Some Illinois lawmakers want to increase state funding for the community schools program as the Trump administration withholds federal grants.
The Trump administration's U.S. Department of Education has halted grants going to Illinois community schools because they do not align with the administration's goals. This has coincided with layoffs at these schools because they are not able to fund as many programs.
The Full-Service Community School program creates partnerships between public schools and local organizations to provide after school activities, food and medical care.
Rebecca Kinsey, community school supervisor at the Baby Fold in Normal, said their partnership with Unit 5 provides eye exams, resources to homeless students and teachers with specialized professional development.
“All of this depends on funding to help our programs, keep our programs running, the coordinators who do this work, the partnership we've spent years building the services families have come to rely on—that doesn't survive on goodwill alone,” Kinsey said.
Kinsey said this federally funded program helped fund these programs to make students' lives a little easier.
“When federal funding gets pulled without warning, the people who feel it first are the families who just started to believe that this time the help was real," she said. "Illinois can make sure that doesn't happen.”
Kinsey said Illinois needs to invest into community schools so they can continue to support teachers and build the conditions for students to succeed.
Susan Stanton, executive director of the education advocacy group ACT Now Illinois, said the nonprofit is suing the federal government to get the grant funding they were awarded back.
“They selected specific grants which felt very random in nature, and that's what we're alleging in our lawsuit. So the program was fully funded by congress this spring in the most recent continuing resolution,” Stanton said.
Stanton said community schools need a more stable source of funding and need Illinois to support these schools while they go through the legal process.
Democratic state Rep. Maura Hirschauer, representing a suburb of Chicago, said even with a tight budget this should be a priority for Illinois.
“We're crafting a budget that will take care of people and keeping this investment in these community school dollars is really important,” Hirschauer said.
Hirschauer said it needs less of an investment than other programs because the infrastructure is already built.
