From the Desk—Back to School 2024: What the School Year Holds, and What We’re Watching

Back-to-school season is a busy and exciting time for families and students across the state. The energy in the air is palpable – and policy leaders are feeling it, too, with big changes underway this fall in early childhood education and care, and as the state considers whether a new funding system is on the horizon for higher education. Here’s what we are watching and working on this fall! 

The New Illinois Department of Early Childhood:  A First Step toward Transformational Change 
As of July 1, 2024, Illinois has a stand-alone, integrated Department of Early Childhood (IDEC)! It was wonderful to pause over the summer to celebrate this accomplishment – one of several critical recommendations from the 2021 Illinois Commision on Equitable Early Childhood Education and Care Task Force! As the new school year begins, the state has less than two years of transition time to tackle other essential Commission recommendations: (1) that Illinois move toward more adequate and equitable funding overall, (2) that it adopt new funding mechanisms that make it easier for families and providers to access and navigate the system, (3) that we grow the pipeline into the profession while improving wages and benefits, and (4) that we improve data collection and develop relevant, annual reports that help inform practice and policy.  While the search for a permanent IDEC Secretary is underway, the transition moves forward under Transition Director, Ann Whalen, and Acting Secretary, Irma Martinez Snopek, with regional listening sessions continuing through September and new Transition Workgroups starting up.   

As a member of the Transition Advisory Committee, we will be following along and paying close attention to all developments. If you are interested in getting involved, all Transition Advisory Committee working groups are now public, and we invite you to listen in and share your perspective on what transformational change can look like within the new agency. The meeting schedule is posted on IDEC’s new website. 

K-12: Consistency is Key, but Is It Enough to Sustain Recovery? 
It seems hard to believe, but we just passed the 7-year anniversary of the Evidence-Based Funding for Student Success Act. The funds that have flowed through EBF have made a tremendous difference across the state, and in conjunction with federal relief dollars, contributed to districts’ ability to respond to the pandemic. As we look toward the 2024 Illinois Report Card, we hope and expect to see progress on learning outcomes. Indeed, we are heartened by findings from IWERC’s learning renewal reports.  As one might expect, the reports show that schools that were low-performing and less well-funded going into the pandemic were the most deeply impacted by COVID disruptions (i.e., saw the steepest academic declines). However, the study also reveals that these districts have been making the fastest recovery. That is heartening news, though it is important to note that the same data make clear that we are not yet fully recovered. As importantly, even when we have once again reached pre-pandemic performance, student outcomes will still be far from where they need to be, and ongoing gaps by race, income, language and more remain significant. So as districts see ESSER funds disappear this year, and grapple with the impact of a projected ~$500M decline in local revenues through the Corporate Personal Property Replacement Tax (CPPRT), EBF is more important than ever. If our goal is learning ‘renewal’, not just ‘recovery’, we need to dig deep and find the dollars it takes. 

Higher Education: On the Path to Adequate and Equitable Funding 
At a special press conference and roundtable event this July, Senate Majority Leader Kimberly Lightford, joined by her colleague, Rep. Carol Ammons, announced the filing of SB3965 (Adequate & Equitable Funding Formula for Public Universities), a bill that brings to life the Recommendations of the Illinois Commission on Equitable Higher Education Funding. The recommendations are the product of over two years of dedicated investigation, discussion, research, data analysis, modeling, and more – a process that created a blueprint for how Illinois can reimagine the way it funds public universities. The bill introduces a groundbreaking student-centered, adequacy-based public university funding formula to replace the outdated, politically-driven process. This new formula is focused on what universities need to support student success – adjusting funding based on deep and persistent equity gaps and designed to support each university’s unique mission. Importantly, the bill calls for new funding to close longstanding and significant statewide funding gaps, and while all universities get new dollars, the formula ensures that institutions furthest from adequacy are prioritized to accelerate them toward full funding.  SB3965 also includes a robust framework for accountability and transparency, ensuring new investments support students and advance state goals. Having served on the Commission, I am thrilled to support this equitable approach to university funding, accountability, and transparency. Further, we are delighted that the Illinois Community College Board (ICCB) has launched an Adequacy and Equity in Community College Funding Working Group to examine how the state’s two-year colleges might also re-think the funding and supports so essential to the thousands of students who enroll each year. The need is clear on all fronts, the energy and momentum are building, and we look forward to making concrete progress in the coming year. 

Two Additional Things We're Excited About This Fall 
COVID shined a light on the need for Illinois to develop a truly systemic approach to student mental health and well-being. The Resilience-Supportive Schools Roadmap represents an important step in the right direction. The Roadmap builds on the Resilience Education to Advance Community Healing (REACH) pilot and the Social-Emotional Learning Hubs, offering a guide for schools and districts to self-assess where they are in becoming trauma-informed, and resources they can use to develop stronger supports, programs and systems to address student mental health and well-being. These quality resources, together with a coherent and overarching structure, can and should be a game changer for countless students and communities across our state.  

We are also excited that The Illinois State Board of Education has launched “The Answer is Teaching” campaign. The campaign is designed to elevate the teaching profession and recruit new teachers, and by all accounts it is off to a strong start. We’ve heard radio ads and seen highway billboards directing us to “See What Makes Teaching a Great Job - ISBE (becomeateacher.com).”  We especially love the messaging around teaching as a career that lets you impact the lives of students (and your own!) and lead in your community. On top of that, the simple, straightforward portal helps future teachers take the next step – and over 2,000 people have done just that! And we’re glad to see the specific call outs to areas of greatest need: rural and urban public schools, special education and bilingual classrooms. Teaching is a challenging, intellectual, dynamic, high-impact profession, but it isn’t always seen that way. We hope the campaign will uplift the profession and inspire and connect the next generation of classroom leaders to enter the field of education and start making a difference! 

In Conclusion... 
There is a lot of important work underway in Illinois, and more to come. Whether it is finding a way to give student teachers stipends, or building a stronger pipeline into school counseling, nursing, psychology, or social work, Illinois has proven that it is willing to innovate and to take action to prioritize our children. Indeed, we have become a national leader on many fronts. Here is to another year of focus and achievement, in the classroom and in the statehouse.