LM Feb 2025

Evidence-Based Funding Primer:

Superintendents Should Know

By Robert Wolfe | IASA Compliance Plus Co-Facilitator, Former CFO of ISBE

Fiscal Year 2025 is the eighth year of Evidence-Based Funding (EBF) as the primary source of state funding for Illinois school districts. This funding model transformed Illinois education, replacing an era of unpredictable General State Aid proration that forced districts to operate on skeletal budgets, unable to hire needed staff, expand educational programs or provide essential student supports. The impact of EBF has been groundbreaking. Since its implementation in Fiscal Year 2018, the formula has channeled $2.179 billion through its tier funding system, dramatically improving educational equity across the state. The results speak volumes: districts achieving at least 90 percent adequate funding have jumped from 22.7% in FY 2018 to 37.3% in FY

2025 — representing hundreds of thousands of students gaining access to better-resourced education. While these achievements are significant, we’ve reached an interesting inflection point in Illinois education leadership. The majority of current superintendents have known only the EBF era, having never navigated the challenges of pre-EBF budgeting. With an average of 75 new district administrators joining the ranks annually — approximately 600 new superintendents over the past eight years — there’s a critical need to preserve institutional knowledge about this funding system. To help less experienced superintendents have a better understanding of how the formula works, IASA asked me to craft an article explaining the main tenants of EBF. Before

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LM Feb 2025