Illinois: Breaking the Bank
Mackenzie Schussler
Illinois is the brokest state in the Union. It’s a harsh reality that people all over the state are dealing with. One area of our government has been hit the hardest: education. With budget cuts being made left and right, schools suffer. These problems hit close to home. A number of schools around Mascoutah have had to make drastic changes. Will we be able to regain our education system or will we succumb to our looming debt?
School districts in Illinois receive funds from three major sources- local, state, and federal funds. Local funds, the largest source in most districts, come primarily from property taxes. State funds, which are decided upon by the Illinois General Assembly , include general state aid and funding by formulas for specific needs such as special education, transportation, and facility construction or renovation . Federal funds help to support low-income students, special education, nutrition programs, and pre-school, among other needs.
The General Fund, the budget set by the state’s General Assembly and Governor, allows about $6.5 billion to the State Board of Education. America spends over $550 billion a year on public education. On average, school districts spend $10,658 for each student.Since 2009, right after the Great Recession of 2008, Illinois’ General Fund for kindergarten to twelfth grade has been cut by more than $861 million- or nearly 12 percent. Considering the fact that the number of students enrolled in public school has stayed virtually the same, these huge budget cuts have resulted in huge losses in education.
On Monday, January 26th the Triad Board of Education held its monthly meeting. Those in attendance were most interested to hear the Budget Deficit Reduction Advisory Committee’s recommendation to the Board of Education to cut approximately $1 million dollars from Triad’s budget in 2015-2016. The budget calls for reduction in personnel in all areas leading to larger class sizes, elimination of many academic clubs and activities, reductions of fine arts classes, elimination of freshmen sports and course offerings at the high school and middle school, and reduction in transportation services. They have also eliminated all field trips for K-12 students. The proposed budget deal will save about $1 million in a deficit of $2.4 million.
Triad isn’t the only school district in the area struggling with the loss of State funding. In the past two years, Granite City has borrowed $10 million, reduced staff and closed a school building. Highland closed an elementary building and sold $5 million in working cash bonds just to maintain programs. Edwardsville and Bethalto have also funded the use of bonds to stay afloat.
Mascoutah is making a few changes of their own as well. In order to help cut the budget, students living within a 1½ mile radius of the school won’t have a bus to ride. They will have to find an alternative way to school. Getting rid of this would save the district almost $300,000. They have also added a multi-million dollar new elementary school, Wingate. Taxes in Mascoutah have risen drastically over the last couple years. This new school has received both positive and negative feedback. The biggest concern about the new school is if it is fiscally responsible or not. Wingate is being built to help lessen the overcrowding in the elementary school but a few people suggested other ideas. One idea was to move fifth grade to the middle school and and move the 8th graders to the empty wing at the high school. This could have avoided the millions the school district spent on the new school. But instead, the school board voted for the new building. Wingate Elementary School will be operational for the 2015-2016 school year.
State and local governments provide about 44 percent of education funding. The money from local government mostly comes from property taxes. This means taxes will continue to raise for local businesses and homes as a way to postpone the inevitable bankruptcy of the district and of the state.
These tax raises are part of the tax reform that is needed to achieve an adequate and sustainable revenue system. Education isn't the only program that is struggling in Illinois. Illinois’ aging and deteriorating infrastructure is in urgent need of repairs. Also, money is being pulled from programs like Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare. Medicaid enrollment has doubled in Illinois between 2000 and 2011 and the cost of maintaining the program is growing far more rapidly than tax revenue.
Illinois has one of the biggest deficits in the country. The reason for this is simple: Illinois likes to shift budgets around to avoid paying, it has no rainy day fund, and lastly, it has no long-term budget plan. Time-shifting budget practices include delaying payments, accelerating revenues, and borrowing from the future to pay for today. Fund-shifting includes moving money from one program to the next without changing from year to year. This results in cuts and increases that don’t actually help. Also, Illinois doesn’t have a rainy day fund. A rainy day fund is a reserved amount of money to be used in times when regular income is stopped or decreased. Anything that goes into the fund is taken right back out, even in good economic times. The last big problem is that Illinois has no realistic long-term financial plan.The first time a multi year budget plan was presented by the governor was in 2012, but this only forecasted a fraction of Illinois’ total budget.
There is a solution to our growing debt. Illinois needs to adopt a multi-year budget plan, develop a sustainable rainy day fund, and create a more transparent budget that benefits all funds and programs. If the state can get rid of its bad habits and change how it does business it can come out ahead and can continue to truly educate and benefit its students.
