Giving Every Student the Education They Deserve

For decades, Illinois had one of the least equitable school funding formulas in the country with one of the lowest levels of state financial support. In 2015, The Education Trust, a national education advocacy organization, ranked Illinois’ school funding system worst in the nation for equity. For every dollar spent on a student who was not from a low income household, Illinois spent just 81 cents on a student who was from a low-income household, even as research shows that students with financial need benefit from additional support. Efforts to fix the formula date back to the 1990s, but the complexity of school funding and the state’s regional differences made it difficult to build consensus. With the support of Funding Illinois’ Future, school funding reform bills passed the Illinois Senate in 2014 and 2016. While the full passage and enactment of legislation was still out of reach, legislators from both parties acknowledged that the school funding system needed to be fixed.

In 2017, Funding Illinois’ Future brought together its largest coalition yet in the push for school funding reform, amplifying the message to “fix the formula” through myriad town hall meetings, press conferences, social media posts, letters to the editor and conversations with legislators. The coalition supported an evidence-based model as the vehicle for fixing the formula and driving resources to the neediest school districts in Illinois. On May 31, 2017 an evidence-based model passed the General Assembly as part of SB1, the first school funding reform bill to pass both chambers in 20 years. The coalition played a critical role and continued to press for the evidence-based model as the solution even as the Governor issued an amendatory veto of the bill on Aug. 1. The legislature came to a compromise solution a few weeks later, and a new, more equitable school funding formula was signed into law on Aug. 31, 2017.

The Evidence-Based Funding formula addresses some of the structural inequities within the Illinois K-12 education system, and since implementation, has successfully reduced the number of districts that are severely underfunded in Illinois. Indeed, as of FY23, more than $1.6 billion new dollars have been invested through EBF and into the schools that need funds most. However, there is still much work to do to reach adequate and full funding. In FY23, the state is more than $3.6 billion away from fully funding K-12 schools, and over half of Illinois’ students are still in districts with less than 75% of full funding. Funding Illinois’ Future remains steadfast in its support for Illinois’ public education system and ongoing need for statewide action to ensure all students have a high-quality education, regardless of their zip code.

​EBF calculates education costs based on student needs. Every year, the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) calculates a unique “Adequacy Target” for each school district based on that district’s student characteristics. These targets reflect the cost of providing research-based components of a high quality education, including resources needed to best meet the particular needs of students in special education, from low-income households, and English Learners

As part of final negotiations to pass EBF, the General Assembly agreed to (1) hold all districts financially harmless, and (2) put $350M new dollars into EBF every year for at least 10 years, with a goal of getting all districts to at least 90% adequacy by 2027. As intended, the largest share of new state dollars invested into the formula goes to school districts furthest from full funding. Indeed, 99% of new state funding in a given year goes to districts below 90% of full funding.

A four-tier system is used to categorize districts based on their final Percent of Adequacy and distribute funds accordingly. Funds available for each tier are based on the Funding Allocation Rate. Tier 1 contains districts furthest away from adequacy whereas Tier 4 contains districts with over 100% adequacy. The formula is relative and the Percent of Adequacy range for Tier 1 districts is calculated annually and is dependent on the overall range of adequacy for all districts. 99% of new EBF funds go to Tier 1 and 2 districts.

The formula maintains a Base Funding Minimum (BFM) for all districts based on their prior year funding. This structure has multiple benefits. It creates funding stability and predictability over time, ensuring districts will not lose dollars. At the same time, this initial “hold harmless” provision means that new dollars must to be added to the system in order to achieve equity.​ This is why the General Assembly agreed to invest at least $350M into EBF every year for at least 10 years and put a “minimum funding level” of $350M into law.

Every year, the General Assembly is tasked with increasing the state’s investment in K-12 schools by appropriating new funds to EBF. This investment is critical to support long-term school improvement, close longstanding funding disparities and build a healthy public education system​.