|
Governor Quinn has appointed a new
Chairman to the Illinois State Board of Education. Gery Chico was
announced as the new Board Chair this morning.
Chico is a Chicago attorney who has been involved in city government
for a number of years, holding a variety of positions including
former Mayor Daley's Chief of Staff. Additionally, he served as the
President of the Board of the Chicago Public Schools for six years
and more recently, Chairman of the City Colleges. He must be
confirmed by the Senate and his term will run until January 2015.
Gery brings to this Board many experiences and skills that will be
beneficial to the Illinois education community. I very much look
forward to working with him and learning from him as we move
forward, especially given the challenges and opportunities that we
face.
We are reviewing th e FY 2012 budget passed by the House, and while
it is not good, it could have been much worse. I do not believe that
what has passed will be the final budget, but it is the one that we
must begin planning to implement. I believe it is quite likely that
lawmakers will take additional action on the budget in the veto
session or possibly sooner.
In total, the reduction for education is about $170 million with the
bulk of that being in General State Aid. Lawmakers decided to keep
the Foundation Level at $6,119 but reduced the state's commitment by
$152 million. Early Childhood was also reduced by $17 million.
In addition, lawmakers zeroed out the line that allowed us to
provide you with Explore and Plan at no cost to your district.
Teacher and principal mentoring were eliminated, Advance Placement
was eliminated and the PSAE writing exam is likely to be eliminated.
Transportation is scheduled to be funded at nearly $295 million, an
increase of nearly 40 percent from FY 11 levels after the Governor's
reserves and the Regional Offices of Education are funded however,
at about 11 percent lower than the FY 11 levels after reserves.
The agency's contractual line items have been reduced significantly,
which causes me great concern. My staff and I will begin reviewing
how to meet our obligations under this significantly reduced line
item. Some examples of our contractual work are our Student
Information System, which is crucial to the Longitudinal Data System
and many of the reforms we've been advancing recently, and the
servers that run the computers that allow you to submit electronic
reports. In addition, the line item that we use to investigate
alleged educator misconduct has been cut in half.
I'd like to express my thanks to all of you who have communicated
with your legislators abou t your priorities, both in the FY 2012
budget and the cuts that were being proposed in transportation for
the fourth quarter of FY 2011. Your continued dialogue with
lawmakers over the summer months will be important so that they
understand the impact these reductions will have on your students
and staff.
Finally, we did seek approval to pay fourth quarter Mandated
Categoricals from the Education Assistance Fund, which would have
expedited the payment, similar to what happened last year. The
provision to allow for this authority was included in Senate
Amendment 1 to House Bill 2189, to which the House of
Representatives did not concur.
Thanks for all you do during these challenging times for our
students.
Chris
|
