Delivered via email: February 18, 2026
Governor’s Budget Address
Today, Governor JB Pritzker delivered his eighth annual budget address to a joint session of the House and Senate. In his address, Pritzker reiterated his commitment to fiscal responsibility and continuing core investments into early childhood education, K-12 education, higher education, economic development, and efforts to fight poverty. He also focused on the federal funding challenges, court challenges, and uncertainties around federal policies. In the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget’s (GOMB) fiscal policy report, the impact of the recently enacted Budget Reconciliation legislation showed the need for potential cuts of $1.7 billion dollars. The impact will start to be felt in FY2027, but even more so in FY2028. Despite these uncertainties, Governor Pritzker proposed another balanced budget for FY2027, which includes $56 billion in state spending, a 1.5% increase over FY2026.Cell Phones and Social Media
During last year’s budget address, the Governor announced an initiative to ban cell phones in K-12 schools during classroom instruction. This year, he shared the continued importance of this initiative, highlighting that 25 other states have enacted these policies with bipartisan support. It is clear that this continues to be a priority for him. Pritzker also introduced the Children’s Social Media Safety Act to decrease the harmful effects of social media on kids, improve their safety and privacy online, and prevent financial scamming of children. The Governor has proposed a new Social Media Platform Fee — that will generate $200 million per year — and plans to use it to support K-12 education.The Governor’s Proposed Budget For K-12 Education
The proposed fiscal year 2027 budget invests:- EBF: $305 million in additional funds for the Evidence-Based Funding (EBF) formula. This investment brings the cumulative EBF program funds to $9.2 billion.
- MCATs: $51 million more over FY2026 for Mandated Categoricals (MCATs). Though this is an increase, an additional $151 million in MCAT funding is needed to simply keep proration levels flat in FY2027. This proposal is well below what is needed to keep the proration levels flat, which will result in reduced prorations next year for the MCAT line-items. The additional $51 million:
- Fully funds the Special Education-Orphanage Tuition and Regular Orphanage budget lines
- Increases the funding over FY2026 levels for Special Education Transportation by $20 million,
- Increases Special Education Tuition by $20 million, and
- Increases Regular/Vocational Transportation by $10 million. Increases Regular/Vocational Transportation by $10 million.
- IDOT Pilot Program: $35 million to support mass transit costs related to student transportation needs.
- CTE: The budget maintains the current levels of funding to Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs to expand access to underserved students.
- ISBE Numeracy Plan: $1.5 million for implementation of the Illinois Comprehensive Literacy and Numeracy Plan to support tools and resources for teachers and students. IASB has been involved in the development of this plan.
- Grant Programs: The budget also extends funding to two programs:
- The Teacher Vacancy Grant Pilot Program at $15 million, with the Governor noting that the program was set to expire after three years, but due to its success, he is expanding it for an additional year; and
- The Computer Science Equity Grant Program at $1.5 million.
- IMSA: $100 million for the Illinois Math and Science Academy (IMSA) residential complex.
- Area Career Centers (ACC): $50 million for the ACC Initiative to support sites expanding access to vocational training and career pathways.
The Governor’s Priorities for Early Childhood Education
The Department of Early Childhood is in its first official year.- Smart Start: The budget maintains the FY26 level for Smart Start funding at $748 million, which was moved from ISBE’s budget to this new department. The original plan was to add $75 million each year to this budget, but new money was paused for the second year in a row.
- Dolly Parton Imagination Library: The budget includes $2.3 million for this ISBE program which has now delivered free books in the mail each month to 97,000 children.
Higher Education
In higher education, with the goal of keeping students in state, this budget proposes:- Monetary Award Program (MAP): $721.6 million for MAP, which represents an 80% increase since 2019. ISAC projects that more than 150,000 students will receive this award.
- Public Universities: $16 million, or 1%, general funds increase for the operating costs of public universities.
- Diversifying Higher Education Faculty in Illinois (DFI): $2 million for the Diversifying Higher Education Faculty in Illinois (DFI) program.