Requests for new K-12 funding in Illinois likely to outstrip available resources – Shaw Local

SPRINGFIELD — If advocates, stakeholders and members of the public were granted all their requests for public school funding next year, lawmakers would have to increase the state’s K-12 education budget by nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars.

That’s the approximate total of all the requests that Illinois State Board of Education officials received online and in-person during a recent series of public hearings about a proposed budget for the next fiscal year.

The total is considerably smaller than last year’s requests , which added up to more than $2.2 billion in new funding. But it is still more than what is likely to be available, given that Gov. JB Pritzker is asking most state agencies to make plans for reducing spending by 4% in the current fiscal year in light of fiscal