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The Illinois State Board of Education will ask state lawmakers to provide the same funding increase as past years for Illinois’ 800-plus school districts.
Board officials unanimously approved a budget recommendation Wednesday that, if ultimately approved by the Illinois state legislature, would boost the main stream of K-12 funding — known as the evidence-based funding formula — by $350 million, or a 4% increase.
Last year’s increase was $307 million, after state leaders paused property tax relief grants, which would return under this request.
The recommended increase to evidence-based funding reflects the minimum ask from members of the public, who submitted hundreds of budget requests to ISBE, state officials said in the fall.
The $350 million increase would be in line with most of the annual increases since 2017, when state lawmakers created the new funding formula that is supposed to send more dollars to schools with more needs. But a 2024 report found that at the current funding level, schools won’t be fully funded under the formula until at least 2034.
Overall, the board is asking the state for $10.9 billion to fund its main K-12 expenses — a roughly 2% drop compared to its current budget. Much of that cut is driven by the removal of early childhood education programming out of ISBE and into a standalone state department that is expected to launch by July 1.
ISBE is recommending other funding increases that fall outside of evidence-based funding, such as for student transportation, but is also recommending some cuts, including for organizations that provide after-school programming.
State education officials crafted their budget request, in part, based on the financial outlook for Illinois, which is expecting a $2.2 billion budget deficit for next fiscal year. ISBE’s request will go to Gov. JB Pritzker, who will reveal his full state budget proposal next month. The General Assembly will then work to approve a budget in late May, with the state’s fiscal year beginning July 1.
State lawmakers promised to increase evidence-based funding by at least $350 million annually in the decade since it was created and has largely done so with some exceptions, including no increase during the first year of the pandemic. However, to match the same value that a $350 million increase had in 2017, state leaders would need to increase education funding by another roughly $100 million, according to the CPI inflation calculator.
To speed up full funding of schools, some organizations have regularly called for even larger increases.
Since 2017, the state has increased funding through the new formula by about $2.5 billion, and now roughly 40% of districts are considered at least 90% adequately funded. But most Illinois school districts are still less than 90% adequately funded.
One of those districts is Illinois’ largest: Chicago Public Schools, which is considered 73% adequately funded by the state. Still, CPS is projecting a more than half-billion dollar deficit next fiscal year, meaning leaders may face another year of potential cuts. Many school board members had hoped for more state funding. Others, however, have not held out hope for additional money as the state faces its own financial pressures.
Future federal funding threats may also force Illinois’ hand to raise more revenue or find cuts. The Trump administration announced last week that it would freeze $1 billion in child care and social services funding for Illinois and several other Democrat-led states, but a federal judge has temporarily blocked that move.
Some progressive organizations, including the Chicago Teachers Union and the Illinois Revenue Alliance, are pushing the state to collect more revenue by imposing new taxes on corporations and Illinois’ wealthiest residents. Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, a Democrat, is pushing for a new tax on millionaires, several news outlets reported.
More funding for transportation, cuts for after-school programming
ISBE is also asking the state to beef up funding for expenses that it reimburses school districts for, including a nearly 15% increase for transportation for students with disabilities and an 11% increase in public and private school tuition for students with disabilities. ISBE officials have said the state’s reimbursements aren’t keeping up with rising costs for school districts, and they received many requests for more transportation funding.
ISBE is also calling for a 10% increase in grant funding to schools for career and technical education funding, another budget request from the public.
ISBE is also recommending cuts outside of direct school funding, including nearly $23 million in grants for a variety of programs, including after-school initiatives and money for individual organizations.
For example, Chicago-based Southwest Organizing Project, which distributes grants to organizations for parent mentor workers who provide additional support in low-income schools across the state, would get a $6 million cut, or a 30% reduction, to its current level of funding from the state. After School Matters, which provided paid enrichment opportunities to about 17,000 Chicago teenagers last fiscal year, would have a 50% cut to its ISBE funding. The organizations got funding boosts from the state for their current budgets; the recommended cuts would bring their funding levels back in line with past years.
It’s unclear how these cuts would impact these organizations. For example, ISBE funding made up roughly one-fifth of After School Matter’s government funding in fiscal year 2025, according to state records and the organization’s most recent annual report.
Southwest Organizing Project, which acts as the fiscal agent for the parent mentor program statewide and also trains its own parent mentor workers, used the increase in funding this year to bring parent mentors to 50 more schools across Illinois, reaching a total of 293 schools, said Adriana Velazquez, who helps lead the organization’s parent mentor work.
Velazquez said the organization will work with state lawmakers to preserve the funding. The organization focuses on schools with more than 80% low-income students, including many in Chicago neighborhoods that have been impacted by increased immigration enforcement.
“Just working in the most vulnerable communities, especially our communities that have been under attack, we are not going to take another cut,” Velazquez said.
Reema Amin is a reporter covering Chicago Public Schools. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.
