SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — An Illinois state legislator is continuing his push for rural education funding and support for the hiring of agricultural education instructors in schools.

 

Sen. Scott Bennett (D-Champaign) says downstate Illinois needs full and fair school funding, not empty promises from Gov. Bruce Rauner. He is calling on Rauner to consider new funding formulas that have already been introduced in the legislature, which more evenly distribute statesupported funding among Illinois’ public school districts.

“Downstate Illinois school districts, particularly rural districts, have struggled for decades because our current funding formula favors wealthy districts,” said Bennett, who serves as vice chair of the Illinois Senate Agriculture Committee and spends time on his family’s fourth-generation farm in Gibson City.

“With the current state funding formula rigged against kids in poorer ZIP codes, even an enormous funding increase would mean little to the children, parents and property taxpayers in our area. We need to fix the formula and not just throw money into a broken system that is rigged for the wealthy.”

He said while he appreciates Rauner’s visits to smaller public school districts to learn firsthand the issues they face due to inadequate funding, he considers the Governor’s inaction an empty promise now that Illinois is near the threeyear anniversary of failing to pass a state budget. “Some of these downstate communities never recovered since the manufacturing jobs started leaving in the Eighties,” according to Bennett. “We need a new funding formula that fairly funds our schools to jump start the economy, but that’s not what the governor is offering.”

Bennett is the author of Senate Bill 1991 that addresses a shortage of trained educators for agricultural vocation programs in Illinois. The legislation would create the Agricultural Education Task Force, which will make recommendations regarding the recruitment and retention of ag education instructors, participation in related federal programs and reforms to existing licensure and testing requirements for ag education teachers.

He sponsored the bill after Rauner’s 2015 Illinois budget proposal called for the zeroing-out of agricultural education funding. Bennett considered the omission to be “mind-boggling,” considering agriculture is the state’s biggest employer. “It blows me away. It’s a sure way to completely hobble ourselves while at the same time trying to strengthen our economy,” he said at the time. “Ag education is not a hobby, nor is it a study hall. It is make-or-break for the next generation of agriculture in Illinois.”

Bennett’s ag education bill passed the Illinois Senate in May and now is in the hands of the state House.