Belt: Local Schools To Receive More Than $12 Million In Evidence-Based Funding
EAST ST. LOUIS — State Senator Christopher Belt announced that nearly two dozen school districts across the area will receive over $12 million in additional funding to help address the financial challenges of recent years. “These investments will do wonders for the physical and intellectual learning environments across the district, and the students are more than deserving of the utmost support,” said Belt (D-Swansea). “Raising children is a community effort, and I am thankful for all the hard work parents, teachers and other staff have done to uplift their students.” The funding comes from the 2017 Illinois Senate Democrat-backed evidence-based funding formula — an overhaul of the way the state funds K-12 education. The law made school funding more equitable by calculating the needs of individual school districts and basing its state revenue on those needs. The formula takes into account a district’s total enrollment, poverty rate and number