Evidence-Based Model

Eight years after implementation, including seven that included New Tier Funding, or new year-over-year funding, Illinois' funding formula for K-12 Education—the Evidence Based Funding for Student Success Act, or EBF—has worked towards its promise of closing the drastic funding gaps between school in property-rich and property-poor districts,  as well as between schools in predominantly white communities and schools that serve predominantly Black and Latinx students. The formula, which replaced an approach that was based on a one-size-fits-all "Foundation Level" of per-pupil funding that was both inadequate in amount and inequitable in distribution,  has put the funding responsibility on the state to ensure equity for districts with less local resources. The EBF accomplishes this by distributing new K-12 funding to those districts that are furthest away from having adequate resources, and furthest away from hitting their respective "Adequacy Targets" --which is the amount the research indicates is required to provide the level of education the students they serve need to succeed academically.

Now, eight years later, while the EBF has overall drastically changed public education funding allocation and has worked to close Adequacy Funding Gaps for students across all regions of the state and from all demographics by continuing to increase the state level investment each year, in FY 2025 the statewide Adequacy Gap—the total of all negative district Adequacy Gaps—has grown for the first time since implementation of the formula. This is due primarily to fluctuation of the Corporate Personal Property Replacement Tax, a local tax revenue that school districts collect, as is outlined in the Report.

Despite growing evidence that a college degree is more important than ever for success in the labor market, state funding for Illinois colleges and universities has fallen by 42 percent since FY 2000 in real, inflation-adjusted terms, while tuition has more than doubled. This rise in costs has made it increasingly difficult for students from low- and middle-income families generally, and Black and Latinx students specifically, to afford getting a higher education degree. This Report documents the positive impact gaining a college education has on everything from wages to economic development and social mobility. This Report also outlines a possible solution: The Adequate and Equitable Funding Formula for Public Universities, an adequacy-based funding approach that would prioritize new resources to the institutions and student populations that the data have shown need it the most, while still working towards achieving adequacy for all institutions.