NewsFriday, October 12, 2007 10:49 PM CDT

Comments (0) |

E-mail this page |

Print this page |

Enlarge type |

Reduce type |

Search archives |

RSS feeds |

Add to My Yahoo!

Senate votes down increase in funding for special education

By Kurt Erickson
kurt.erickson@lee.net

SPRINGFIELD — A proposal to pump $21 million into special education fell victim Friday to the highly politicized budget fight that has dominated the State Capitol this year.

The Illinois Senate first approved legislation to assure more than 200 local school districts would get the added funding, but then it defeated a trailer bill that contained the actual money to pay for the program.

“It’s so frustrating,” said state Rep. John Bradley, D-Marion, who had successfully shepherded the proposal through the House in recent days.

The defeat will have an effect on schools that receive money from the Special Education Extraordinary Services program. The Marion school district, for example, could see a $519,000 drop in state funding.

The loss of funding is due to a change in the way the state divvies up money for special education. Some districts will gain money through a new formula, but 225 will lose. The proposal would have made sure no districts lost money.

The apparent demise of the funding package began when it arrived in the Senate for a vote Friday.

Democratic leaders, who have been battling over the state budget for months, tacked an additional $18.9 million in spending onto the bill. The added money would have gone to pay for additional prison guards and other state services, but had earlier been vetoed out of the budget by Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Given the chance that the additional money would again be vetoed by the governor, Republicans criticized the bill’s sponsor, state Sen. Gary Forby, D-Benton, for moving forward with the legislation.

State Sen. Dave Luechtefeld, R-Okawville, called the move “phony.”

“How you can defend what you’re doing is beyond me,” Luechtefeld told Forby.

The accusation angered Forby, who initially believed Luechtefeld had called him “phony.”

“There is no way that I’m phony. I am doing this for the good of the people. I am not a phony,” said Forby.

Forby later apologized and said the changes to the special education proposal had come up at the last minute.

“I didn’t have much time today,” Forby said.

After a lengthy and contentious debate, the measure fell three votes short of passage.

“I feel bad for Senator Forby,” said Bradley, who added that the turn of events took him by surprise.

Just an hour before the vote, Bradley had put out a press release praising the passage of the first part of the legislation.

Now, school districts affected by the proposal are in limbo, waiting to see if budget talks ever get back on track.

Both the House and the Senate adjourned Friday but did not reveal when they would return to Springfield.

The legislation is House Bills 4148 and 4149.

Ads by Yahoo!

Scientific Graphing Software

Natural Training Pants Are Safer

Practice Forex Trading