Regional Offices of Education
November 17, 2011
UPDATE
SB 2147: PASSED 59-0 by the Senate and 70 to 43 in the House on November 10th, the last day of the fall Veto Session.
As a result, Regional Office of Education Superintendents will be paid from July 1st, 2011 through June 30th, 2012 with funds from Corporate Personal Property Tax Replacements. Before the end of June, a task force will be expected to make recommendations for the future role and funding of the ROE. Although it is estimated that only 1% of Personal Property Tax Replacement funds will be used for this purpose, this still imposes an undue hardship on cash-strapped communities as they struggle to fund schools and other services.
While the League is happy to see the Superintendents finally receive their salaries for performing state-ordered school services, the funding source further accentuates inequities among school districts in the state. It is hoped that the task force will recommend that, beginning July 1st, funding by the state will be restored. Please contact your state legislators and thank them for their vote on this important matter but remind them that using the Corporate Personal Property Tax Replacements is not the optimum solution citing the reasons above.
November 6, 2011
ACTION
Contact both of your state legislators – your senator and your representative. Ask them to call a special session immediately to override Governor Quinn's veto. At the very least, during the veto session which begins in October, the legislature should override the governor’s veto of funding to Regional Offices of Education and their Superintendents.
For further information, please contact one of the Issues Specialists at issues@lwvil.org.
RATIONALE
Governor Quinn has cut $9.1 million from the budget that would have provided salaries for the Regional Office of Education (ROE) superintendents and their assistants. This includes $2.2 million from the ROE operations budget. Superintendents and their offices must be funded until such time as the state and legislators no longer expect them to fulfill duties.
With the defunding of Regional Offices of Education, Illinois has no funded entity responsible for essential tasks related to the safety in our schools including inspecting public and private schools for health and safety factors. ROEs also provide important safety services such as bus driver training.
ROEs are responsible for such diverse and important tasks as checking teacher certification and background, GED certification, truancy services, alternative education, and helping districts align the new Common Core Standards, among other important duties not fulfilled by school districts.
|
