Legislators call for Chicago Public Schools to play by the same education funding rules

Chicago Public Schools, or CPS, has been getting special treatment from the state for almost 20 years when it comes to funding for special education, transportation and nutrition programs. According to a recent report in the Belleville News-Democrat, CPS received $607 million in a special block grant from the state last year for these programs...

Chicago Public Schools, or CPS, has been getting special treatment from the state for almost 20 years when it comes to funding for special education, transportation and nutrition programs.

According to a recent report in the Belleville News-Democrat, CPS received $607 million in a special block grant from the state last year for these programs before the school year even started. The other 859 districts in the state have to submit expense claims and are reimbursed after the fact based on the number of students they serve.

If CPS had to abide by the same rules, it would have received $235 million less in state money.

State Reps. Dwight Kay, R-Glen Carbon, and Sandy Pihos, R-Glen Ellyn, have both called for the city to follow the same procedure the other 859 districts must follow to get reimbursed for their expenses.

A recent audit of CPS’s block grant shows the state is significantly overpaying the city. In fact, the district only devoted $249 million of last year’s money toward covering the expenses the grant is supposed to cover, even though it received more than $600 million in funding.

This is just another example of the special treatment CPS gets from the state when it comes to education funding.

A recent Illinois Policy Institute report showed the district has received hundreds of millions of dollars in special subsidies from the state:

• CPS received a $284 million subsidy in 2012 from the state as the result of policy that allows the district to underreport its property wealth when the state calculates how much funding it should receive.

• Chicago’s $10.1 billion in property value located in Tax Increment Financing, or TIF, districts is excluded from the education funding formula, meaning CPS received $264 million more in state education funding last year than it otherwise would.

These special carve outs are what happens when politicians are in charge of distributing money. That needs to stop – it’s time to put the power back into the hands of parents. They are the only people who should really be making decisions about what schools deserve funding.