Advance Illinois Applauds Governor Pritzker's Support of Appropriating $350 Million for the Evidence-Based Funding Formula for FY22

Contact:
Advance Illinois Communications
communications@advanceillinois.org

CHICAGO, IL – Based on improved revenue projections and state finances, Governor Pritzker today announced that he supports appropriating $350 million in general revenue funds for the Evidence-Based Funding formula for FY22. We applaud his proposal, as putting $350 million of state dollars into the school formula will allow districts to make the long-term investments necessary to create strong, sustainable educational programs. We thank the governor for his efforts to keep the state’s commitment to Illinois’ students. 

Over half of Illinois students are being educated in districts with less than 70 percent of full funding. There is a clear equity imperative to resume and continue state funding for EBF – students from low-income households and Black and Latinx students are disproportionately concentrated in districts that are the furthest from full funding. 

Unlike short-term federal funds, appropriating state dollars for EBF will support the deeper ongoing staffing and programmatic investments that are needed to drive student success into the future. Fully funding EBF allows schools to use relief dollars as intended: to safely reopen schools for in-person learning and support students socially, emotionally and academically as they recover from the many ways in which COVID-19 has disrupted their development and learning. 

We appreciate the governor’s leadership and that of legislators who have steadfastly championed the importance and urgency around funding EBF with state dollars. Our children’s futures require dependable and growing investments, and they are counting on us to keep our promises now more than ever. We applaud this support and urge the General Assembly to keep up the momentum and approve a budget that fully funds EBF. Let’s give our students the education they deserve. 

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About Advance Illinois
Advance Illinois is an independent policy and advocacy organization working toward a healthy public education system that enables all students to achieve success in college, career and civic life. Since its founding in 2008, Advance Illinois has become a nationally recognized thought leader in education policy advocacy. To learn more, visit advanceillinois.org.

Advance Illinois Applauds the Governor’s Early Childhood Funding Commission Report

Contact:
Advance Illinois Communications
communications@advanceillinois.org

CHICAGO, IL – Today, Governor Pritzker announced important first steps towards the implementation of heavy-hitting recommendations in Ready Illinois: Simpler, Fairer, Better, a monumental report released by the Illinois Commission on Equitable Early Childhood Education and Care just two weeks ago. The Commission’s report details critical funding, allocation, and governance structures needed for a strong, unified system able to ensure Illinois’ youngest children and families have equitable access to high-quality programs and services.  The report's three primary recommendations include: 

• A long-term funding goal for policymaking, which will serve as a NorthStar for building an equitable and adequate system of funding to increase access, quality and workforce compensation.  

• Centralization and coordination of early childhood education and care (ECEC) funding, which will allow the state to more equitably distribute funding and create greater stability and predictability for providers (which in turn means better services for children and families).

• Creation of a new state agency with a regional and community infrastructure, bringing together ECEC programs across state agencies to support and facilitate a more coherent, well-functioning system for providers, the workforce, children and families.

Advance Illinois applauds the creation of an “Early Childhood Transformation Team” to ensure that the Governor’s Office has the staffing needed to begin the work of moving from recommendations to on the ground implementation.

Among other things, the Transformation Team will start by setting up a regional and community infrastructure in the state, a down payment on realizing a full system of unified governance. The regional and community infrastructure will allow the state to support COVID-19 recovery efforts and future growth of the ECEC system, while ensuring the state recognizes local differences in need as it plans for a new agency.

Advance Illinois is also delighted that IDHS is elevating early childhood education and care services through the creation of an independent division within the agency. This status permits the new division to focus specifically on young children. We recognize this consolidation as another important step toward centralizing and coordinating early childhood governance and services.  

We celebrate the commitment of the Governor to make Illinois the best state in the nation to raise families with young children, and we stand ready to support the administration in these first steps toward transforming the early childhood education and care system in Illinois.

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About Advance Illinois
Advance Illinois is an independent policy and advocacy organization working toward a healthy public education system that enables all students to achieve success in college, career and civic life. Since its founding in 2008, Advance Illinois has become a nationally recognized thought leader in education policy advocacy. To learn more, visit advanceillinois.org.

Advance Illinois Responds to Governor Pritzker’s Proposed FY22 Budget

Contact:
Advance Illinois Communications
communications@advanceillinois.org

CHICAGO, IL – Illinois faces serious budgetary challenges, which have been exacerbated by the dramatic impact of COVID-19. It will not be easy to address the many and varied issues that pre-existed the pandemic and have been compounded by it. 

Governing is hard, and we do not envy the governor or members of the General Assembly who have difficult decisions to make. While we understand the competing pressures on the state’s limited resources and applaud additional funding for MAP grants, it is nonetheless disappointing that the proposed budget contains cuts for some early childhood programs, and, for the second year in a row, calls for mostly flat funding across the education continuum, including no new funds for the Evidence-Based Formula (EBF). 

There is nothing easy about the coming year’s budget, and we believe Governor Pritzker is committed to increasing education funding for early childhood education and care, K-12and higher education. And this we know: education is the single most important investment we can make in our children and our future. It’s why we passed the Evidenced-Based Funding formula five years ago, and it’s why we committed as a state to put at least $350 million new dollars into that formula every year for ten years. 

No one could have foreseen COVID-19 and the growing impacts of the pandemic, and it has unquestionably made it harder to keep this commitment.  It also has made the road ahead harder for all children and deepened already unacceptable racial, economic, and regional disparities. 

Federal funds meant to facilitate school reopening and early recovery will help. But make no mistake, relief dollars are needed to address immediate and ongoing COVID-19-related issues such as health and safety measures, closing the digital divide to permit all children access to virtual learning, and short-term efforts to provide additional academic, social and emotional supports. These one-time federal funds are not meant to support the deeper ongoing staffing and programmatic investments that are needed to drive student success into the future. The same holds true for early childhood education and care, universities and community colleges. 

We are heartened to hear that legislators plan to prioritize education funding. Our children’s futures require dependable and growing investments, and they are counting on us to keep our promises now more than ever. As circumstances continue to evolve, we urge the General Assembly to exhaust every means possible to uphold the state’s commitment to not only maintain education funding, but to continue to grow it for children birth through career. 

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About Advance Illinois
Advance Illinois is an independent policy and advocacy organization working toward a healthy public education system that enables all students to achieve success in college, career and civic life. Since its founding in 2008, Advance Illinois has become a nationally recognized thought leader in education policy advocacy. To learn more, visit advanceillinois.org.

Advance Illinois Applauds Passage of HB2170, Education Omnibus Bill

Contact:
Advance Illinois Communications
communications@advanceillinois.org

CHICAGO, IL – Advance Illinois applauds the leadership of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus in passing HB2170. HB2170, also known as the Education Omnibus Bill, represents an important step in advancing racial equity in Illinois' education system. As a whole, the bill is designed to increase educational access and opportunities for Black students, other students of color and students from low-income households throughout the state. 

As part of the Black Caucus’ ambitious agenda, which also tackles criminal justice reform, health care and human services reform and expansion of economic opportunity in Illinois, HB2170 focuses on policies that address the longstanding racial injustices in our birth to career education system. Under the leadership of Senate Majority Leader Kimberly A. Lightford and Representative Carol Ammons, members of the Black Caucus, along with education and racial justice advocates, worked together to develop a comprehensive legislative package to advance racial equity in Illinois’ early childhood programs, schools and higher education institutions. From supporting the goals of the Commission on Equitable Early Childhood Education and Care Funding to automatic enrollment for qualified students in advanced courses to amending the Minority Teachers of Illinois (MTI) scholarship program to prioritize Black male candidates and diversify the teacher pipeline, this legislation seeks to ensure that high-quality education is the norm and not the exception for all students, especially Black students. 

"The passage of HB2170 serves as an important step toward educational equity for Black students in Illinois,” says Robin Steans, President of Advance Illinois. “I am heartened the Illinois Senate and House passed this legislation, taking action on issues that will foster significant change and advancement for our students.”   

Steans continues, “We congratulate Sen. Lightford, Rep. Ammons and the ILBC for their leadership. Their tireless work was key in galvanizing support and input from advocates and experts and carrying the bill over the finish line. While there is still work to be done, the measures it contains are a critical step to ensuring students of color and students from low-income households will have access to the high-quality education they deserve.”

Advance Illinois prepared a summary of key articles within HB2170 and other education-related bills passed by the general assembly. 

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About Advance Illinois
Advance Illinois is an independent policy and advocacy organization working toward a healthy public education system that enables all students to achieve success in college, career and civic life. Since its founding in 2008, Advance Illinois has become a nationally recognized thought leader in education policy advocacy. To learn more, visit advanceillinois.org.

Advance Illinois Statement on the New Illinois Educator Preparation Profile System

Contact:
Advance Illinois Communications
communications@advanceillinois.org

CHICAGO, IL – Starting in 2015, ISBE leadership brought together a diverse set of stakeholders to create a tool that would, for the first time, shed light on the workings and impact of Illinois’ teacher and principal preparation programs. While much is known about the outcomes of our PK-12 system and is publicly available online, there has not been a central source for information about the diversity, systems and outcomes of our state’s teacher and principal preparation programs. After years of hard work, this week ISBE launched the Illinois Educator Preparation Profile (IEPP) interactive tool. This new interactive tool provides a comprehensive window into all approved educator preparation programs across Illinois. Better still, it presents a range of relevant data in a user-friendly format.    

Having helped shepherd the planning along the way, Advance Illinois is delighted that the new profiles are now available to students, policymakers and leaders of preparation programs alike. With more than 50 Illinois colleges and universities offering more than 700 teacher preparation programs, IEPP will serve as a significant tool in recognizing and supporting programs that produce the diverse and learner-ready teachers that our students deserve. It will also permit policymakers to better understand areas of strength and growth, as we work as a state to make deeper and smarter investments in our educator pipeline. We congratulate ISBE and the many educators, principals, teachers, higher education leaders and others who put in years of work to launch the Profile, and ultimately, make it a success. Used wisely, the IEPP is an additional tool to build an educator pipeline in Illinois that continuously improves to become stronger, more diverse and equitable for all.

At Advance Illinois, we would like to extend our gratitude to parents, educators and workers on the front-lines as they have gone above and beyond to serve their students and their communities. Together, we will work to help ensure a successful future for each student.  

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About Advance Illinois
Advance Illinois is an independent policy and advocacy organization working toward a healthy public education system that enables all students to achieve success in college, career and civic life. Since its founding in 2008, Advance Illinois has become a nationally recognized thought leader in education policy advocacy. To learn more, visit advanceillinois.org.