Top 10 Biggest Winners and Losers Under Proposed School Funding Plans

A controversial bill passed last week by the Illinois Senate would overhaul the current education funding formula by appropriating state resources based on a school district’s needs.

The sponsor of the legislation, state Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, says the new formula more fairly distributes the state’s share of education funding by taking into account each district’s property tax wealth, the percentage and concentration of low-income students, as well as special education and bilingual needs.

But as has been the case with previous attempts to revamp the funding formula, the redistribution of state resources inevitably pits lawmakers who represent wealthy school districts — the majority of which are in Chicago suburbs — against those who represent struggling districts.

Some Republican lawmakers have called Manar’s bill a bailout for Chicago schools at the expense of suburban schools. Even some Democrats from suburban districts have complained that their constituents will have to shoulder even higher property taxes to make up for state funds they lose.

Gov. Bruce Rauner’s plan calls for increasing overall funding by $120 million, which would fully fund general state aid to schools instead of prorating it for the first time in seven years. However, his plan uses the current formula and despite the increase in funding, some districts like Chicago Public Schools and East St. Louis SD 189 would lose funding next fiscal year.

So which school districts would stand to gain and lose the most state funding?

Here are the Top 10 biggest winners and losers under both Rauner’s and Manar’s school funding plan.

If you don’t see your local district, we’ve included spreadsheets with each district in the state showing how they would fare under each plan.

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