SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Just days before the school bell's ring, the Democratic-controlled Illinois Legislature is grappling with a Republican governor over how to fix the biggest gap in the U.S. between a state's richest schools and its poorest.
School funding is in limbo after Gov. Bruce Rauner used his veto powers this month to rewrite a funding plan and, among other changes, remove hundreds of millions of dollars for Chicago Public Schools he said would be redistributed to other districts. Democrats, however, say Rauner's changes would result in hundreds of districts statewide receiving less money than they would have under the original bill. The Senate is set to gavel in on Sunday to address Rauner's veto.
Sen. Andy Manar, a Bunker Hill Democrat who sponsored the revamped funding formula, told a small rally Thursday outside a school in a low-income Springfield neighborhood that children across the state are eagerly gathering school supplies in anticipation of a return to the classroom.
"What they don't know is the injustice that's stacked against them the day they walk into kindergarten," Manar said.