The Illinois House is now considering a plan to consolidate some of Illinois' Regional Offices of Education.
The legislation would eliminate nine of the state's 44 regional offices. The new streamlining proposal would amend the population formulas requiring each office to contain at least 61,000 people, instead of the current total of 43,000. Franklin-Williamson regional superintendent Matt Donkin says two southern Illinois offices currently fall below the new 61,000 population threshold. He says they are the Hamilton-Jefferson county office along with the regional education office serving Alexander, Johnson, Massac, Pulaski and Union counties.
Donkin says the formula is based on the total population of each county from the most recent census. The offices would have until July 1st, 2015 to meet the new population requirements. Donkin says the regional superintendents support the measure because this is the bill from the ROE streamlining commission which met earlier this year.
The Senate has already passed the bill.