The Chicago school board, along with five parents, has sued Gov. Bruce Rauner and the state of Illinois, claiming that the state’s education funding formula creates a separate and unequal education system that discriminates against the district’s students, most of whom are black and Hispanic.
The suit asks that the state’s education funding formula and the district’s pension-funding obligation be declared unlawful under Illinois’ 2003 Civil Rights Act.
The plaintiffs argue that the funding system results in Chicago students receiving 76 cents in fiscal 2016 for every dollar that students outside the city in predominantly white districts received. Moreover, they contend that Chicago is the only district in Illinois that funds most of its own pension program, which diverts a higher percentage of its budget away from education.
