You’re a stakeholder in a multibillion-dollar enterprise.

Every year, you cut a check. Every year, you give more. Some years, you give much more—even if you live in the same house, work the same job, pull down the same pay.

Like it or not, you’re a contributor to big business—the big business of Illinois public schools.

This multi-part Daily Herald series will help you understand the financial side of your investment.

Other people do—people with a stake in the dollars and cents of public schools. Teachers. Unions.
Superintendents. Lobbyists and lawyers. Consultants of all sorts.

In short, people with a lot to gain from maximizing revenue for public schools. Most of these stakeholders have a plan to tweak, update or completely overhaul the way Illinois funds its schools.

The Illinois Education Association has called for a constitutional amendment to increase the state contribution to public schools.

The Illinois Federation of Teachers has called for “comprehensive changes in the state’s fiscal system.”

The Illinois Association of School Administrators wants to increase state funding and amend or repeal laws that limit the amount schools can collect from taxpayers.

Three recent school finance reform plans—one by more than 200 Illinois mayors, one by civil leaders and education professionals, and one by the Metropolitan Planning Commission—have called for billions more dollars for Illinois schools.