Geneva Schools to Open in Fall With or Without State Funding: Mutchler

GENEVA, IL - Geneva District 304 schools will open this fall -- with or without state funding, District 304 Superintendent Kent Mutchler said Thursday.

Not all school districts may be as fortunate. Chicago Public School chief Forrest Claypool told the Chicago Tribune Wednesday public schools in Chicago will not open for the 2016-17 school year if the state government does not approve an education budget.

His announcement came a day after a divide between Democrats who control both the Senate and House kept a school funding plan from passing before the end of the spring legislative session, according to the Chicago Tribune.

As for District 304 schools, which serve 5,900 students, Mutchler said administrators would find a way to operate if state funding is not an option.

“The district is prepared to operate with other sources of revenue, though the loss of state funding will be felt in cuts to some important services,” Mutchler said in a statement. Mutchler did not provide details on which services could be hardest hit by the cuts.

The big question that now remains is whether legislators will be able to pull it together to pass an education budget now that the legislature has adjourned for the spring session. The Chicago Tribune provides some insight:

But the difficulty level for crafting an agreement rose when Tuesday's deadline passed. It now will take a super-majority of legislators to pass any bill, requiring a level of bipartisan cooperation that gets less likely as November elections — in which each part hopes to gain a political advantage — gets nearer.

Mutchler chastised state legislators for using “education as a political bargaining chip.”

“Under the Constitution of the State of Illinois the state legislature has an obligation to fund our schools,” he said. “We pay our legislators to do their jobs and we expect them to work collaboratively to reach solutions.”