State Representative Tom Morrison (R-Palatine) will join Senator Matt Murphy (R-Palatine) and State Representative David Harris (R-Mt. Prospect) on October 21 for a public forum on Senate Bill 16, a proposal that rewrites Illinois’ school funding formula and strips General State Aid (GSA) away from most suburban school districts.
The forum will take place from 6:30-8:30 PM at Metropolis Performing Arts Center, 111 W. Campbell Street in Arlington Heights. Local school superintendents and school administrators will join the legislators and talk about how SB16 will specifically affect their district budgets and operations.
“SB16 passed in the Illinois Senate in May and is now pending in the House of Representatives,” said Morrison. “As written, this bill diverts millions in General State Aid away from local schools and channels it toward Chicago and many downstate schools. It’s an unfair redistribution of funds with every one of my school districts losing large amounts of funding.”
According to Morrison, the school districts located within the boundaries of the 54th legislative House district would lose the following amounts of GSA if SB16 is passed (estimates provided by Illinois State Board of Education):
· Community Consolidated School District 15: $11,125,664 loss per year
· Township High School District 211: $7,955,584 loss per year
· Barrington School District 220: $5,391,021 loss per year
· Community Consolidated School District 59: $5,923,650 loss per year
· Township High School District 214: $7,471,089 loss per year
· Arlington Heights School District 25: $3,286,613 loss per year
“School funding reform is a critical issue, but SB16 is not the answer,” Morrison said. “It simply creates a new list of funding winners by taking funding away from the districts whose taxpayers already shoulder a disproportionate share of the cost of educating kids in this state.”
Those who attend the forum will be given the opportunity to submit questions or concerns to panel participants.
In response to the revival of SB16, Morrison and several of his colleagues in the IL House have sponsored a House Resolution stating their opposition to the bill, and they have posted a petition against SB16 on their web sites. You may read the text of HR1276 here, and you may access the on-line petition here.
For additional information about the October 21 event, please contact Representative Morrison’s Palatine office at (847) 202-6584.
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