North Cook News

State Rep. Fred Crespo (D-Hoffman Estates) voted Wednesday night to bail out Chicago Public Schools (CPS), shifting state school funding from suburban districts.

Senate Bill 1, which passed 60-52 on partisan lines, would send at least $400 million more per year to CPS and take responsibility for funding its insolvent teachers' pension fund.

That fund, as reported by Chicago City Wire last week, is nearly $10 billion in the hole and is expected to run dry early next decade.

Most Senate and House members voted on the funding distribution measure without knowing how their local school districts would be impacted. 

By design, the bill's backers purposely avoided producing a district-by-district analysis ahead of the votes, for fear of losing support from legislators whose schools stood to lose out.

But context clues-- including the strong backing of pro-CPS legislators and lobbyists-- served as plenty of warning for most of them.

The last complete analysis of Senate Bill 1, produced last summer, showed all 39 of north Cook County school districts losing significant state funding. 

Communities represented by Crespo include Streamwood, Hoffman Estates and parts of Hanover Park, Schaumburg, Elgin and Bartlett.

The analysis said the school districts serving them will lose a combined $31.8 million in annual state funding if Senate Bill 1 became law.

According to the analysis, losing school districts include Schaumburg 54 (loses $12.2 million), Palatine 15 (loses $11.5 million), Township High School District 211 (loses $7.8 million) and Keeneyville 20 (loses $219,850).

To avoid local school cuts, communities would have to raise property taxes to replace those state dollars.

Bill supporters insisted that the bill analysis was incorrect because they had subsequently added a "hold harmless" provision, which would, at least temporarily, minimize the dramatic cuts to suburban districts. 

But that provision also assumed-- and required-- a massive increase in state funding to schools, which is next to impossible given the state's precarious financial situation.

Critics described the concept as spurious.

"(Senate Bill 1) is a disaster and moreover, it is deceptive," said State Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton).

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Is your school district a winner or a loser?

State Rep. Fred Crespo (D-Hoffman Estates) voted Wednesday for a measure that would redistribute the state's school funding dollars, shifting money from suburban districts to Chicago.

How would schools in his district-- which includes Streamwood, Hoffman Estates and parts of Hanover Park, Schaumburg, Elgin and Bartlett-- fare?

	State Funding
District	Current	Proposed	Difference
Schaumburg 54	$14,694,627	$2,452,048	-$12,242,579
Palatine 15	$13,761,281	$2,285,188	-$11,476,093
Township HSD 211	$9,995,332	$2,165,290	-$7,830,042
Keeneyville 20	$2,188,682	$1,968,832	-$219,850
TOTAL	$40,639,922	$8,871,358	-$31,768,564

Source: Illinois State Board of Education