North Egypt News

Sen. Terri Bryant (R-Murphysboro) is seeking answers from the Illinois State Board of Education regarding its revelation of a coding error that affected the distribution of funds to schools.

On April 14, Bryant announced that the Illinois State Board of Education had discovered a coding error in the initial implementation of the Evidence-Based Funding (EBF) formula in the spring of 2018 when ISBE was developing the enrollment verification system for EBF calculations. She shared the new amounts for each of the schools in the 58th Senate District.

"While I appreciate the error has been discovered and our schools are being made whole, we deserve answers for why this went undiscovered for 4 years. I'm seeking an answer to this question," Bryant posted on Facebook.

She then posted the ISBE announcement. It reads: "A contractor for the Illinois State Board of Education made a coding error during the initial implementation of the Evidence-Based Funding (EBF) formula in the spring of 2018 when ISBE was developing the enrollment verification system for EBF calculations. The code began with the FY 2019 EBF distribution to organizational units. The Illinois General Assembly authorized a supplemental appropriation for EBF that will allow ISBE to make an immediate adjustment to the EBF distribution in the current school year. This will result in organizational units in your legislative districts receiving the total amounts owed from FY 2019-FY 2022 over the course of the final EBF payments of the 2021-2022 school year. The adjusted amount that each organizational unit will receive takes into account the resources it should have received from FY 2019-FY 2022."

Evidence Based Funding has been around since then-Gov. Bruce Rauner signed Public Act 100-0465 or the Evidence-Based Funding for Student Success Act on Aug. 31, 2017. Evidence-Based Funding distributes more resources to Illinois' most under-resourced students. "EBF takes the necessary first steps toward ensuring all schools have the resources they need to provide a safe, rigorous, and well-rounded learning environment for all students," according to ISBE.

ISBE offered an Excel spreadsheet to lay out the supplemental payments each district would receive. It is available here.