When wading into the murky waters of how Illinois funds essential operations, it’s common to only be ankle deep before wondering if the confusion is intentional.

Tuesday’s column referenced a Capitol News Illinois report showing the State Board of Education has tallied new funding requests approaching $750 million. It’s worth reading the entire story (tinyurl.com/k12FundingAsk), but the highlights illustrate the difficulty in understanding all the moving parts.

First off, the evidence-based funding formula dictates each year’s budget adds at least $350 million. That money is supposed to go to the state’s most underfunded districts and relieve property tax burdens in high-rate districts. But those allocations don’t include “mandated categorical programs,” or MCATs, like transportation, me

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