Fieldcrest's Educational Funding Crisis and the State of Illinois

Seldom before in the history of Illinois public education have so many school districts been confronted with mounting expenses and ever shrinking revenues. It wasn't too long ago that Illinois' schools were basking in ever increasing financial support. The booming 1980s and the roaring 1990s saw school foundation levels (minimum amount necessary to adequately fund a child in a publicly supported state school) rise nearly $1700 dollars to the $4500 dollar current level. While this foundation level is not anywhere near adequate, it showed great promise for Illinois schools.

Furthermore, during the same booming period, Illinois legislators and governors debated yearly how to fund public education more fairly and adequately. Currently, Illinois is one of 47 of 50 states in the union who rely almost entirely on local property taxes for funding schools. Fieldcrest District 6, an almost entirely farm-based economy, gathers well over 65% of its property wealth from taxes collected on farmland. The problem with this method of funding is that farmland is not valued in a similar way one would value a house or other structures. Farmland is valued not by a multiplier but by a productivity index (P.I.). In other words, if the land has a high P.I. then it would be worth more and thus generate more revenue per acre.

However, the fairness issue comes into proper perspective when school districts just happen to be located in areas where either the value of the land or the buildings and factories upon the land are of little or no value. Is it fair that one school district located in an urban area flush with revenue generating businesses that can fund education at the highest level, while a similar size school district a county away struggles to provide similar opportunities for its children with less dollars? It can't be done.

Illinois is a state of wide disparities in school wealth and funding. From the suburbs of Chicago to the southern tip of Illinois school districts spend as much as $14,000 per student to as little as $3200. Fortunately, the State of Illinois has raised the foundation level to a mere $4500 in a weak attempt to induce fairness in such a blatantly unfair system of educational funding.

Nevertheless, legislators, educators, politicians and business leaders are coming together once again to try to come up with an adequate solution for funding public elementary and secondary education. Proposals have ranged from sales and income taxes to a combination of sales taxes and property taxes including all sorts of federal and state grants. The mix is as varied as the problems that have to be fixed.

Moreover, Fieldcrest District 6, like over 450 other school districts in Illinois is in the midst of a financial crisis. At the August 15th Board meeting it was revealed that District 6's educational funds have been exhausted. For a period of over 10 years the District has been able to adequately fund its programs and offer competitive salaries to its teachers and staff. However, during the past three (3) years revenues have not been keeping pace with expenses. Our teachers, while fairly compensated, are still paid less than similar size school districts in Central Illinois. Our assessed valuation, currently @ $99,000,000 has been steadily decreasing. Despite cost-conscious educational measures undertaken by the Board of Education and administration, the cost of providing competitive educational opportunities for our communities' children is not keeping pace with revenues. This past year Fieldcrest District 6 received $161,000 less in state and local revenues. The current school year will see another reduction in State aid to the tune of $115,000. Couple these losses with declining interest on District 6 investments plus rising insurance costs (44% increase this year alone) and negative fund balances become the rule rather than the exception.

At the September 19th meeting of the Board of Education, Board members debated the necessity of seeking additional sources of revenue to fund District 6 programs. Scores of school districts in Central Illinois are wrestling with the same debate. For the first time in its 10-year history, District 6 is facing the fact that unless a referendum for the education fund can be passed, programs and services will decline substantially throughout Fieldcrest. Working Cash bonds have been discussed but offer only a temporary fix for a problem that will not disappear overnight. How much higher than the $2.97 maximum tax rate District 6 needs to fund its educational programs adequately is yet to be determined. A committee of Board members and administrators are currently fine tuning financial projections in an effort to look down the road for at least three to five years. Unless the State of Illinois abolishes its persistent and long-standing reliance on property taxes to fund Illinois public education, the wolf will always return to the doors of District 6 and similar school districts throughout Illinois.

Each citizen of our communities can do their part in pushing for fairness in funding education by taking a few minutes to write or phone their respective state representatives to ask them to do the right thing and fight for fairness in educational funding for education. The list below contains the address and phone number, including email address of local State representative Keith Sommers. A sample form letter is attached that may be copied or changed to get the attention of those who most directly control education in Illinois.