Requests for new K-12 funding in Illinois likely to outstrip available
resources
[November 24, 2025]
By Peter Hancock
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 uncertainty at the federal level.
ISBE board members were briefed on the funding requests during their
monthly meeting Thursday in Chicago.
Full EBF, categorial boost
The requests included continued funding of the statutory $350 million
increase in the Evidence-Based Funding formula, or EBF. That’s a formula
that lawmakers first approved in 2017 that directs new money to the most
underfunded districts in the state. It also directs money for property
tax relief for certain high-tax districts.
The EBF formula, however, does not include all areas of education
spending. It focuses primarily on classroom expenses directly related to
improving student outcomes, taking into account the special needs of
certain groups such as low-income households and English language
learners.
But schools also incur other costs, known as “mandated categorical
programs,” that are not covered by the EBF formula. Those include costs
associated with special education, transportation and school meals, to
name a few, and they are typically shared on a prorated scale between
the state and local districts.
The list of funding increases requested for next year included a $100
million increase in state funding for those costs.
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Members of the Illinois State Board of Education and Superintendent
Tony Sanders are pictured at a 2023 board meeting. (Capitol News
Illinois photo by Andrew Adams)
Matthew Seaton, ISBE’s chief financial officer, said the requested
increase in that category, sometimes referred to as MCATs, was the most
frequently mentioned funding request that officials heard about this
year.
“I think this is the first time, at least since I’ve been at the agency,
that our most requested budget item was in the MCAT line item,” he said.
“Usually, it’s EBF. Everybody wants EBF. So I think that’s very telling
to where the field’s perception is of needs, that they’re really
emphasizing mandated (categoricals) this year.”
New literacy plan, more
The request list also included $68.5 million for implementation of
ISBE’s new literacy plan, a program the board approved in 2024 to
improve literacy instruction throughout the state.
Other requests included an additional $30 million to hire more special
education teachers to relieve staff shortages; a $30 million increase
for multilingual education, and a $60 million increase in early
childhood block grants.
The list of requests included 51 categories of school spending, with
increases totaling $747.9 million.
Receiving public input for funding requests is one of the first steps in
developing a budget proposal for the upcoming year. In December, the
board will receive another briefing about the state’s financial
condition from the Commission on Government Forecasting and
Accountability, the fiscal staff of the General Assembly.
The board is expected to approve its official budget request at its Jan.
14 meeting in Springfield.
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