Superintendents Toolkit 2013

Unfunded Mandates

Background:

Between 1991 and 1999, Illinois imposed 12 unfunded mandates on public schools. Between 2000 and 2012, 110 unfunded mandates were required. Since the 2007-08 school year, schools have to comply with 63 more mandates.

Issue:

Despite unprecedented cuts to the state’s public education budget that saw General State Aid funded only at 89 percent of the foundation level in FY13 – and is projected to go as low as 80 percent in FY14 -- the list of unfunded mandates continues to grow and now tops more than 100. The mandates are costly and, in many cases, exceed federal mandates. Some of the major categories of unfunded mandates include special education, school transportation, Response to Intervention, and No Child Left Behind.

Resources:

 School Management Alliance unfunded mandates letter to legislators  Instructional Mandates Task Force Report -- 2011  Mandates enacted since 1992  Sample letter to editor – A Look at State Mandates (Dr. James T. Rosborg)  Sample spreadsheet showing cost of unfunded mandate (Dr. James T. Rosborg)

Talking points:

 While the intent of most

stringent than the longstanding federal mandate. It cost our district $ XXX,XXX a year. unfunded mandates end up competing with one another. All of the unfunded mandates coupled with shrinking budgets will mean larger general education class sizes at a time when the NCLB and Common Core Standards mandates require more individual instruction for students who need extra help to meet those standards.

mandates is laudable, school districts have no funding with which to implement them.  The end result of the budget cuts and the unfunded mandates is that many school districts have had to cut teachers and programs in order to comply with the mandates.  Many state mandates exceed federal mandates.  For example, in 2009 Illinois imposed its own mandate regarding a smaller class size for special education students. The state mandate was more

 The bottom line is that the