(AP) — The lawmaker responsible for the school funding plan endorsed by the Senate over Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto says the House should vote to override too.
Sen. Andy Manar is a Democrat from Bunker Hill. He told reporters Sunday that a negotiated compromise on the “evidence-based” funding model is still possible. But if there’s no deal, the House should override when it convenes Wednesday.
The Senate override vote was 38-19. It upheld the overhaul which ensures no school district gets less money than last year and then pumps new dollars to the neediest districts first. Rauner calls it a “bailout” for mismanaged Chicago schools and made significant changes.
Manar says Republican Rauner’s veto was not driven by policy concerns but by politics. But both Rauner and he say they’re willing to compromise.
The Illinois Senate voted yesterday to override Governor Bruce Rauner’s veto of a public-school funding plan. The Senate voted 38-19 to reject the Republican’s mandatory veto of a newly devised financing formula. Rauner says it is too generous to Chicago public schools. The override needed 36 votes. It moves to the House where it also needs a three-fifths majority. Override prospects are less certain there. Rauner’s amendatory veto removed hundreds of millions of dollars from what he calls a “bailout” for the nation’s third-largest school system. It redistributed funds and Rauner is promoting that nearly every district would get more money under his plan. Democrats argued that Chicago educates largely low-income students. They say the Rauner plan simply takes district from one needy district to fund another.
