The question has surfaced repeatedly in the heated campaign between Quinn and his challenger, Republican businessman Bruce Rauner. In two televised debates, Rauner has said money for schools dropped by a half-billion dollars under Quinn. In turn, Quinn insists it actually rose nearly $500 million since he assumed office in 2009.
Determining who is right depends on whether you count an influx of federal stimulus dollars in the 2010 fiscal year, the first budget that the Quinn administration crafted.
The health of the state’s schools is considered an important issue in the November election, and each candidate is arguing that he would be the best defender of the schoolhouse.
Numbers provided to The Associated Press by the Illinois State Board of Education show that in 2009 — the last year before Quinn replaced his impeached predecessor Rod Blagojevich — state spending on preschool through 12th grade was $7.4 billion. This year, it’s $6.8 billion.
The Rauner campaign says that’s a decrease of $600 million, or 8 percent.
But the fiscal 2009 spending was bolstered by President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus package. It shuffled $1 billion in federal funds into Illinois schools that year, and $791 million the following year.
Quinn campaign spokeswoman Brooke Anderson says the stimulus money should not be counted in the state mix of funding — even though the State Board of Education has routinely reported stimulus funding lumped in with state assistance when discussing spending for schools.
