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Governor's Budget Address Leaves School Districts With Unanswered Questions

Governor Pat Quinn's Budget Address last week left school districts around the area with questions.

While the Governor did spend a lot of time address education, it was mostly directed at higher education, and sending financially challenged students to college, and also early childhood education. Superintendent of the Heyworth School District Randy Merker says, those are great areas of need for the state and he commends the governor for seeking to address those needs.

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The Governor's Budget Address addressed MAP Grants and early childhood education, it lacked on anything in between. Merker points to the governor's lack of addressing areas such as General State Aid, transportation funding, and the possibility of consolidating school districts. He says while Quinn did speak highly of education, his address lacked specifics.

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Merker says Heyworth schools are required to transport their students by school code. Maybe not address transportation funding by the governor could be a good thing, but Merker says he can't help but think that funding may still be eliminated. Merker adds for smaller districts such as Heyworth's, 'consolidation' can sometimes be a buzzword and raises a lot of questions.

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