State government's head of schools sent a stark message Thursday about the fallout from his agency's budget: Schools will have to cut at least 13,000 employees, and it could be much worse.
State schools superintendent Chris Koch laid out those likely layoffs and other harrowing possibilities in a two-hour committee meeting of senators considering 10 percent budget cuts throughout state government. Those cuts have been proposed by Democrats but blamed on Republicans as a possible solution to major shortfalls.
Koch said the proposed reductions are no laughing matter, whatever the motive.
"I don't think this is a game having these conversations, and it worries us a great deal," he said. "You can't remove that number of people and not impact instruction. It's going to have an impact on kids and it's going to have an impact on services. This is about people and jobs, that is what this equates to."
The numbers could double, Koch warned.
The 13,000 number - made up mostly of non-tenured teachers and staff -- takes into account the surveying of just 75 percent of all school districts, meaning 25 percent of districts have yet to report their projected layoffs.
The number is also based solely on the expectations the state will fund education at the same rate it did last year.
That flat-level proposal, however, includes the loss of nearly $1 billion in federal stimulus money that is no longer available.
Therefore, the board is requesting the state fill that gap, although it remains unclear if the state will do so. If any reductions - including the 10 percent cuts entertained by the Senate committee - were implemented, the layoff total would multiply significantly.
"Those numbers will go up if there is any type of a reduction and very easily could double," Koch said. "It's not just because of proposed reductions we were talking (at the committee), we are not paying bills on time. Districts have to absorb that all across the state."
More than 80 percent of those layoffs would come from non-tenured teachers and non-certified staff members.
Koch said 5,826 non-tenured teachers would likely get notices, while 5,194 non-certified staff members, 547 tenured teachers, 505 administrators and 402 school service personnel would also get cut.
"We're in unprecedented territory here, Koch said. "This is a huge crisis."
Gail Purkey, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Federation of Teachers, said her office is still gathering information to grasp the scope of the layoffs but is preparing for the worst.
