Financing Illinois Schools in the 1990s : Reaching a Consensus. Proceedings of the Meeting (Macomb, Illinois, January 24-25, 1990) / Robert F. Hall, Ed. and Bonnie Smith-Dickson, Ed.

The meeting reported in this document was attended by 128 persons associated with Illinois public schools whose purpose was to collectively address restructuring the Illinois school aid formula and issues integral to an adequate school funding system and equitable educational opportunities for all children in Illinois. The overall goal was to bring participants from widely disparate school districts together and the agenda was planned to facilitate maximum participation from presenters and invited guests. Presenters provided participants with background information; eight working groups provided a setting for small group interaction; and a panel of experts reacted to the ideas developed at the working roundtables. The first speaker defined the problem in financing Illinois education as a question of equity. The next speaker made a comparison of position papers from key organizations concerning school funding. The state's grant-in-aid system of funding in theory and in practice was discussed by the third speaker. The fourth discussed how to fund school reform. A fifth speaker explored legal and political realities of reforming the state's finance system. A summary of the eight small group findings, their discussion with a reaction panel, and moderator's comments are included. A conference agenda, copies of position papers, several background readings and a list of suggested readings, and a full state funding proposal for elementary education are contained in the appendixes. (35 references) (EJS)

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