D230 Super: Quinn's Proposed 3% Education Cut Has 'Long-Lasting Implications'
State Sen. Bill Cunningham said the senate will try to alleviate cutting education costs as much as possible, following Gov. Pat Quinn's budget proposal, which includes about a 3 percent cut in state education funding.
Orland Park schools may soon have to work with even tighter funding as Gov. Pat Quinn is expected to advocate cutting 3 percent of the education budget to alleviate pension costs, the Chicago Tribune reports.
That equates to a $278 million reduction in funds for high schools and elementary schools, and it will be the third dramatic budget blow from the state to local schools in three years.
"When you have that tremendous amount of money that you have to put in the pension (system), something's got to give," Quinn told the Tribune.
As expected, local schools are not happy about the news.
Consolidated High School District 230 Superintendent James Gay said in a statement that if the cuts are passed, the state's 2014 fiscal year will be the third year in a row where education funding has been reduced.
"These cuts have long-lasting implications that extend far beyond classrooms across the state," Gay said in the statement. "These cuts impact the preparation of the future workforce and in turn the economy of our state and country. In an increasingly global economy, short changing education is not a viable option. Here in District 230, we will continue to provide the education our students deserve and our community expects with the funds available to us through local, state and federal revenue."
The state is currently paying our $6 billion a year in pensions.
State Sen. Bill Cunningham said the state is paying just under that amount for students between kindergarten and senior year of high school—a first for Illinois. But some adjustment needs to be made to stave off the growing pension debt for all state employees, including legislators, judges, public school teachers and others, Cunningham said.
"I can say there's a desire in the Senate to take a deeper look at the Governor's figures and decide what can be cut," Cunningham said. "We'll look to other areas to spare education, or if we can't completely spare education at least reduce the cuts education is facing. The thing to keep in mind is the Governor suggests a budget, but it's primarily the General Assembly's job to write it.
"I think what we'll do is get started looking at line items within state government. It will be difficult. In three years we've seen dramatic cuts in all budget lines. That's a result of pension spending continuing to climb."
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Yellow Dog
7:31 am on Thursday, March 7, 2013
Why doesn't he cut pensions or medicaid. One in five in Illinois is on medicaid. When Obama care kicks in next year, one in three will be on medicaid. We all know the state is already broke due to pensions and medicaid.
People in this state are so stupid for voting for these morons!!!
Bob
12:46 pm on Thursday, March 7, 2013
Actually, Dr Gay is being something less than honest when he says," In an increasingly global economy, short changing education is not a viable option" Notice that he referred to "education" meaning HIS bureaucracy, NOT the STUDENT'S education!
Funny thing. When district 230 experienced a drop of over 800 students in enrollment, he just let the class size go down to a ridiculous 15.9 students. How much did it improve the outcomes for students? The ACTs didn't gain even a fraction of a point. Apparently raising costs without accomplishing improvement in education IS a viable option for Dr Gay.
The ones this WILL, or at least SHOULD, impact, are the teachers and adminstrators whose compensation is FAR above any metric for services provided.
Take, for example, Dr Gay's district 230 current teacher contract. Check it out at
https://district.d230.org/Publications/Teacher%20Contract%202010-2013.pdf
Page 58 is the current teacher pay schedule, and includes the teacher "pension contribution sheltering" provided by the taxpayers.
This year a teacher with 21 years experience and a Masters + hours makes over $120,000 for the 170-180 day school year. Bear in mind that there is no requirement that such a teacher provide evidence of "excellence", have a higher student or class load than a rookie teacher, or in any way prove worth over that of a teacher making a third as much. You HAVE the money, DR, if you cut waste and put the student's first!
Bob
12:54 pm on Thursday, March 7, 2013
Over the years I've found that 230 is one of the most politically and patronage driven districts around. They have so much administrative fat that they have one administrator for every 160 students, about 27% above state average for ALL schools. Large school districts like 230 have about one admin for every 240 students, about 50% LESS THAN 230!
There's plenty of waste in salary and operations to be cut without impacting students, Dr Gay and 230 School Board. The question is whether you serve the bureaucracy or the students and community. We'll see if they try to protect themselves and hurt the community by raising taxes and fees instead of correcting excesses in the system.
With Nogal and Quilty soon to be in charge, better hold on to your pocketbook, taxpayers!
Bob
12:58 pm on Thursday, March 7, 2013
One place to look for savings is our "instructional improvement" budget. Every year we have to pay between $1.6 million and $1.9 million for this ineffective boondoggle.
Check out the school report cards. District 230 average ACT scores haven't improved since 2006, and we've lagged behind the state in increases overall since then.
Gee, they didn't get the job they were paid to do done. Is there some way we can get our money back?LOL