As the spring legislative session has wrapped-up local lawmakers reflect on recent legislation.
47th District State Senator Jil Tracy says in regards to legislation that affects education – there’s always room for improvement.
She’s hopeful that with the new school funding, districts are able to pay more to teachers so that it attracts more.
But with Illinois being such a diverse state, Tracy tells WGIL that local school boards should be the ones that have the control over the district.
“Locally in our communities I think a school board is the one that should make the decisions and if you make a state mandate you just wave a broad brush stroke,” said Tracy. “Some of our rural districts the population is so sparse. They’re just hanging on to keep their school district in that town. And as we know if you lose your school in that community, often you’ll lose the town too. It just dwindles.”
Despite many local districts not receiving their 3rd or 4th categorical payments from the state, Tracy says she’s still pleased and is hearing positive things from her contacts with the State Board of Education.
Schools are listed as Tier 1, 2 or 3 – with Tier 1 being the most in-need. Tracy says most downstate districts are tier 1 or 2.
But she says with another $300 million dollars for schools in the newly passed state budget, lawmakers have prioritized pre-k through 12 schools, higher education and community colleges.
93rd District State Representative Norine Hammond reflected on the recently ended spring legislative session.
The Republican touched on highlights – from pension reform to the state’s backlog of bills.
Hammond says lawmakers are looking for significant savings with pension reforms that are “right for Illinois”.
“These are proposals that employees can opt for so it’s their decision on what they want to do with their pension dollars,” said Hammond. “Right there is expected savings in this year alone of nearly a half a billion dollars that will be in subsequent years as well.”
In talking about the state’s backlog of bills, Hammond says the state has made great progress.
She says a year ago, the backlog sat at $16 billion owed – and it’s been paid down to $7 billion owed currently.
Hammond says for a state the size of Illinois, it’s common to owe $2.5-$3 billion.
She says lawmakers are focused on allocated money that hasn’t been utilized in the budget and have targeted another $4 billion in bills to pay down.
