The State of Illinois outspends all of its neighbors and the entire Midwest on a per-student basis.

Education officials have been seeking a budget increase of $350-$600 million a year in new money each and every year for the next decade.

Now they’ve decided that even that is not enough. Illinois K-12 Superintendent Tony Smith says he wants $7.2 billion more in funding right now – not over ten years.

He’s proposed to double the state’s contribution to education to nearly $14 billion next year.

Our government just approved a $5 Billion dollar tax increase for Illinois taxpayers in July.

Now they want another $7 Billion in taxes just six months later.

Illinois families cannot handle another tax increase. People are already fleeing our state because of out of control taxes that are growing 6X faster than incomes.

Our state is in need of serious solutions and spending reforms.

Here is the original story as reported by Wirepoints:

Last year we warned that Illinois should reject the “evidenced-based” funding model proposed by Sen. Andy Manar and signed into law by Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner.

The model has failed wherever it’s been tried. And it came with an enormous price tag. One that Illinoisans can’t afford.

Not to mention it was yet another way to avoid actually fixing the problems with education in Illinois. Giving billions more to the state means lawmakers will face far less pressure to consolidate Illinois’ 860 school districts, roll back administrative bloat, or cut executive-level pay.

Leave it to Illinois’ educational bureaucracy to prove our point for us.

Illinois’ education elite originally said they wanted $350-$600 million a year in new money each and every year for the next decade to get to what they call an “adequate” amount of funding for districts across the state.

That request in and of itself made no sense. Illinois already outspends all of its neighbors and the entire Midwest on a per student basis. And if officials wanted more money for classrooms, they could get it by reforming Illinois’ education bureaucracy.

But now officials have dropped the pretense of wanting that money over time.

Instead, Illinois K-12 Superintendent Tony Smith says he wants $7.2 billion more in funding right now – not over ten years. He’s proposed to double the state’s contribution to education to nearly $14 billion next year. That increase is more than the $5 billion tax hike Illinoisans just got hit with.

His demand reveals the complete disconnect between Illinois’ education bureaucracy and the real world.

Illinois is in need of serious solutions and spending reforms. Next year’s budget is already on track to be at least $3 billion out of whack. They already pay the nation’s highest property taxes. And the state is already destroying its tax base – Illinois has shrunk four years in a row.

Taxpayers couldn’t afford the $350 million a year officials originally proposed.

The full price tag: $7.2 billion in one year, is madness.

And it’s all to go toward a failed education model and a bloated education bureaucracy in desperate need of reforms.

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It’s not too late to save our state, we just need the right leaders to do it.

This story originally appeared on Wirepoints on January 18, 2018, and was written by Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner