School Finance

Nov 25, 2007 - The Daily Herald concluded a 10-part series on "School Finance 101" today.

The series looked at the $171 billion spent on education in Illinois in the last 10 years.

That's $171 billion for teachers, administrators, supplies, transportation, new construction and day-to-day maintenance. The $171 billion came from local sources, including property taxes and school fees; from the state; and from the federal government.

That $171 billion does not include bond loans taken out to build new schools.

All the data can be found online and can be downloaded in Excel format. The 82 area districts are those districts in the newspaper circulation area. The reason for the 10 year analysis is that current 12th-graders started first grade in 1996, the first year covered by their School Finance 101 series.

• 82 area districts spent more than half their revenue outside their classrooms.
• 20 districts spent more than two-thirds of their total revenues outside the class.
• Two districts spent all of their revenue outside the classroom.

- Among the biggest payments reported are those made to health insurance companies and pension funds -- only part of any district's most substantial costs.
- Teacher and administrative average salaries compared 1998 and 2006.
- Super pay for superintendents

The biggest factor in determining the big-ticket salaries that drive up the average? Retirement. Many superintendents have included in their contracts clauses that bump their salaries by as much as 20 percent in each of the final three years before retirement.

- Bond debt isn't included in that $171 billion.
-Illinois schools owed a total of $16 billion in bond loans at the end of the 2005-06 year.

What they got for their money is something else. Only 1 in 5 Illinois seniors will leave school ready for college or the workplace.

Between August 1996 -- when today's seniors began first grade -- and June, taxpayers funneled nearly $200 billion into the Illinois public school system.
Yet, just 21 percent of Illinois seniors leaves the billion-dollar system ready for college -- or the workplace.

About half of area community college students must take remedial classes before beginning college work This fall, nearly two-thirds of Elgin City College freshman had to take one or more remedial classes

The series found no real correlation between expenditures and student performance. Their conclusion was that taxpayers must be willing to demand a better return on their investment in the next 10 years than they got in the past 10.

From 10/31/07 - Grade schools improve, high schools tumble in latest test scores