Senate Minority Leader Bill Brady and Jason Barickman, both Bloomington Republicans, are calling on Senate Democrats to take the parliamentary hold off on the state public school funding bill and send it to Gov. Bruce Rauner to make the change it needs, according to a press release.
“Now that the governor has stated his position, I would encourage the Senate leadership to send SB 1 to his desk so he can issue his amendatory veto,” Brady said in a statement. “This will allow us to begin working immediately toward a compromise on school funding reform that we were so close to achieving this past May.”
Both SB1 and the Republican alternative employ an evidence-based model to distribute state funds to school districts, but the GOP has taken issue with concessions made to Chicago Public Schools (CPS) in SB1. According to a breakdown of the two plans published on Illinois.gov, SB1 would parcel out funds to CPS based on its tier level (determined by need), a FY18 pension pickup and block grant funding. Rauner's plan would eliminate the block grant and redistribute that funding to schools throughout the state.
Sen. Bill Brady (R-Bloomington)
“Our plan would let the evidence based model do what it is supposed to, which is to put the money where data and best practices determine it should go, not based on political deals for just one school district,” Barickman said in a statement.
Alerts Sign-up