Gov. Rauner responds after Ill. Senate overrides school funding veto

OAK BROOK, Ill. (WLS) -- There's more back-and-forth between the governor and lawmakers over how to fund public schools in Illinois.

The big disagreement is all over how much money to give Chicago Public Schools versus schools across the rest of the state.

Governor Bruce Rauner blasted State Senate Democrats for overriding his amendatory veto. Rauner said he doesn't want to hurt Chicago school children, but that he also doesn't want to be unfair to suburban and downstate students.

The governor defended his amendatory veto, which Illinois senators decided to override Sunday 38-19.

Rauner's amendatory veto removed hundreds of millions of dollars from what he calls a "bailout" for the nation's third-largest school system.

It redistributed funds and Rauner is promoting that nearly every district would get more money under his plan.

Democrats argued that Chicago educates largely low-income students. They say the Rauner plan simply takes money from one needy district to fund another, but Rauner believes CPS has been mismanaged financially.

"People like to talk about how the mayor and I are fighting or whatever. I like the mayor, we are personally friends. I am very fond of him. I wish he would go back and start to be a reformer again. He's kind of given up on being a reformer. He has stopped trying to reform a system and now he has shifted to try and get a bailout from the rest of the state," Rauner said.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said the senate's vote is a "bipartisan rejection of the governor's divisive politics and of his repeated attempts to pit children with different backgrounds and from different parts of the state against one another."

But the measure will also have to clear the Illinois House, which is set to convene on Wednesday.

The governor made his comments in Oak Brook Monday morning after signing a new bill that would prohibit state-funded programs from expelling children in pre-school.