Wheeling School District 21 To Receive More Than $13M in State Funding

WHEELING, IL — Local school districts like Wheeling School District 21 recently received some good news. According to State Senator Julie Morrison (D-Lake Forest), school districts across Cook and Lake counties will be getting nearly $25 million in funding.

District 21 in Wheeling, which consists of 13 schools in six different communities, received the biggest amount of funding and is set to receive $13,432,736 according to a news release from Morrison's office.

"When schools are adequately funded, students have better outcomes – from better test scores to increased graduation rates," Morrison said. "The additional funding allocated to schools across the area will provide more curriculum options, better facilities, and other resources to help students learn and grow."

Morrison's office said the funding comes from the 2017 Illinois Senate Democrat-backed evidence-based funding formula — "an overhaul of the way the state funds K-12 education."

"The law made school funding more equitable by calculating the needs of individual school districts and basing its state revenue on those needs," the news release reads. "The formula takes into account a district’s total enrollment, poverty rate, the number of special education or English language learners, among other factors."