LM May 2016

Fulfilling the Promise of Public Education

Illinois Evidence-Based School Funding Formula targets equity and adequacy

several months of study, the Vision 20/20 committee recommended the Illinois Evidence-Based Funding Model created by professors at the University of Wisconsin (Dr. Allan Odden) and the University of Southern California (Dr. Lawrence Picus). That model currently is being used in states such as Maryland, Vermont and Wyoming and was studied and vetted in 2010 by the Illinois School Finance Adequacy Task Force -- a broad-based, bipartisan group of educators, legislators, the business community, advocacy groups and taxpayers. Unlike models that use foundation levels and

Like most who have studied the issue of school finance in Illinois, the coalition of front-line educators, board members and business officials that developed Vision 20/20 came to an inevitable conclusion: The school funding formula needs to be changed – and in a way that goes beyond rearranging the arbitrary weights that drive the current formula. The goal of providing equitable and adequate funding for public schools became one of the four main pillars of the Vision 20/20 document, a blueprint for the future of public education in Illinois. After