Illinois Education officials brace for lean fiscal year ahead
[December 18, 2025]
By Peter Hancock
SPRINGFIELD – Illinois Superintendent of Education Tony Sanders
cautioned members of the State Board of Education Wednesday not to get
their hopes up for any big increase in K-12 school funding next year.
With economic forecasts projecting little or no growth in state revenues
over the next year and growing demands for increased spending in other
areas of state government, Sanders said the budget proposal he plans to
bring to the board in January is likely to be modest.
“I just want to level set for the board that as we bring in our budget
proposal asking for an increase in education funding, it’s coming at a
time there’s a lot of other fiscal pressures on state government,”
Sanders said. “So we’re keeping that in mind in our preparation.”
Sanders’ comments came after the board heard a briefing on the state’s
financial outlook for the year ahead as well as summary of all the
requests the agency has received for increased funding.
For the current fiscal year, spending on elementary and secondary
education is expected to total just under $11.2 billion, or about 20% of
the state’s entire $55.1 billion General Revenue Fund Budget.
Officials from the Commission on Government Forecasting and
Accountability, the nonpartisan fiscal staff of the General Assembly,
told the board that economists are expecting weak job growth in the year
ahead. They said that’s due in part to economic disruptions brought on
by President Donald Trump’s tariff policy.
They also said lower interest rates could result in reduced revenue for
the state. And there is great uncertainty about how much money the state
can expect to receive from the federal government due to changes in
federal budget policies.
“So, the bottom line overall is that without notable growth expected in
the state’s primary resources, and with no significant one-time revenue
streams on the horizon, … a relatively stagnant revenue outlook probably
should be anticipated this fiscal year,” COGFA’s revenue manager Eric
Noggle said. “So it’s not the best news for fiscal year ’27.”
[to top of second column]
|
Illinois State Board of Education CFO Matthew Seaton, left, funding
and disbursements director Andy Krupin and budget director Eileen
Turanchik brief the board on fiscal issues facing the state’s K-12
education system during a board meeting Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, in
Springfield. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Peter Hancock)
Education funding in Illinois
Under the Evidence-Based Funding plan that lawmakers passed in 2017,
K-12 education spending is supposed to increase by at least $350 million
each year, with the new money targeted to the most underfunded school
districts. That includes $300 million for direct educational expenses
and $50 million for property tax relief grants in high-tax districts.
But the K-12 education budget also includes funding for costs outside
the EBF formula, known as “mandated categorical” expenses. Those include
transportation costs, special education expenses and funding for the
state’s free lunch and breakfast program.
Due to budget limitations, for the last several years the state has
funded only a prorated portion of those costs, leaving local school
districts to pay the remainder out of their own revenues.
For the current fiscal year, the state budgeted to spend $1.17 billion
for those mandated categorical expenses. But Andy Krupin, ISBE’s
director of funding and disbursements, said preliminary estimates show
it will take an additional $151.5 million next year just to keep the
state’s prorated percentage of funding the same.
Wednesday’s briefings were just a preview of the official budget request
that Sanders will present to the board at its next meeting Jan. 14. That
request will be submitted to Gov. JB Pritzker, who will take it into
consideration as he prepares an overall budget proposal that he will
submit to the General Assembly in February.
Capitol News Illinois is
a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government
coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily
by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick
Foundation. |
