A large crowd gathered Wednesday night in the Taylorville High School Cafeteria for a town hall meeting on Senate Bill 1 and school funding reform. The meeting was put on by State Senator Andy Manar, Taylorville School District Superintendent Dr. Gregg Fuerstenau, and the Citizens for Education committee.

Although Manar was part of putting the town hall together, he was surprisingly not in attendance Wednesday night. Dr. Fuerstenau says the reason why Manar was not there is a good sign for Illinois students.

Fuerstenau says Senate Bill 1 has been very well researched, with impacts and future scenarios well played out. The bill has taken many forms over the past four years in Congress, leading to this year’s Senate Bill 1. He says this is the first school funding reform bill that the majority can agree on, but Governor Rauner’s amendatory veto “blows up” most of what local school districts are looking for from school funding reform.

Fuerstenau says the biggest issues with the amendatory veto from the governor is that no one knows what the results of his veto would be because no one has researched the outcomes as thoroughly as the original Senate Bill 1.

The Senate has 15 days from August 1st to take an action on SB1, whether it be to override the Governor’s veto or to approve the Governor’s changes. If no action is taken, the bill will be killed and lawmakers will be back at square one with schools having to wait longer for state aid.