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Rauner Pushes Lawmakers To Send School Funding Bill

G-Jun Yam
/
The Associated Press
Gov. Bruce Rauner speaks during a news conference in Chicago.

A new school funding plan designed to provide more state funds for low-income districts has cleared both chambers of the Illinois legislature, but Democrats haven't sent it to Gov. Bruce Rauner.

They’ve been holding it, hoping to talk the Republican governor out of vetoing it. On Monday he demanded they send him the bill. 

Rauner staged his press conference in downstate Mt. Zion, perfect for his message that the Democrats’ school funding plan gives too much money to Chicago.

“Why are they sittin’ on that bill? They wanna threaten to hold up school funding so schools don’t open this fall, to try to force a pension bailout for the City of Chicago on the backs of Illinois taxpayers," Rauner said.

Taxpayers already pay teacher and administrator pensions for all other school districts, including Mount Zion. But Republicans argue that Chicago also gets more than its fair share of grants.

Both sides agree the current school funding formula needs to be scrapped. It has earned Illinois the dubious distinction of being the most inequitable in the nation.

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