CHICAGO (Feb. 21, 2017) – The rallying cry from groups across Illinois is that there is not enough state funding for education. Gov. Bruce Rauner’s school funding commission recently determined an additional $3.5 billion to $6 billion is required to ensure every Illinois school district is adequately funded. However, a new report released today by the nonpartisan Illinois Policy Institute found that the state spends $13,077 per student – far more than any other state in the Midwest. But the vast majority of new state funding for education never makes it to the classroom. The Institute found 89 cents of every new tax dollar collected for education in Illinois goes toward retirement costs. 

Additionally, while critics claim that the state’s funding formulas put poor districts at a disadvantage, the facts prove otherwise. According to data from the Illinois State Board of Education, the quartile of districts with the highest concentration of students in poverty spends more per student than districts with the lowest concentration of students in poverty. 

“You can’t solve education funding problems in Illinois without pension reform and consolidation,” said the Institute’s Vice President of Policy Ted Dabrowski. “As long as there are bloated bureaucracies and executive pay, tinkering with the funding formula won’t matter. Illinoisans already pay the highest property taxes in the nation. Even when we take rich districts out of the equation, we still spend more than our neighbors. More of that money needs to make it to the classroom, and less needs to go toward pensions.” 

The solutions proposed by the Illinois Policy Institute include:

Enacting comprehensive pension reform

• Retirement costs consume nearly 50 percent of the state’s appropriations (excluding Chicago) for education and crowd out funding for classrooms and new programs.

• From 2010 to 2014, 89 cents of every new tax dollar collected for education went to retirement costs.

Consolidating Illinois’ 859 school districts

• Illinois has the fifth-most school districts in the nation, many of which are overlapping and unnecessary.

• Nearly 25 percent of Illinois school districts serve just one school, and over one-third of all school districts have fewer than 600 students.

• Today, there are over 9,000 top school administrators making six-figure salaries; each of these administrators will receive $3 million or more in pension benefits over the course of his or her retirement.

The Illinois Policy Institute’s “Education Finance Solutions” report is available online.

For bookings or interviews: Meghan Keenan, media@illinoispolicy.org or (312) 607-4977