Pending budget uncertainty affects local schools, including GES

Legislative uncertainty over education funding can have an effect on small school budgets as well as large ones – including charter schools like Cook County’s Great Expectations. School director Peter James...

James: “Obviously we are as affected as anyone in conversations about changing per-pupil funding. That aspect of our funding is the lion’s share of our funding. It’s the same formula as any district, including ISD166. There are other aspects of funding, things that are in the mix and more specialized for charter schools and address issues like the fact that we can’t borrow money to build a building. But the uncertainty is what’s plaguing all of us. It’s very difficult to make plans, particularly programming and staffing plans when you’re really not sure how much money you’ve got coming in.”

Gov. Mark Dayton’s budget plan is strong on education. But money already shifted away from local districts may not show up on balance sheets for as many as three years.

James: “The other piece of it is the holdbacks. In no other setting do I recall where people promise to pay you for performing a service and say, ‘except, we’re only going to pay you a portion of that and we’ll pay the rest of it later.’ It really seems difficult and places a burden on us and we really do have to go out and borrow that money.”

James said that he welcomes new programs affecting better delivery of education to students, but they still need to be paid for.

James: “And I understand the idea of proposing funding for full-day Kindergarten – which is a great thing – we provide and ISD166 provides full-day Kindergarten in our county and it makes sense, but we don’t receive full funding for those pupils and that programming. The reality is the government is facing a huge shortfall -- $6.2 billion projected – it’s tough to close that gap without addressing education. I think the governor is stating his opening gambit; the legislature is looking for its options. Who knows where we’re going to fall out.”

James cautioned against becoming cynical in the face of the political maneuverings that accompany legislative budget setting. He said rather it’s a time to become pro-active.

James: “And some of the reality is that politics enter into this decision. The governor states his point of view, the legislature states theirs, they negotiate and compromise and who knows what goes into why they decide to ultimately what to fund and how much? But I think that people are wrong in giving up a sense of ownership of that. We’ve elected people to those offices; we have points of view we want represented through those representatives. I think we’re selling ourselves and our community short if we just give up and say it’s all politics and I’ll be what’s it’s going to be and it’s just the loud, rich or powerful that have a say in things and then I think that falls to our community to step forward and say to our representatives, ‘this is what we think, this is what we want, this is what we have as our priorities. You know it’s surprising that the legislators that I’ve talked to – how few people they do hear from and how important those personal contacts are.”

He added that public radio and local newspapers are a way for people to speak up. James summed it up this way:

James: “Act out of strength and what you care for and not out of fear.”