Nybo says ‘no’ vote on Senate Bill 1 override was meant for school kids

Sen. Chris Nybo (R-Elmhurst) recently defended his vote against overriding Gov. Bruce Rauner’s amendatory veto of the state’s K-12 funding bill as protecting schoolchildren across Illinois, according to a report from Capitol Fax.

“I could not support the school funding plan presented in the Senate today (Aug. 13), because it does not equitably address funding for all Illinois students,” Nybo said in a statement. “It should not matter where a child is born; every single student has an equal right to earn a quality education.”

Rauner used his veto power to remove provisions added to Senate Bill 1 that he argued were unfairly favorable to Chicago Public Schools. The Senate voted to override his veto, though the vote fell almost exactly along party lines, with the only Republican support coming from Sen. Sam McCann (R-Plainvew). 

“The governor’s amendatory veto made changes to the school funding bill that were both fair and equitable to all 852 school districts in Illinois, and does not unfairly tip the scale toward Chicago schools at the expense of every other school district-like has been done in years past,” Nybo said in a statement. ‘Senate Bill 1 was not the product of bipartisan negotiations, and that is extremely unfortunate because I truly believe good-faith negotiations and bipartisan progress were possible.”