Adequate and equitable funding is an especially high-stakes policy priority for K1C and our parent advocates. Our work to fight for fair funding for CPS students will require a diverse coalition of voices to come together and demand more for students with the greatest needs.
In 2017, Illinois lawmakers passed into law an evidence-based funding model that will funnel more resources to under-resourced districts, which has laid the pathway to adequately funding all Illinois districts. However, at the current state funding levels, it will take another 25+ years for CPS to reach adequacy, and two generations of K-12 students will not have access to the resources that they need.
CPS is only funded at about 75% of what the state calculates its students require. Moreover, the 2017 law set a 10-year horizon to reach 90% of adequacy, which Illinois is unlikely to realize.
K1C is part of the statewide Funding Illinois Future Coalition, working to ensure that Illinois lawmakers fulfill their commitment to fully funding K-12 education by or before 2027. We also advise partners such as Chicago Public Schools on ways to deepen funding at the school levels, based on unique student needs.
About Our Evidence-Based Funding (EBF) Campaign
Chicago parents are speaking up at various CPS events to build support to fully fund the state’s EBF formula.
Identifying Barriers for Funding Advocacy
In the Spring of 2024, K1C held two strategy meetings with parent members who had been involved in work around funding Illinois’ K-12 evidence-based funding (EBF) formula. At these meetings, parents identified two interrelated barriers to effectively advocating for increased EBF funding:
A lack of awareness about EBF, and
Alack of confidence and understanding to promote EBF.
To address this issue, we developed a campaign to train an EBF speakers bureau of 20 parents who will engage with parents in public events (e.g. LSC meetings or parent universities) during the next legislative session.
What goes into EBF?
The EBF formula calculates an adequacy target, or the resources (teachers, librarians, etc.), and their associated costs that a school district needs to function. The EBF formula also calculates districts' current resources.
According to the state’s formula, CPS is underfunded by $1.2 billion. In other words, CPS is short about 300 nurses, 600 full-time librarians, and 10,000 core teachers. The State of Illinois promised to fully fund school districts by 2027. We are far from that goal because State leaders are not sufficiently increasing yearly EBF funding.
How to get involved
Attend a meeting and join our speakers bureau!
Join us at our monthly meetings and learn how you can join our EBF speakers bureau to help us build our capacity to fight for full funding.
Contact Jasmin Pizano Luna, Senior Policy Manager (jpizano@kidsfirstchicago.org), or Chris Poulos, Senior Manager of Research and Policy (cpoulos@kidsfirstchicago.org), for more information or to get involved today!