Governor Forms Panel To Overhaul School Funding Formula
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Gov. Bruce Rauner has announced a new commission tasked with overhauling Illinois' outdated public school funding formula.
The governor said each of the state's four legislative leaders has agreed to appoint five members to the Illinois School Funding Reform Commission. Rauner will appoint five others, and he wants the group to come up with a plan to fund education more fairly and adequately, and he wants the results by Feb. 1, 2017.
"That's a tight timeframe, but it will allow us to use the recommendations to hopefully draft legislation in the spring session, and I believe that that timeframe can be met, because the discussions have been going on for a while," he said.
Illinois Education Secretary Beth Purvis, who will chair the commission, said it will not ignore the years of work that already have been done in the effort. Past panels have tried to change the state's funding formula for K-12 education, but usually progress has been hampered by partisan and regional differences.