Gov. J.B. Pritzker arrives with first lady M.K. Pritzker to deliver his combined budget and State of the State address to a joint session of the General Assembly on Wednesday at the Illinois State Capitol.
Bloomington Mayor Mboka Mwilambwe and state Rep. Sharon Chung, D-Bloomington, react to Gov. J.B. Pritzker's State of the State and budget address.
Some lawmakers expressed optimism while others worried about the increased spending in Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s fiscal year 2024 budget proposal.
Pritzker, in his combined State of the State and budget address, highlighted a variety of topics but received largely bipartisan praise for his proposed investment in early childhood programs.
“Some of the things that I did like, I will say the childcare portion of it,” said state Sen. Sally Turner, R-Beason. “I am a new member of the newly-created committee on early childhood. It delights me to hear information about that.”
Turner
Turner said that parts of her rural Central Illinois district are childcare deserts that could benefit from the proposed boost in funding.
Other echoed the sentiment.
“I’m a proponent, of course, of education, and it was important the things that he shared today,” said state Rep. Dave Severin, R-Benton, who chairs the House Republican literacy task force. “From early childhood to early education to secondary to college. The opportunities that we need to offer to our students and to our highest capable students. We want to attract them to stay here in Illinois and not leave.”
Rep. Dave Severin, R-Benton stands and applauds during Gov. J.B. Pritzker's State of the State and budget address.
State Sen. Mike Halpin, D-Rock Island said he "was glad to see that we’re in a place where we might be able to add additional money" toward education.
“So I’m optimistic that this is a good place to start," he said. "I’m looking forward to seeing the Senate, in particular, make sure we’re funding our priorities and getting to a good budget that provides for the people of Illinois.”
Comptroller Susana Mendoza, who has advocated for investments in early childhood programs, said she is happy with Pritzker's proposal and is excited to see what it will look like once it goes through the legislative process.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker says his Smart Start Pre-K proposal is a four-year plan that would give all 3- and 4-year-old Illinois children access to preschool.
“I feel that he took almost like a precision tool approach to using very scarce resources and investing them where they can provide the best return on investment,” Mendoza said. “I’ve always said that investing in our children, especially at the early childhood phase, is critically important."
Mendoza
Mendoza called the budget a good use of taxpayer dollars.
While there was bipartisan support for early childhood programs, lawmakers varied on how the state should be spending its increased revenue.
“A lot of money (is) being expended when there’s not a lot of money returning to Illinois from the federal government,” Turner said. “So that’s a big thing and you see some of these projects that are out there that need to be funded somehow.”
She expressed concerns that creating new programs could lead to future tax increases if federal funds or tax revenues dry up. She also said that she would have liked to see relief go to families struggling with rising energy costs.
Caulkins
Dan Caulkins, R-Decatur, said that he sees the proposal as the governor’s wishlist and worries that the state will not be able to keep up with the investments long term.
“The problem is it's more spending at a faster rate,” Caulkins said. “We don't have the federal money coming in anymore. Illinois doesn't have the money to pay for all of the things he’s asking for.”
State Rep. Dan Caulkins, R-Decatur, looks on during the Inauguration of the 103rd General Assembly at the University of Illinois Springfield on Jan. 11.
Caulkins said that he would have liked to have seen more investments into the state’s pension plans.
The proposal includes the state's full $9.8 billion pension obligation. Another $200 million will be pumped in using surplus funds from the current fiscal year budget.
But Caulkins did say that he was encouraged by proposals that will benefit developmentally delayed individuals.
State Rep. Chris Miller, R-Oakland, was more critical of the budget proposal.
“The Democrats offered no real solutions. Even at a time when inflation is skyrocketing, and you and your family are paying more for products you rely-on every single day, Pritzker’s proposals are to create and implement unfunded and expensive government programs, raise your taxes, and increase government spending," Miller said. "This is an unsustainable path forward, and Illinois families will continue to feel the effects of the Democrats’ fiscal irresponsibility.”
Freshman lawmakers such as Rep. Sharon Chung, D-Bloomington, expressed excitement about the proposed budget.
“A lot of these things will help Bloomington, Normal and the rest of the 91st District,” Chung said. “I’m also just really excited to see what will happen in the coming months here, especially in the legislature as we go through the budget line-by-line and try to figure out how we can make this all happen.”
Sharon Chung
Pritzker’s proposed budget would cost $49.6 billion if implemented. The budget must still go through the legislative process.
Reading and math proficiency are at historic lows. Here's a closer look at who's falling behind
Who's falling behind the most in math and reading
Concerns about the state of U.S. education have been discussed in communities across the country for decades, and the COVID-19 pandemic only thrust these conversations—and their urgency–further into the spotlight. A shift to at-home learning combined with other problems such as teacher shortages and a fraught political landscape have affected students' basic proficiencies—and it is showing in test scores.
Each year, the National Assessment of Educational Progress releases information about reading and math assessments to paint a picture of the overall health of U.S. education by grade level. Among other subjects, the NAEP report card shares scores in reading and mathematics, two key subjects representing progress. Scores are released from students in grades 4, 8, and 12, depending on the year.
HeyTutor analyzed the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress from the Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics to see how different groups of students have fared in their reading and math assessments over the past 20 years.
Among other insights, the data shows a decline in reading and math proficiency among fourth- and eighth-grade students. There are concerning demographic trends—with minority groups and students living in poverty experiencing some of the steepest drop-offs.
Educational gains have mostly been eroding since 2020
The national average for reading scores, primarily in the early-to-mid-2010s, saw increases over the previous 10 years, but those gains began to fall off at the start of the pandemic in 2020, with most average scores now at or below where they were in 2002. The data varies significantly by students' race—white, Black, and American Indian/Alaska Native showed the most marked decline, while there has actually been an increase in reading scores among Asian and Pacific Islander children.
Perhaps more telling in terms of overall reading comprehension are these averages compared with the minimum scores for basic achievement—for 4th-grade reading, the minimum is 208; for 8th grade, it is 243. Black, Hispanic, and American Indian/Alaska Native 4th graders all failed to meet this benchmark, though each group rallied to crest the 8th-grade minimum, but by a very slim margin. White students at both grade levels only average approximately 20-25 points over the minimum. Given the fact that the scoring scale runs to 500, general reading comprehension levels, certainly post-pandemic, are barely reaching the 50th percentile.
The post-COVID-19-outbreak falloff hasn't affected all kids equally
While similar trends in reading and math scores among all students are apparent, different racial and ethnic groups have had drastically different starting points.
White and Asian students and students of two or more races have consistently tracked higher scores than Black or Hispanic students, for example. Thus those groups' average scores as of 2022 are commensurately higher.
While a recent drop in reading and math proficiency is evident across racial lines, it will still be imperative to address educational inequities to make consistent improvements across the entire U.S. student population. Students from minority communities are at greater risk from falling scores, as they might not only see steeper declines, but also test at a consistently lower level than their white counterparts.
The pandemic-era dip in average eighth-grade scores across all groups is particularly concerning, according to Commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics Peggy Carr. She told the New York Times, "[Eighth] grade is that gateway to more advanced mathematical course taking."
Poverty continues to have one of the largest effects on test scores
Poverty is particularly impactful regarding socioeconomic factors contributing to the gap in education scores. When assessing the poverty level of school children, one of the markers used as qualification is participation in the National School Lunch Program.
This federally assisted program provides meals to millions of food-insecure children each year; eligibility for the program depends on household income levels. Since 2002, there has been a consistent divide of around 30 points in both reading and math scores between those who are eligible for school lunch programs and those who are not.
According to the Census Bureau's Survey of Income and Program Participation, more than 33 million children received school meals through the NSLP in 2019, and just over 21 million received free school lunches. The NSLP was a key aspect of the national "safety net" aiding in-need children throughout the pandemic, despite school closures and other in-person learning restrictions.
Despite the expanded eligibility for NSLP participation during the first two years of the pandemic and a resulting decline in food insecurity among school children, the disparity in test scores between those above and below the poverty line remained. To that end, research suggests that federal pandemic aid, though robust, was simply not enough to mitigate learning loss.
Large cities trend slightly lower than national trends
Large cities are faring consistently worse than the nation as a whole, according to NAEP data. This fact is unsurprising when one considers the downward trends among racial and ethnic groups, particularly Black and Hispanic students, as populations in large cities tend to be larger and more racially diverse.
Large urban public schools are not immune from poverty among their students nor from the national teacher shortage affecting all corners of the educational system. Research from the Council of the Great City Schools found that in large city schools, there is a 50% higher probability of students being poor.
As poverty has been linked to poorer testing among children, it makes sense that big-city schools bear a greater brunt regarding the number of children with learning gaps. With teacher shortages approaching crisis levels, the impact on big-city schools is also higher due to the larger class sizes typical in these areas.
This story originally appeared on HeyTutor and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.
