The Mercer County School District would be a big winner under an evidence based school funding formula getting attention in Springfield. The bill’s sponsor—State Senator Jason Barickman of Bloomington released numbers this week that show Unit 404 would receive $730,000 more in education funding or a 20-percent increase. State Representative Tony McCombie of Savanna is supporting the cause. She held a joint press conference with superintendents from the northwest Illinois area last week.
The evidence based approach is the result of the Governor’s Education Funding Task Force. The group completed its work earlier this year. McCombie says the evidence based system determines a funding target for each district, and then takes into account funding inadequacies. She says the state would then fund the difference between the targeted funding and the local capacity.