Greg Carney, Assistant Director of Local Government for the Illinois Farm Bureau

Chairman Leininger and members of the Funding Advisory Board I would like to thank you for this opportunity to address you regarding education funding in Illinois. My name is Greg Carney and I am the assistant director of local government for the Illinois Farm Bureau. The Illinois Farm Bureau represents over three quarters of the farmers and farmland owners in the state of Illinois. 

As many of you know the Illinois Farm Bureau has had a long involvement in education issues in Illinois. Many of you are probably familiar with CHIEF or Changing How Illinois Education is Financed. Illinois Farm Bureau President Ron Warfield was a member of the Ickenberry Commission and served on Governor Edgar's property tax panel. Mr. Wayfield is also a former school board president. Many of our county and state leaders are current or former school board members. 

Many rural school districts face the same plight as those we heard from in the south suburbs last week. That plight is low property values and high tax rates.

Illinois Farm Bureau policy calls for accountability, adequacy and equity in the way our schools are funded. I have attached our education policy for your further review.  The foundation level should be set with a method that utilizes high performing, low-cost districts as the benchmark. The foundation level and its methodology should be reviewed periodically to insure its continued accuracy. The foundation level should not merely be increased for inflation or by some arbitrary dollar amount. If that happens the basis for the foundation level becomes meaningless over time. 

We fully support the state funding the majority of the foundation level of elementary and secondary education. This funding can be accomplished through an increase in the state income tax. There should also be meaningful property tax reform in order to approve the fairness of our educational funding system. 

We support a "hold harmless provision" that ensures no district is harmed by any change made in the state aid formula. No formula can be devised that will assist all districts so to maintain level funding for districts that may receive less funding under a revised formula, a "hold harmless provision" need to be maintained. 

The continuing appropriation is an important means of ensuring that the state's obligation to fund education is meet before other obligations of the state. If the state does not met these obligations, local school districts will be forced to further increase their reliance on local property taxes to fund education.

The Illinois Farm Bureau also supports full funding of mandated programs proposing the mandate. We support the use of block grants over competitive categorical grants. 

The Illinois Farm Bureau stands ready to assist this panel, the administration and the General Assembly as it deals with this difficult issue that is vitally important to the future of our children and the state of Illinois. 

Again, I would like to thank you for this opportunity to add our voice to your discussion.   I wish you well on the challenges ahead.

Illinois Farm Bureau Policy on Education 

We will continue to place CHIEF (Changing How Illinois Education is Financed) as one of our highest priorities. 

To ensure quality education for all Illinois children, we endorse the principles of accountability, adequacy, and equity and will actively work to include these principles in any commission, task force, or legislative proposal.

ACCOUNTABILITY is the efficient use of taxpayers' dollars to provide a comprehensive education to achieve goals with measurable outcomes. 

It includes the size and structure of school districts, the operation/administration of school districts and performance of school districts in achieving desirable educational outcomes. 

We will:  

1.    Seek significant long-term solutions to the problems of financing a quality     education for all students through political, legislative, or judicial means.  

2.    Continue to support the School Recognition Process of 1991, including the   appropriate state funding.  

3.    Encourage teacher/staff professional development to improve teaching quality and to address challenges associated with the School Recognition Process.  

4.    Seek legislation to remove tenure and develop a merit program.  

5.    Support the goal of preserving and strengthening local control of schools. 

6.    Support school district reorganization when determined locally and if approved by front door referendum.  

7.    Support innovative pilot efforts that include creative partnerships with business and industry, higher education and government; encourage exploration of new ideas and new approaches to make schools more effective and efficient. Ideas and approaches should include, but not be limited to, CHOICE, Charter Schools, Distance Learning, and new approaches to Vocational Education and Special Education.  

8.    Support the evaluation of the intended goals of the "inclusion" policy of the Illinois State Board of Education to determine its effect on all students.  

9.    Support policies allowing local initiatives to increase ACADEMIC TIME such as restructuring the school day, calendar and schedule.  

10.   Support legislation that would allow local school districts the authority to decide whether to observe legal holidays as a day of non-attendance for students.  

11.   Encourage county Farm Bureaus to establish programs which assist members in understanding and participating in their schools. Such programs may include meetings with school boards and school administration to establish open communications about district operations, curriculum development, budgeting and finance.  

12.   Support full funding of state and federal education mandates by the entity    proposing the mandate.  

13.   Seek legislation limiting the requirement for schools to fund special education to the education component only. The State of Illinois should be required to provide housing and medical care within state or federal agencies.  

14.   Support legislation requiring a hearing by local school boards before levying a tax for Life Safety and Energy Conservation bonds if such bond issues exceed  $50,000.

15.   Study the need for legislation limiting use of funds that districts can levy without referendum approval. 

16.   Evaluate the legislation and rules concerning the waiver of mandates requested by local school districts. The legislature needs to evaluate each request on its own merit. 

ADEQUACY is financing education at a level sufficient to fund a comprehensive educational program. 

We will:   

1.  Support the concept of using a foundation level of funding determined by a method similar to that used by the Illinois Task Force on School Finance. This level should be based on the desired level of outcome.  

2.   Support the use of prior year Equalized Assessed Valuation (EAV) to provide accurate information for school budgeting and fiscal management. 

 3.   Support retention of categorical grants that address special needs and allow all schools to benefit. Revenue from other categorical grants, which are competitive, should be included in the general state aid formula.  

4.   Support a State funded capital program to assist school districts in modernizing existing facilities. This program should include funding for the Americans With Disabilities Act. 

EQUITY is fairness in educational opportunities for students and fairness in the way education is funded.  

We will:  

1.   Support the concept of leveling up (defined as reducing overall variation by       increasing the expenditure/revenue per student at the lower end of the distribution). 

 2.   Support meaningful property tax reform through increases in state revenue which may include revenue growth. Increases may be in addition to those needed to permit the state to provide a majority of the funds for the foundation level of per pupil spending.  

3.   Support an increase in the state income tax to permit the state to provide a majority of the funding for the foundation level of per pupil spending. It is recognized that when considering any such increase, it may be necessary to improve the fairness of the flat rate individual income tax by going to a graduated personal exemption.  

4.   Support a local individual income tax for education, by front door referendum.   The local income tax rate should be a fixed flat rate for all school districts. The revenues from such a tax could be used as local tax effort, to replace property tax revenues, to enrich educational opportunities above the foundation level or some combination thereof.  

5.   Support requiring an equitable local tax effort in every school district as an important part of achieving fairness in educational opportunities for students and fairness in the way education is funded.  

6.   Support increased State investment in technology to increase productivity, enhance student achievement, expand teaming time and staff development.

7.   Support efforts to improve and expand the curriculum and delivery of services in small and rural schools through development of a statewide two-way       telecommunication system or other means of communication technology.  

8.   Support and encourage cooperation between school districts through inter-governmental agreements.  

9.   Work with the State Board of Education to simplify grant application       requirements. If the State Board of Education fails to simplify the grant       application process, then we will support legislation making the changes.