The most easily disprovable falsehood of this year's gubernatorial campaign also is one that the mainstream media has not bothered to correct, possibly because the purveyors of the tall tale push back so hard when somebody tries to write the facts.

The Associated Press in April uncritically reported a statement by Republican nominee Bruce Rauner, who “criticized Quinn for cutting funding to schools by some $600 million—cuts that led to teacher layoffs and larger class sizes.”

SNIP

A spokesman for Mr. Rauner sent me charts published by the Illinois Commission on Government and Fiscal Accountability, which, the spokesman claimed, showed that nonfederal state education funding “decreased by $551,936,800” from fiscal 2010 (Mr. Quinn's first budget) to the current fiscal year, which began July 1.

SNIP

But the numbers still were wrong, and I sent the spokesman a link to a budget document that showed $791 million in federal money was included in the commission's state money charts (see the PDF). The federal money was “stimulus” aid, a temporary boost intended to help the state through the Great Recession. Mr. Quinn didn't—and couldn't—”cut” federal aid. It expired on its own. You can't blame him for that.
His campaign is missing some important facts.

It turns out that the commission wasn't provided with complete information. It unknowingly mixed the federal stimulus money with state money in the chart that Mr. Rauner was using, according to Dan Long, director of the bipartisan governmental agency.

So a mistake was made. Instead of a cut, spending actually has risen slightly. I was ready to move along if the Raunerites were willing to admit they were wrong. Instead they tried to change the subject.

SNIP

Instead of a big cut, state education funding actually has risen roughly $440 million, to about $6.81 billion in 2015, from nearly $6.37 billion in 2010. Nothing to cheer about but not horrible when you consider that teacher pension spending has increased by about $2 billion during the same period.

“You're just wrong on this,” I emailed Mr. Rauner's spokesman.

“It is true and we will keep correcting you,” he wrote back.

At that point, I rose from my computer and banged my head against the wall.