There was a lot of discussion in Springfield last week about how to deal with the FY 2011 state budget, but little was ultimately accomplished. After Republicans and conservative Democrats voted down a plan to borrow $4 billion to meet this year's pension obligations -- a key component of Gov. Pat Quinn's budget outline -- talks in the House totally shut down on Friday. Things went slightly better in the Senate, where Democrats passed their version of a stopgap budget late Thursday night. The Shriver Center's Dan Lesser broke down their approach yesterday:

$0.6 billion (4%) -- New Revenue [Tax amnesty program, cigarette tax hike]
$0.3 billion (2%) -- Spending Cuts
$1.2 billion (9%) -- Spend all of 17-year proceeds from tobacco settlement this year
$0.6 billion (4%) -- Other
$4.7 billion (35%) -- Borrow
$6.0 billion (45%) -- Unpaid Bills
$13.4 billion -- Total

As Lesser went on to note, $4 out of every $5 the Senate used to "balance" their budget proposal would either be borrowed or obtained by pushing bill payments off into the future.  Indeed, while their package nominally restores $1.3 billion in proposed cuts to education, the revenue streams just aren't large enough to cover the $1.4 billion in back payments Illinois currently owes school districts.

That's the problem facing school administrators across the state as they try to shape their own budgets for next year. At a Springfield press conference this morning, officials from both the Illinois Federation of Teachers and the Illinois Education Association joined Illinois Association of School Administrators executive director Dr. Brent Clark in pointing out that an estimated 20,000 education jobs are on the chopping block.  They went on to note that the only way to reverse these cuts is to pass a budget with enough revenue to guarantee level funding. "When [school administrators] review this budget and they see there has been no change in revenue streams," Clark said, "you're going to see administrators be very cautious.  ... We're not going to see a mass return to work of these people who have received a layoff notice without a structural change in the revenues." Steve Preckwinkle of the IFT added that this "is a budget built on quicksand." Watch:

Even if the General Assembly passed comprehensive tax reform after the elections in November, it won't help teachers and administrators next year. It takes time for new revenue to work its way into the system, meaning the windfall probably won't reach district offices until school lets out for the summer. In the interim, students can expect to experience larger classes, cuts to extra-curricular programs, and the elimination of early education and pre-school classes. "Children only get one chance to learn, grow, and develop into adults," says the IEA's Ken Swanson "Those are losses they will be playing catch-up with for the rest of their learning lives." Watch:

House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) is expected to call his members back into session early next week. We'll be following the final negotiations in Springfield closely.