Right now, the state of Illinois owes tens of millions of dollars to school districts across the QCA, something local educators are saying is making it hard to provide kids with the education they deserve. On Saturday, those teachers met with Rep. Phil Hare to plead their case for federal funding and major changes to No Child Left Behind.

"I think it's really in a crisis situation and it needs to be addressed," says Rowva High School teacher Chris Campagna.

Teachers say their districts are reaching a breaking point when it comes to funding. The state of Illinois owes districts across our area millions of dollars. Without that money, superintendents say they're going to have to make some painful changes.

"The state is behind on funding for our district as they are across the state so yes, we are going to have a budget reduction plan at our March 10th meeting," says Abingdon Superintendent Tami Roskamp. "We have walk-on-water teachers in our district. Since they're non-tenured, those are the ones that would be reduced in a reduction plan."

Many say they're concerned that cutting younger teachers will disrupt students' learning process and could cause long-term problems within districts. Some of them met with Rep. Hare in Galesburg to voice their concerns and plead their case for help from Washington.

"If we don't have the new blood on a regular basis, you're going to lose continuity between the veteran teachers and the younger teachers," Campagna says.

"We want to be able to provide the funds so the schools have the equipment they need and the teachers that they need to do it," Rep. Hare adds.

But funding's not their only concern.

"I feel like my curriculum is driven by two main forces, and one of them is No Child Left Behind," one of the teachers told Hare.

Many say the act is preventing them from doing their jobs as teachers, forcing them to teach to a test instead of simply teaching the material. Rep. Hare agrees, which is why he's pushing his fellow lawmakers to change the bill.

"We fixed it so we can do what's called growth models so we can let our teachers teach kids instead of teaching to a test," Hare says.

Hare says he's going to try and convince lawmakers to funnel federal money into states in order to make up for the lack of local funding. He also thinks the state should look at different ways of funding schools besides property taxes so that the burden isn't entirely on homeowners.

Congress is expected to vote on a revised version of No Child Left Behind this fall. It would include increased funding for schools and more specifically special education, and some say it would relax restrictions on teachers in the classroom, no longer requiring them to teach the test.