- Published: Friday, September 07, 2018 06:53 PM
More than $1.1M in new money funneled to Gillespie classrooms in just two years
GILLESPIE – Gillespie public school families will continue to benefit from Illinois’ new school funding formula, which guarantees an additional $473,360 for the academic year that is getting underway, State Senator Andy Manar said today.
That means the new formula will have pumped more than $1.1 million in additional money into Gillespie public schools during its first two years on the books and more than $4.2 million additional into eight Macoupin County public school districts combined.
“Long underfunded school districts are finally getting the attention and the state support they’ve been starved of for too many years,” said Manar, a Bunker Hill Democrat and the driving force behind passage of the new school funding formula.
“I am delighted the evidence-based model is working as we expected it would. It’s exciting to learn about the growth and innovation happening in our classrooms because of this new, equitable approach to funding education.”
Many school districts are rehiring teachers and counselors who were laid off because of budget constraints, reinstating vital programs, creating innovative new learning programs, and establishing much-needed stability so they can budget for the future.
Under the evidence-based model, no schools receive less money than they did the previous year, and the previous year’s new money becomes part of the current year’s base funding. This allows long-underfunded schools to achieve adequate funding over time without penalizing schools that have already had adequate funding.
Last year – the first year under the new formula – Gillespie CUSD 7 received $663,240 in new, additional money under the evidence-based model, bringing its total state funding to more than $7.5 million.
This school year, the district will receive an additional $473,360 in new money under the evidence-based model, bringing its total state funding for the year to nearly $8 million, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.
Macoupin County school districts will receive more than $1.7 million in new, additional funding under Year 2 of the formula for 2018-2019:
- Bunker Hill CUSD 8 – $124,058 in new money | $2.9 million total state contribution
- Carlinville CUSD 1 – $297,112 in new money | $4.9 million total state contribution
- Gillespie CUSD 7 – $473,360 in new money | $8 million total state contribution
- Mount Olive CUSD 5 – $77,987 in new money | $2.2 million total state contribution
- North Mac CUSD 34 – $220,717 in new money | $5.9 million total state contribution
- Northwestern CUSD 2 – $40,956 in new money | $1.5 million total state contribution
- Southwestern CUSD 9 – $129,432 in new money | $6.1 million total state contribution
- Staunton CUSD 6 – $352,485 in new money | $5 million total state contribution
In all, public school districts in the 48th Senate District will receive nearly $5.8 million in new money this year under the new formula. Added to last year’s total of about $8 million, public schools represented by Manar have received nearly $14 million in new money in just two years.
