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the Mokena Messenger | December 7, 2017 | 5
Education focus of Rep. Margo McDermed’s town hall meeting
Megann Horstead
Freelance Reporter
Every parent wants to see
their child succeed. How one
goes on to achieve this aim
differs.
With the recent passing of
the Every Student Succeeds
Act and Evidence-Based
Funding Formula, Rep.
Margo McDermed, joined
by Illinois State Board of
Education representatives,
set out to engage the public
by hosting a forum Nov. 29.
The event, hosted at the
Frankfort Township office,
served as the third of three
town hall meetings planned
for the 37th District this year.
The state of education in
Illinois has seen a number of
changes this year.
“Because education is
so important to folks here
in the 37th District, I want
to make sure that we hear
from experts exactly what
those changes are, what
they’re going to mean for
our school professionals, …
what it’s going to mean for
our parents and our taxpayers,
and what it’s going to
be mean for our students,”
McDermed said.
Lawmakers in Springfield
passed a new funding
formula for K-12 education
in August. Over time, it became
less equitable to the
state’s schools, in part, because
of changes in education
and demographics. The
last time the bill saw significant
change occurred 20
years ago.
“We needed to update
that, and it took a long time
to build consensus to move
forward to that,” McDermed
said. “Those of you who
have been active in education
know how difficult that
is to bring everyone to the
table and get some agreement
when the needs of people
who live in rural areas,
suburban areas and urban
areas — in terms of funding
and the student body — are
all different.”
The new funding formula
is meant to open up more
dialogue between the school
districts and their constituents
to ensure that needs are
being met with the resources
they are afforded. Beginning
next year, school districts
will be required to submit
annual spending plans along
with their budgets to highlight
how they’re spending
their money.
If a gap exists in terms of
meeting the needs of students,
the state works to allot new
money to promote equity.
School districts fall along
a continuum showing those
with the highest to lowest
needs.
Another change arose
this past summer with the
introduction of new federal
“Because education is so important to folks here in
the 37th District, I want to make sure that we hear
from experts exactly what those changes are, what
they’re going to mean for our school professionals,
… what it’s going to mean for our parents and our
taxpayers, and what it’s going to be mean for our
students.”
Margo McDermed — State Representative, on why she hosted the education
town hall Nov. 29
legislation called the Every
Student Succeeds Act.
This measure repeals the
No Child Left Behind Act,
enacted in 2001, and it aims
to drive the conversation on
how schools are evaluated.
“It’s often easy to forget
that in some ways it was a
really important piece of
civil rights legislation that
was trying to communicate
we care about every child,
but the way that NCLB expressed
that was by testing
every single child and led to
what many have described
as an assessment regime,
where some of the focus in
classroom was moving away
from teaching and more towards
the testing without
the relationship that should
exist there,” said Sara Shaw,
senior manager of fiscal and
academic solvency for the
State Board of Education.
“Ideally, you test to make
sure that kids have learned.”
The Every Student Succeeds
Act aims to take the
positives derived from the
No Child Left Behind Act
and build on them in a more
holistic manner. It outlines a
set of indicators describing a
district’s accountability with
a focus on the overall contributions
of a school, as well
as subgroups.
“The point, here, is to open
up conversation,” Shaw said.
“Sarah [Hartwick] referred
to the cost factors in the evidence-based
funding formula
and stimulating conversation
between communities and
districts about where money
is going for what effect. Because
we care about our kids
and we want to know how
it is that we’re supporting
them, having a summative
designation is going to help
the state target resources to
those who need it most, and
it also creates this conversation
in the community, so that
parents who are looking at
where their child is going can
say, ‘OK, I understand where
my school is right now, and I
can understand where I want
it to be, or I can understand
what my child can do within
this school.’”
The evidence-based funding
formula equips schools
across the state with $350
million in new money.
“State Board of Education,
to kind of say what
we’re doing right now to
get money out the door is a
very, very complicated and
a huge shift, and the lateness
of when it was signed kind
of pushed the State Board of
Education in a difficult position
in that we wanted to get
money out to districts,” said
Sarah Hartwick, co-director
for legislative affairs for the
State Board of Education.
When the bill was passed,
school districts missed two
of their mandated state categorical
payments.
The evidence-based funding
formula will require
continued appropriations
from the general assembly
moving forward to ensure
that schools are afforded the
money they need.
Currently, school districts
are at least receiving the
base minimum funding they
received last year, plus two
categorical payments are allotted
each month. They take
in revenue in the form of general
state aid, stop-loss grants
and several other line items.
“I believe, and was a supporter
of the bill, because
I do feel that by looking at
evidence of what drives successful
education outcomes
and by funding in accordance
with that evidence,
that we should be in a better
footing and our schools
should be more equitably
funded,” McDermed said.
School News
Lincoln-Way District 210
Annual Transition Program
Poinsettia sale begins
The Lincoln-Way Transition
Program is hosting a
Poinsettia Sale Fundraiser
that began Nov. 27.
Students in the Lincoln-
Way Transition Program
have grown the plants in the
greenhouse since August.
Each poinsettia includes a
handmade decorative Christmas
pick, holiday spray glitter
and foil pot cover.
The cost for a poinsettia is
$10 and proceeds benefit the
students in the Lincoln-Way
Transition Program.
Orders can be made at any
time via email at lwtransition@lw210.org
or by calling
(815) 462-2229. The
order form can be found in
the following link: www.
lw210.org/community/re
sources/uploadedpdfs/Poin
settia%20Flyer%2017.pdf.
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