By Benjamin Yount    217-528-9844

SPRINGFIELD  –  Illinois schools are struggling with late state aid payments for this school year.  But lawmakers in Springfield are warning local districts that those payments may be more than just late next year.

At the first in what is expected to be a series of hearings, lawmakers on Tuesday detailed what could potentially be massive cuts to school funding in Illinois.

State Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia, D-Aurora, who heads a House education committee, said by the time lawmakers are done in May, schools could be looking at hundreds of dollars less per-student in state aid.

“The real price tag could be anywhere from $500 to $700 less,” said Chapa LaVia.

Last year, mainly because of federal stimulus dollars, Chapa LaVia’s committee shepherded a $160 per-student increase in state aid.  But those stimulus dollars have been spent, and Illinois lawmakers have to find new money to fill the gap.

State Rep. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, said that even without the stimulus money, trying to find billions of dollars in cuts in the classroom is the wrong thing to do.

“I think this is very cynical, and ridiculous to make a show like this.  As if this is the only choice.  This is the Democrats’ choice,” he said. 

Rose also said talk of the cuts is premature at best.  He wants lawmakers to look at the growth in Medicaid spending before turning their attention on school funding.

But Rose doubts it will even come to that.  Rose said he sees the rumored cuts as little more than a scare tactic to try and find support for an income tax increase later this spring.

“The general state aid formula is sacrosanct, and for good reason.  You don’t take this out of the hides of kids,” Rose said. 

He said local schools should not panic yet, though he does admit it will be difficult for the state to pay all of its bills this year.

State Rep. Jehan Gordon, D-Peoria, said even if the rumored cuts are a bluff, they have to be taken seriously.

Gordon, whose home school district in Peoria is trying to cuts its own way out of a deficit, said schools are just barely getting by right now.

“In Peoria we have schools that will close at the end of this year, and potentially next fiscal year they may have to look at closing additional schools because of the financial restraint that we’re feeling at the local, county, and state level,” said Gordon. 

Gordon said because many urban school districts, in Chicagoland and across downstate Illinois, are losing their property tax base, a cut in general state aid would hit them harder.

She too said the state is going to have to prioritize how it spends tax dollars, but believes taking money away from the classroom isn’t the best solution.

“The problems that we are facing down here are not made-up; they’re not problems that are going to be fixed with some magic trough of money that is sitting somewhere under the first floor of the Capitol….We have real problems that need real solutions,”  Gordon said.

But all solutions are on hold until Gov. Pat Quinn unveils his budget proposal next month.   Nothing will likely be final until lawmakers approve a new state budget at the end of this legislative session that’s scheduled for