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Illinois 2025 budget adds more money for early childhood and K-12 schools
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The Illinois House approved a $53.1 billion budget with increases for early childhood education, public K-12 schools and the state’s literacy plan Wednesday morning by a vote of 65 to 45. bill heads to Governor JB Pritzker’s desk for final approval.
“For the sixth year in a row, I have introduced and the legislature passed a balanced budget that invests in our future while putting money back into the hands of hardworking Illinoisans,” Pritzker said at a news conference Wednesday.
The state General Assembly also approved a state tax credit for children, which would make Illinois one of more than a dozen states to pass such legislation in the wake of the COVID pandemic, when the federal government temporarily expanded the benefit. Low-income Illinois families with children under age 12 and those who qualify for the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit would be eligible to receive the credit in 2025.
This version of the state child tax credit expands what Pritzker proposed in February, when he introduced a tax credit for families with young children ages 3 and younger.
Starting in July 2021, families across the country received up to $300 for children ages 17 and younger as part of the Biden Administration’s American Rescue Plan. The program, which ended in December 2021, has been credited with reducing child poverty and hunger. Since then, states like Colorado, California and New York have created their own child tax credit.
“The truth is we all think education should be better funded,” Pritzker said, when asked about Chicago City Council Speaker Brandon Johnson, who took a trip to Springfield to call for more education funding for the city’s schools.
But, the governor said, the need goes beyond Chicago.
“The city of Chicago represents 20 percent of the state’s population,” he said at Wednesday’s news conference. “So we have a lot of other kids across the state going to school. We need to better fund their schools too.”
Here are more highlights about education funding in the state budget for fiscal year 2025.
New state’s Early Childhood Department gains momentum
The budget includes about $14 million to start a new State Department of Early Childhood to help streamline early education and child care programs. Separate legislation to create the department still needs Pritzker’s signature.
The new department, which was approved by lawmakers during the session, will bring together early childhood education programs from the Illinois State Board of Education, the state Department of Human Services and the Department of Child and Family Services under one roof by Jan. 1. July 2026. The governor’s budget proposal called for $13 million to launch the department.
The Illinois State Board of Education received a $75 million increase to its early childhood grant, bringing the program’s total funding to nearly $750 million. Pritzker expects this to create 5,000 new seats for preschool students this year. Earlier this year, Pritzker and the state board added 5,800 preschool spaces during the first year of his Smart Start Initiative — a plan to create 20,000 preschool spaces for 3- and 4-year-olds and provide more funding for early childhood education.
The Department of Human Services’ early childhood programs will also see an increase. The state’s home visiting program, a program that supports pregnant women and families with children under age 5, received an additional $5 million. The department’s Child Assistance Programs, which provide financial assistance to low-income families, received an additional $36.5 million in state funding.
The state’s early intervention program received an additional $6 million to support children with disabilities up to age 3. Early childhood advocates were upset when this increase was proposed by Pritzker in February because advocates say it we have seen an increase in the number of children on the waiting list for services and experiencing service delays. They also said they observed a lack of incentives for early intervention providers to remain in programs or recruit more providers.
Advocates went to Springfield in April to ask the state to invest an additional $40 million, just like the previous year. The state said last year’s increase and this year’s increase are enough to ensure children continue to receive early intervention services.
Basic education receives US$350 million more
Illinois public school districts will receive $8.6 billion in state funding next year — $350 million more than last year. That’s the minimum annual increase lawmakers agreed to in 2017, when the state created a new formula to change the way K-12 schools are funded. The initial objective was to have all schools reach an adequate funding level by 2027.
Over time, districts received nearly $2 billion more in state funding. But education advocates and funding experts say districts won’t achieve adequate funding until at least 2030 unless the annual campaign increases jump to US$550 million or more. In a recent reportThe Center for Budget and Fiscal Responsibility noted a funding gap of about $2.3 billion.
Advance Illinois, a political and advocacy organization that focuses on education, was one of the groups that supported a $550 million increase for K-12 schools.
“This governor has demonstrated that education is a priority,” said Robin Steans, president of the organization. “This is a difficult year. We appreciate the new and increased investments they have made, although we recognize that we are disappointed that there is still some important work to be done.”
The 2025 budget includes $3 million to implement the state’s new literacy plan, which was completed at the beginning of this year by the Illinois State Board of Education.
Conspicuously absent from the budget is funding to support local school districts that have seen an increase in number of students who recently migrated to the United States.
In the spring of 2022, Illinois schools began to see a rapid increase in enrollment as families were bused from the southern Texas border to cities like Chicago. Chicago Public Schools and suburban school districts reported enrolling large numbers of students from Venezuela. With more English learners enrolled in schools, the need for bilingual staff and educators has increased. The overall needs of schools have also grown exponentially as they struggle with limited resources to support newly arrived students.
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Some school districts have requested more funding because the state’s evidence-based funding formula does not cover students who enroll during the school year.
Additionally, the State Board of Education and local school districts use different methods of counting the number of newly arrived students enrolled in schools. To help support schools and the needs of newcomers, the state board asked the General Assembly for $35 million.
Rep. Fred Crespo, a Democrat who represents Chicago’s northwest suburbs that have seen an influx of migrant families, presented an invoice initially asking for $35 million, but with a push from education advocates and local school district leaders, he changed the amount to $188 million. However, it did not make it into the final budget.
Higher education records small increases
The Illinois Monetary Award Program, also known as MAP, a scholarship program for college students from low-income families, received an additional $10 million, increasing the entire fund to $711 million.
Illinois higher education advocates, including The Partnership for College Completion, an advocacy organization focused on higher education, have criticized the governor for not proposing more funding for MAP.
Christian Perry, director of policy and advocacy at The Partnership for College Completion, said in a statement to Chalkbeat that this year’s budget is not enough to support the needs of college students in the state.
“The MAP increase has not kept pace with inflation and comes at a time when students are facing problems with the new FAFSA, making college attendance alarmingly uncertain for low-income students,” Perry said.
Additionally, the Illinois Student Assistance Commission’s Illinois Minority Teacher Scholarship, which supports students of color and bilingual students who want to become teachers to receive a scholarship, did not get a funding increase. The program will continue to raise US$8 million, the same amount it received in last year’s budget.
Samantha Smylie is a state education reporter for Chalkbeat Chicago, covering school districts across the state, legislation, special education and the state board of education. Contact Samanta at ssmylie@chalkbeat.org.