State Senator Scott Bennett is hopeful that the logjam on funding Illinois schools can be cleared. But with the scheduled opening of schools only weeks away, he is not certain that will occur on time.
Bennett says Senate Bill 1, which has been approved by both the House and Senate, would be a windfall to some Vermilion County School Districts. ‘’For example, Danville Schools get $2.1 million dollars more than they got last year. Oakwood would get $300,000 more. Westville gets $550,000 more. I think Georgetown – Ridge Farm gets $416,000 more,’’ said Senator Bennett. ‘’We’re paying a lot of property taxes here. We’re excited about kind of seeing some of that money coming back to our communities. And that’s a lot of teachers we could hire, and a lot of computers we could put in the classrooms and all those things. So, if it passes it will be a really big win for our area.’’
However the bill has still not been forwarded from the Senate chambers to Governor Rauner – who has already said he will use his amendatory veto powers on it. The Governor is expected to get the bill on Monday.
Senator Bennett says Senate Bill 1 is an attempt to re-direct some of the funding for Illinois’ public schools. ‘’There are students here in Vermilion County where you get about $7,000 per student. O.K. That’s what the school gets,’’ said Bennett. ‘’There are areas in the (Chicago) suburbs that get four times that amount. So, I mean these kids are going to be competing for the same jobs – the same college admissions – all those things, and yet they’re going to have that kind of advantage. And let’s be honest about it, if you’re already in a wealthy community you already have other advantages that we don’t need to get into. But this is going to try to balance that out,’’ said Bennett.
On WDAN Radio’s Newsmaker’s program Thursday morning, Senator Bennett said he would like to see those involved in the funding deadlock sit down and talk. ‘’I think the ideal would be – lets all sit in a room and at least explain our positions. The Governor has the constitutional right to veto it if he wants to. We just want to make sure he understands that if you do this – he’s described before ‘well I can just cross out money for Chicago and then other places get that.’ That is not how government works. And so what ultimately would happen, if he crosses out anything and signs it – that bill’s dead until the legislature can pick it up and re-do it. And, I mean, Senate Bill 1 took a year to get done because of all the complication of all 800 school districts,’’ added Bennett.
You can listen to the entire interview with Senator Bennett on the homepage of VermilionCountyFirst.com.
