Under the Previous System...

Illinois Funding being linked to Property taxes is the most regressive system and the antequated formula for "General State Aide" (or GSA) sets up an unfair system. In addition, this unfair system was not fully funded for the fiscal years 2011-2015 (5 years total) causing proration and exacerbating the issues. Here are the facts regarding Murphysboro CUSD 186

The "foundation level" for funding is $6119 per child and this number has not changed since the 2009-2010 School year. So when the costs to educate students kept going up our revenue remained flat.
This "foundation level" was not fully funded for 5 years with this last year (FY16) being the first time we got the full 2010 amount. This totaled a loss of 4.2 Million dollars from the state simply not paying us what we were owed.
We continued to provide the best education we could eating into our fund balances and making reductions anywhere we could but this can only last for so long.

We have been forced to make reductions because of this. Our fund balances have been depleated. The time for change to our system is now.

By Chris Grode