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Republican Governor Bruce Rauner would veto a bill to reinstate a Chicago-elected school board, while his Democratic challenger, J. B. Pritzker, would sign it.
Rauner would extend the scope of a controversial purse of a $ 100 million tax credit to "one billion" dollars if he could, while Pritzker would restrict the new program, which diverts public tax money for tuition from some 5,600 students in Illinois.
But spending more money on public education – from early childhood to university – has emerged as a rare point of agreement in the conversations between candidates that Chalkbeat Chicago has conducted in partnership, in partnership with WBEZ 91.5 FM.
Click on the audio below to hear each candidate explain his position on some key educational issues facing the state.
With respect to K-12 funding, Rauner and Pritzker each told us that relying on property taxes was not the answer. Rauner said he would seek to temporarily freeze taxes on the property to "upset the system" while his opponent would cancel them.
But in simple terms, no immediate solution has been found to close the huge gap between the $ 8.4 billion Illinois spends for public schools from kindergarten to grade 12 and anticipates a cost of adequate school funding. A redesign of the formula used by Illinois to fund schools in 2017 put the state on a 10-year trajectory to bridge the estimated gap of $ 6.8 billion. But it has never been clear how Illinois – which is tackling an even larger backlog of bills since its two-year budget stalemate – is expected to release more money.
Currently, 713 out of 850 districts in Illinois are funded below the "adequacy targets" set in the formula, which attempts to level the playing field for districts that do not perceive a lot of money. property taxes, or those of Chicago, Rockford and Peoria. which mainly serve low-income students.
Rauner added that he had added $ 400 million to early childhood schools and kindergartens this year and that he planned to find additional funding for the following years by making enough savings. through the redesign of the state's Medicaid program. He added that he would also close the gap by expanding the tax base of the state through dynamic business recruitment.
After taking a stance during an unrestrained budget stalemate and seeing his support diminish, "what I've certainly learned is that the change must be gradual," Rauner told us.
"Every year, we will invest hundreds of millions of additional dollars in our education system. I am removing decades of damage, decades of unfair financing, and the solution is to make the government more efficient and, more importantly, accelerate the growth of our economy. We can expand our tax base rather than our tax rates and dispose of much more money. "
He stated in a questionnaire prior to the interview that the state had already saved $ 500 million by reorganizing Medicaid; However, the office that runs the program says it can not provide an estimate because the state is not yet a year old. He did not specify this point in the interview.
Pritzker, on the other hand, has gone through the advancing state a progressive income tax which would weigh more on the wealthy residents and less on the people with average or low income. But even if such a plan were to be passed by the Legislative Assembly, it would require a referendum among states, a process that would take at least until 2020.
In the short term, Pritzker said in interviews with Chalkbeat / WBEZ that he is considering legalizing sports betting and marijuana for recreational purposes while working on a plan to reduce the number of incarcerations.
"Some of these things would have to be adopted in the first legislative session to get income," he said. "But for us to change the way we fund schools, I want to remind you that in the average US state, about half of the money comes from property taxes and about half of its taxes. But we are about 25% of the state and 75% of property taxes. We must head 50-50 direction. "
Here's what the candidates said about other education topics.
Choice of school
Candidates' differing opinions on the choice of school include charters as well as the program of tax grants to the tax bill inserted in the bill on the financing of schools last year without public debate. Rauner said that he would personally contribute "more and more" to his own millions of dollars to the program. A WBEZ report found that 28% of the first-wave students on the bill were not considered low income, as described in the program.
That did not bother Rauner: "I would like to have a billion dollar program, but we have to start somewhere," he said. "We started with $ 100 million – increase it every year. This is a great community effort to increase support for our low-income parents who deserve options. "
Pritzker, meanwhile, said he would stop the program and impose a moratorium on the growth of the charter, although he supports the concept of "choice" in districts such as Chicago, where students may choose between neighborhood schools, control schools, magnets and charters.
When asked if he wanted to reduce the authority of a state charter commission, set up to function as an appeal body for rejected proposals, he withdrew, saying that there are good charter schools "worthy of support", but adequate funding for district schools should precede the opportunity for people to start charters. "
Last spring, Rauner vetoed a bill that would have limited the authority of the commission.
Shortage of teachers
A new state report is sounding the alarm when faced with a serious shortage of teachers, especially in rural areas and in bilingual and specialized education.
Rauner said the solution to the teacher shortage is not to raise wages – he vetoed a bill that would have set the teachers' minimum wage at $ 40,000 – but rather to send more of state money that districts can use to increase if they wish.
"One size does not fit all," said Rauner, who also discussed his record of easing restrictions on teachers coming from abroad who came to Illinois. "We can not look at the cost structure and teacher compensation in Chicago and compare it to a tiny rural district where the cost of living is very low and the resources are very limited and require you to pay for what is in Chicago."
On the contrary, Pritzker said he was in favor of a minimum wage bill for teachers. It also addresses the problem of scarcity by examining existing opportunities for preparing state teachers and investing more in higher education. He wondered whether he was in favor of eliminating a basic skills test for licensing – an idea that had recently resurfaced as public education officials explored ways of recruiting more people. mid-career candidates in classrooms.
Early childhood education
The two candidates have close ties to early childhood education efforts, with Rauner's wife Diana, head of the Ounce of Prevention advocacy group, and Pritzker, who, through his philanthropy, supports the national accelerator. innovation in early childhood as well as Ounce of Prevention and the Fund for the first five years.
Rauner praised his record in early childhood fundraising and promoting web-based quality standards for public and private providers who receive public funds. Asked about a change in eligibility criteria that had resulted in tens of thousands of families in public child care programs, Rauner questioned the budget impasse and said that he was elected, he would work for a new term in order to obtain additional funds.
"You mentioned some of the damage done during the budget stalemate, we were all in office, in power, to drop the young people from low-income families in this state," he said. "It should not have happened; it was completely useless.
Pritzker, for his part, has developed a plan for early childhood that, in his words, would pave the way for universal pre-kindergarten for 3 and 4 years – something that no other state has been able to to run fully. When asked why he would allocate scarce resources to something as expensive, while allocating more money to the funding gap from kindergarten to grade 12, he responded that he "It was a down payment on a continuous investment.
"During the education of children, they are much more likely to graduate from high school, get a job and less likely to be incarcerated if they get quality care for their children." preschool age and their children. Do not cut our noses to upset our face. "
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