Rauner Reiterates Promise To Increase Education Funding

Dave Dahl -- Illinois Radio Network

Can you imagine a 17-year-old Bruce Rauner as a public speaker?

The governor told a Springfield classroom Tuesday he was a natural resources advocate and testified at land-use hearings. “My high school club and I,” he said in the Lanphier High School library during a tour of downstate schools, “we won a little award for our work for wilderness preservation … and that got me involved a little bit in testifying and speaking in public. When you’re 17, and you’re going to a land-use hearing, and you have cameras on you – you learn a little bit how the process goes.”

A student called Rauner out on his promises to reduce taxes yet increase education spending. Rauner said with a $35 billion budget, there should always be money available for the top priorities; it’s just that education spending in the past has not been as big of a priority, he said.

“Some departments and some services are going to have to be cut,” he answered, “because we don’t have the money today for them, I’m going to increase education funding.”

The specifics will have to wait, apparently, until at least next week, when Rauner gives his budget address to the legislature.