Gov. Pat Quinn is currently holding a press conference during which he will explain his budget-cutting plans. While he's not expected to dig into Illinois' General State Aid appropriation, which means the state's very low per-pupil foundation level will stay level, the State Board of Education has already agreed to cut nearly $300 million from its FY 2011 budget. On the chopping block are arts and foreign language curriculum, advanced placement classes, alternative schools for at-risk kids, and school breakfast programs -- all of which will disproportionately affect disadvantaged schools.

The practical implications of the state's education funding flaws are clear. Check out this 2009 Department of Education data (PDF) collected by the Washington Post's Dylan Matthews. In 2007, only nine states had a wider reading achievement gap (between black and white students) than Illinois at the fourth-grade level. Worse yet, we had the third-widest gap when it came to math scores.

Until the state reforms its inequitable school funding system, it's unlikely that those gaps are going to narrow.