Education
Current and future budgets, laws, and reforms
IL Education Budget
As seen in the infograph above, the IL education budget has declined in the previous years. According to the Illinois State Board of Education, between the years of 2010 and 2011 the budget was cut almost 8.5% and was never brought back up in the years later. This data can be seen in the link above on the second chart. Since 2010 the appropriations (or what they think they are going to spend) for education each year has gone down or barley increased. This is a stark difference between the years prior when the increasing rate of education funding was on average a 7.7% increase each year.
Current Budget Process
According to Article 50 of the State Budget law, According to the law, with the exceptions of a few dates, the Governor must submit the state budget on the third Wednesday in February every year after March of 2014. This budget includes the education budget for Illinois. The recommendations by the budget proposal are then given to the particular departments of Illinois to decide where the money should be split up. The departments, such as the Illinois State Board of Education appropriate which categories the money should be spent on. This money is still just an estimate and may be actually different than what they are able to enact for actual spending. When the Illinois revenue is made the Governor shall determine what is the available revenue to spend on the various programs including education. The initial revenue total is deducted to account for programs that is essential to the statewide government. The remaining money is what can be distributed among the departments. According to the State Finance Act, the amount of money received by each of the departments is determined by how well they are providing for the state and the necessity of the budget in that particular department.