SPRINGFIELD, IL – (Greg Bishop, Illinois News Network. Please click on the link above for the full story. Here is an excerpt below.)
The first of four special session days called for by Gov. Bruce Rauner to address K-12 education funding begins today and the governor’s education secretary says using dollars meant for the classroom to pay for a neglected pension system is irresponsible.
Rauner’s Education Secretary Beth Purvis said the Democrats’ bill is an evidence-based plan, but it also provides hundreds of millions of dollars to Chicago Public Schools pensions above and beyond the funding formula.
Purvis said that in 1995, an agreement was made that, because the state didn’t pay for the cost of Chicago Public Schools pensions, it instead would send a block grant, which is about $250 million a year “that is over and above what they would otherwise get within the school funding formula.”
“And the idea was, ‘Chicago Public Schools, we’re going to give you that money and pay down your pensions’,” Purvis said. “Now CPS didn’t use that $250 million to pay down their pensions. In 11 of 25 years, they only made partial payment or no pension [payments].”
Speak Your Mind
You must be logged in to post a comment.