The Illinois Senate has approved a plan to consolidate nearly 25% of Illinois' Regional Offices of Education.
The legislation has the support of Regional superintendents. It would likely eliminate up to 10 of the state's 44 regional offices of education. The bill would require each service region to contain at least 61,000 people by July 1, 2015. That's an increase from the current 43,000. The law also provides provisions for voluntary consolidation as well as directed consolidation by the State Board of Education if a service area fails to meet the required deadline.
ROE's deal with truancy cases, administer G-E-D programs and handle teacher certification for local schools in their districts. Jeff Vose is the Regional Superintendent for Sangamon County. He says the cut is bigger than the regional superintendents had hoped for, but he says given the current fiscal crisis everyone needs to make shared sacrifices. The elected regional school superintendents were thurst into the spotlight last year when Governor Pat Quinn eliminated their state funding. They went months without pay, until a deal was cut to use local property taxes to pay their salaries. It remains to be seen whether that arrangement will continue.
The measure is now under consideration in the house. The legislation is SB2706.
