McHenry County Blog

 

The Northwest Herald has a front page article on District 300’s low-balling of State Aid to Education projections.

District 300 has projected it will get an increase of $50 per pupil, while the State Board of Education has recommended $170. The extra money is more than enough to pay for extracurricular activities and sports, all of which District 300 is threatening to cut if its massive tax hike referendum fails.

Right on top of page 6 is the factual statement by reporter Allison Smith:

That’s ($50) a fraction of the hike the state has given each of the past three years.

I commented on District 300’s admission that it had underestimated state aid in a Sunday article.

There are two mildly rational reasons that a school district might want to underestimating state aid to education:

To try to convince voters there is less money that any reasonable person would expect and

To try to convince teachers’ unions that there is less money available in order to influence salary negotiations.

Here’s the guts of my Sunday argument:

When Huntley School Board member Larry Snow pointed out the State Board of Education had recommended $170 per pupil, [District 300 finance person Cheryl] Crates admitted that amount was not in the District projections.

Having served in the General Assembly for 16 years and watched it since the late 1960’s, my guess is that the state aid increase will be higher than recommended by the State Board of Education?

Why?

Because giving more to schools than was recommended will make the legislators and governor—running for re-election—look good. After all, most say education is their highest priority and how better to substantial that claim than to provide more money than is expected.

Of course, I don’t think this information will be included in the District 300 referendum projections or in its tax hike committee’s “fair, truthful and accurate” information. The reason given will be because it hasn’t passed yet.

But, as a former Executive Office of the President budget examiner, I would point out, none of the projections of either the District 300 or its tax hike committee has occurred yet. That’s the nature of budget forecasting. You have to guess what the future will bring and hope that your guesses are reasonable.

So far, for state aid, the tax hike advocates’ [or school administration] projections are not reasonable for this year’s state aid to education increase.