VANDALIA, IL – Superintendents, education advocates, and parents from across the state gathered near the Old State Capitol in Vandalia Wednesday and urged legislators and Governor Rauner to find an equitable solution to the K-12 education funding crisis by July 1, the start of the new fiscal year. The current system has penalized students for decades by shortchanging property-poor districts throughout Illinois and cheating them of the high quality education they deserve. Participants represented 40 school districts across the state including local representatives Centralia Township #200, Patoka #100, Sandoval #501, Raccoon #1, Iuka #7, Selmaville #10, Irvington #11, Central City #133, Odin #722, Carlyle #1, Eldorado #4, Rome #2, Spring Garden #178, and Willow Grove #146. They were joined by representatives from education advocacy groups including Advance Illinois, Citizens for Education in Taylorville, and the Faith Coalition for the Common Good in Springfield. They are all members of Funding Illinois’ Future, a coalition of more than 230 superintendents, education reform advocates, child welfare advocates, and other education leaders fighting to change the way Illinois funds its schools. Illinois has the most regressive school funding system of any state in the entire nation. For every dollar spent to educate a non-low-income student, only 81 cents are spent to educate a low-income student. This is despite research showing that students living in poverty need additional resources in order to succeed. But, instead of giving them those resources, the state shortchanges students with the most need. The current education funding system is a web of complicated formulas that result in less than half of all state education dollars going to school districts based on a local district’s ability to pay for local schools. More than half of state education dollars go to districts regardless of their wealth, shortchanging poor districts with students who have greater needs.