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House Democrats took a promising school funding reform bill and turned it into another handout to Chicago schools at the expense of the rest of the state, Sen. Jason Barickman (R-Bloomington) said before the close of the spring legislative session on Wednesday.
“In the last 48 hours of session, the House Democrats have doubled down on shoveling money to Chicago and its public school system,” Barickman said in a statement. “Instead of creating parity and equity for our struggling school districts, their latest version of school funding ‘reform’ creates more special deals for one district, shoveling $700 million into CPS at the expense of our state’s 851 other school districts.”
According to Barickman, Democrats used accounting tricks to make the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) system appear poorer than it is and thereby game the new evidence-based funding distribution model presented in Senate Bill 1.
Sen. Jason Barickman (R-Bloomington)
“Schools in my district should not continue to pay for the mismanagement in Chicago under the guise of ‘reform,’” Barickman said in his statement. “House Democrats have proven with this amendment that they aren’t serious about reforming our broken school funding system. We could be, and should be working together on a real bipartisan solution that helps all schools.”
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