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Education Desk
The Education Desk is our education blog focusing on key areas of news coverage important to the state and its improvement. Evidence of public policy performance and impact will be reported and analyzed. We encourage you to engage in commenting and discussing the coverage of education from pre-natal to Higher Ed.Dusty Rhodes curates this blog that will provide follow-up to full-length stories, links to other reports of interest, statistics, and conversations with you about the issues and stories.About - Additional Education Coverage00000179-2419-d250-a579-e41d385d0000

Gov. Rauner Promises To Increase Funding For Education

Dusty Rhodes

 

Governor Bruce Rauner visited a handful of schools in central Illinois today to talk to students. 

At Lanphier High School in Springfield, the governor spent about 15 minutes talking to a library full of kids. His message: Education is the key to success, and he’s going to improve education in Illinois. 

“It’s the number one priority,” Rauner said. “To me, for my wife and me, there’s nothing more important than education.  And we’re dedicated to your education, to make sure it’s as best as it can possibly be.” 

He promised to increase education funding and school choice, but offered no details on how he plans to do that. 

“Even though we’ve got a financial crisis, and some departments and some services are going to have to be cut, because we don’t have the money, today, for them, I’m going to increase education funding," Rauner said. "Just move it up and make it a priority.”

Rauner traced the birth of his political career back to efforts to promote school choice, in the form of charter schools. He says Illinois ranks last in education funding, and hinted that details on how he will correct this situation will be revealed in his budget address next week. Illinois faces multi-billion-dollar budget deficits.

The biggest round of applause came when the governor was inducted into Lanphier High School’s John Marshall Club, which is open to anyone. Membership requirements involved signing a register and eating an Oreo cookie.

 

After a long career in newspapers (Dallas Observer, The Dallas Morning News, Anchorage Daily News, Illinois Times), Dusty returned to school to get a master's degree in multimedia journalism. She began work as Education Desk reporter at NPR Illinois in September 2014.