VOCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY ACT

Creates the Vocational Academy Opportunity Act. Creates 2 vocational academies, one located in Cook County and the other in a downstate county, which shall be residential institutions. Provides that each academy shall be a State agency, funded by State appropriations, private contributions, and endowments. Provides that the academies shall be governed by a single Board of Trustees for the collective operation and oversight of the academies. Provides for the membership of the Board. Specifies the duties and powers of the Board. Provides that each academy shall be empowered to lease or purchase real and personal property on commercially reasonable terms for the use by the academy. Fiscal Note, House Floor Amendment No. 1 (State Board of Education) House Bill 27 (H-AM 1) would increase the Evidence-Based Funding (EBF) gap to adequacy. EBF provides funding to two existing laboratory schools. Based on the fiscal year 2019 EBF calculations, the Final Adequacy Target for the two existing non-residential laboratory schools, adjusted for regionalization, averaged nearly $10,700 per student. This fiscal note assumes that each new vocational academy would have an average student enrollment of 250 students per grade or 750 per school. Based on the FY19 EBF calculations mentioned above, the estimated state resources needed for the EBF formula would be $7.2 million for each vocational school to be funded at 90% adequacy for a total of $14.4 million. The bill does not provide a mechanism for the new school districts to receive a Base Funding Minimum from EBF for the new vocational schools. This bill would also impact EBF Tier funding amounts received by other school districts in the future as a result of reduced enrollment for a school district that has a pupil enroll in one of the new vocational academies. The bill also has an inconsistency with the definition Of "Average Student Enrollment" in Section 18-8.15 of the School Code. This estimate does not include construction costs nor the operational costs of housing students in a residential facility as the bill authorizes the school districts to use a cost recovery fee for these costs. The fiscal impact to the Illinois State Board of Education's operating budget cannot be determined at this time but there will be operational costs to comply with the provisions of House Bill 27 (H-AM 1). Fiscal Note, House Floor Amendment No. 2 (State Board of Education) House Bill 27 (H-AM 2) creates the Vocational Academy Opportunity Act and four public vocational academies which shall also be residential institutions. The bill provides that each academy shall be its own school district and funded as a laboratory school from the Evidence-Based Funding (EBF) formula The local capacity percentage for these new vocational academies in the EBF formula would be set at 10% in the absence of local tax resources. House Bill 27 (H-AM 2) would increase the EBF gap to adequacy. EBF provides funding to two existing laboratory schools. Based on the fiscal year 2019 EBF calculations, the Final Adequacy Target for the two existing non-residential laboratory schools, adjusted for regionalization, averaged nearly $I0,700 per student. This fiscal note assumes that each new vocational academy would have an average student enrollment of 250 students per grade or 750 per school. Based on the FY19. EBF calculations mentioned above, the estimated state resources needed for the EBF formula would be $7.2 million for each vocational school to be funded at 90% adequacy for a total of $28.8 million. The bill does not provide a mechanism for the new school districts to receive a Base Funding Minimum from EBF for the new vocational schools. This bill would also impact EBF Tier funding amounts received by other school districts in the future as a result of reduced enrollment for a school district that has a pupil enroll in one of the new vocational academies. The bill also has an inconsistency with the definition of "Average Student Enrollment" in Section 18-8.15 of the School Code. This estimate does not include construction costs nor the operational costs of housing students in a residential facility as the bill authorizes the school districts to use a cost recovery fee for these costs. The fiscal impact to the Illinois State Board of Education's operating budget cannot be determined at this time but there will be operational costs to comply with the provisions of House Bill 27 (H-AM 2).