Senator Tracy says that while she and her colleagues remain committed to finding compromise on a school funding bill that fixes the state’s broken school aid formula, she will not support a vote this weekend on the Democrat majority’s Senate Bill 1—which masks a Chicago school bail out as funding reform. Voting to support Senate Bill 1 in its original form is the only vote the Senate will be allowed to take, according to the Democrat majority.
Senate Bill 1 in its current form directs hundreds of millions of extra dollars to one school district—Chicago Public Schools.
Stressing that time is off the essence, Tracy is calling for all sides to come together to find a compromise that represents real equity and treats all 852 school districts and all students fairly regardless of ZIP code. Until a new “evidence-based” school funding model mandated by the Fiscal Year 18 budget is put into place, public schools will not receive FY18 state funding.
The Illinois Senate is scheduled to convene on Sunday, August 13 at 2 p.m.