SPRINGFIELD, IL – State Sen. Chapin Rose (R-Mahomet) offered the following comments regarding legislation passed by the state Senate today.
“Last week, in committee I voted to provide immediate relief to our local school districts by ending many unfunded mandates. That vote was part of a bigger SB 16 school funding change that was voted on today by the full Senate. That positive step forward to end unfunded mandates; however, that measure was removed today. The remaining bill left a wide disparity between ‘winning’ schools and ‘losing’ schools in terms of funding levels throughout the 51st Senate District,” Rose said. “Moreover, SB 16 agreed to pick up the Chicago Public School teacher pension payment. This on the heels of pension reform which hit our local teachers especially hard and we are now being asked to put the exponential growth of CPS’s pensions – on the backs of Illinois taxpayers. That CPS pension reform plan has yet to face a vote. Moreover, as funding to K-12 remains flat under the Democrat supermajority budgets, more and more monies will be transferred north to CPS schools and away from our local schools over the long run.”