With schools in District 428 overcrowding and no referendum dollars looming in the horizon, the next step in trying to fund area schools may rest on the recent efforts of Governor Rod Blagojevich and the state to provide additional funding.

Superintendent Brian Ali said Blagojevich’s recent budget plan both could either help and hurt the school district. Blagojevich’s keypoint proposal is to increase the Foundation Level in the General State Aid formula by $250 per student. This plan primarily focuses on students in districts that are mostly strapped for cash, with District 428 certainly qualifying as one.

The governor also proposes a $29.9 million increase in early childhood programs, $2.2 million in bilingual programs and $900,000 for the Math and Science Academy.

A potential shortfall of the governor’s plan, however, lies in his proposed consolidation of two dozen categorical grant programs and service lines within the ISBE budget.

Ali said this could cause a problem for schools within District 428 because nine different areas in the district greatly would be affected.

One of these budget cuts might involve the Residential Office of Education that offers a number of programs and services to the district. Another could be the Kishwaukee Education Consortium that includes a number of cities including Sandwich, Sycamore, Somonauk and Genoa-Kingston.

“If these were eliminated, who would provide money for the districts?” Ali asked. “It could have far-reaching implications.”

Ali added that his concern would be replacing some of these programs lost in the governor’s proposal. He said doing so would be difficult, if not impossible.

Ali said the governor’s plan also could result in a cutback of staff workshops, such aspects of the district Ali described as “resourceful arms for every school district.”

But overall, Ali felt the plan could benefit the district in terms of providing additional monies.

“We would stand to gain while others would lose,” he said.

Ali, however, said it’s important to remember that the governor’s proposal is just that, a plan that has yet to endure a long legislative process that could in turn result in major changes to the plan.

Ali said if the governor’s plan doesn’t help the district, a concerted effort in raising state income taxes would be a possibility. He said this proposal already is undergoing conversation, but that nothing would result from it for quite some time.

Raising state income taxes would be a good measure, Ali said, because Illinois boasts one of the lowest state income taxes in the country. If the state were to raise it somewhere around 2 percent, Ali said a good deal of revenue would be generated for the schools.

Overall, Ali emphasized the need to look within the city for potential revenues. Working with the Growth Summit in finding ways to balance residential growth with commercial and industrial growth is vital, and that doing so could generate money that would alleviate residential taxes.

Ali said he’s confidant that the new school board in the future would make the right decisions that will, in the end, help ease the school district of its overcrowding while simultaneously providing various revenues to support these schools in the future.