McHenry Times

School districts experiencing an unusually high rate of high school dropouts would receive extra funding under a bill that passed the House on Wednesday despite the financial fears of several Republicans, including Rep. Steve Andersson (R-Geneva).

“We’re broke,” Andersson said. “We can’t fund our schools right now. We did a stop-gap budget last year and that hasn’t really paid all the categoricals. One of the schools in my area ... didn’t received what it was supposed to under the stop-gap budget last year. How are we supposed to now add this to that already pending backlog of bills without a budget?”

SB446, introduced to the House by Rep. Cynthia Soto (D-Chicago), would provide twice the amount of funding relative to the Foundation Level, which is typically $6,119, to districts experiencing twice the dropout rate of the statewide average.

Soto said it would be an long-term investment to keep students in school and out of jail, but while Andersson approved of the goal, he said Illinois can't afford it. 

“It may be a good idea, [but] I honestly don’t know because this concept of doubling a number simply because of the dropout rate … I’m not sure where the data is to support that,” Andersson said. “But most importantly, like every other bill that we pass around here that is not subject to appropriation, we are spending more money that we don’t have on top of all the other money we’ve already spent that we don’t have. I would urge a 'no' vote.”

Andersson’s comments echoed many others' in the House and Senate, which passed the measure at the beginning of May. 

Sen. Dale Righter (R-Mattoon) argued that the bill will take away from districts that experience none of the dropouts. 

“Absent of a lot more money in the [school funding] formula, other districts, which do not experience twice the dropout rate, are going to be giving money up in order to pay for this,” Righter said.

SB446 passed the House 60-55.