The state owes West Frankfort schools $7.7 million
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
By Tim Aldridge, behavior interventionist in West Frankfort schools and president of AFT Local 817
I work as a behavior interventionist in our schools, and I lead our teachers’ union local, AFT Local 817, so I’ve watched this play out from both sides. This spring, the district cut 12 full and part-time positions. Without full funding, our district projected a deficit between $700,000 and $900,000 and cut staffing in schools already operating to the bone.
West Frankfort has never had much of a local tax base to fall back on. The coal mines that used to drive this economy closed decades ago, and nothing else came in to replace them. We don’t have new subdivisions or big retail centers padding the property tax rolls the way other towns might. Every kid in our district qualifies for free lunch. That’s exactly why the state formula is supposed to matter here. It’s asking the state to follow the law and make sure education in towns like ours can still meet the grade.
Evidence-Based Funding was supposed to be the fix for exactly this kind of gap and give equal opportunity to our young people no matter what zip code they grow up in. Instead, the Governor and General Assembly have funded it at close to the statutory minimum almost every year since 2017, and last year lawmakers appropriated $43 million less than the minimum required. As a result, nearly 8 out of 10 Illinois districts are below where the state’s own formula says they should be.
Illinois lawmakers wrote this formula in 2017 with a deadline for coming into compliance next year. Gov. Pritzker and the current General Assembly should fund it the way it was promised. Until they do, our kids in West Frankfort, and kids in underfunded districts across the state, are the ones paying for it, one missing position, decades-old textbook or borrowed ballfield at a time.
