are in Metro East.

“It should surprise no one that educators across Illinois are fed up with being shortchanged by Illinois’ broken school funding system. Right now, all they hear is lip service from the governor, who refuses to advance legislation to fix it.

“I wish them luck as they seek to force Gov. Rauner and the Illinois State Board of Education to implement, once and for all, a fair formula that offers every Illinois student the same high-quality educational opportunities, regardless of their ZIP codes.”

“After years of study and debate in Springfield about how best to fix Illinois’ broken school funding formula – producing stacks of reports and legislation but no actual change because of political and regional disagreements – desperate school districts in communities like Bunker Hill, Pana and Taylorville now see the courts as their only hope for fairness and relief.”

The lawsuit against the State of Illinois, Gov. Bruce Rauner and the Illinois State Board of Education is being filed in St. Clair County. The 17 school districts that are plaintiffs in the lawsuit comprise about 25,000 students, half of which qualify as low income. The districts are:

 Bethalto CUSD 8
 Bond County CUSD 2
 Bunker Hill CUSD 8
 Cahokia CUSD 187
 Carlinville CUSD 1
 Gillespie CUSD 7
 Grant CCSD 110
 Illinois Valley Central CUSD 321
 Mount Olive CUSD 5
 Mulberry Grove CUSD 1
 Nokomis CUSD 22
 Pana CUSD 8
 Southwestern CUSD 9
 Staunton CUSD 6
 Taylorville CUSD 3
 Vandalia CUSD 203
 Wood River Hartford 15

—    From the Illinois Business Journal