The Illinois education system includes 800 school districts and more than 4,200 public schools that spend $17.3 billion annually, making it one of the largest enterprises in the state. However, it is unclear whether $17.3 billion is enough to adequately educate all Illinois students. Illinois has many excellent schools but it also is evident that many schools in the state are failing. Most of those failing schools are in communities that serve predominately disadvantaged children.

Federal Mandates Concerning Education

Because of the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law, Illinois has committed over the past five years to having all students meet the Illinois Learning Standards created by ISBE and approved by the legislature and the federal government. By measuring whether students and schools are meeting those standards, we now have a crude metric for determining whether Illinois schools are being adequately funded.

Education Funding in Illinois

School districts are funded by a combination of state, local and federal funds. Illinois state government contributes about 36 percent of school funding, an amount that has stayed flat or slightly decreased over the past few years. By contrast, communities and the federal government have increased their contributions at twice the state rate in the 2005 and 2006 school years. The net result shows that in 2006, Illinois funded slightly more than 35 percent of a school district’s budget with the other 65 percent coming from local and federal government. If you compare these contributions to the six surrounding states, Illinois’ state contributions are the lowest, with Michigan and Minnesota contributing the most at 60.1 percent and 69.6 percent respectively. This disparity of contribution no doubt leads to most of the criticism of Illinois’ state funding for schools. 

Education Funding Standards

The First Class Education organization promotes the concept that states and school districts should spend 65 percent of all school funding on classroom instruction as defined by the NationalCenter for Educational Statistics. Only 21 Illinois schools spend more than 60 percent on instruction. More affluent schools not only spend 30 percent or more on instruction, but spent significantly more money related to enhanced instruction and “bricks and mortar.”

Using Education Funding Effectively

Data moreover suggest that schools demonstrating modest academic gains are increasing their spending at a slightly higher rate than schools with decreasing or stagnant funding.

Schools that have lower funding but get higher achievement results (high payoff schools) are moderately large, (average 1,039 students), with the largest white population (96 percent), 23 percent receiving free/reduced lunch, and get 54 percent of their funding from the community and 41 percent from the state. These are the best value schools in terms of return on investment, and may be able to shed light on our understanding of what works in some high schools. It should be noted that these schools are as diverse or disadvantaged as the larger Illinois student population.

Solutions to Inequity in Illinois Education Funding

It is evident that Illinois has major inequities in the funding of schools, particularly when compared to other Midwestern states. It’s very likely that increased funding, with support and guidance to improve teachers, instruction and support services, can make an improvement in the quality of learning and instruction and subsequent academic outcomes. The low-performing districts have clear academic expectations as delineated by the Illinois Learning Standards. They now need resources to hire and train quality teachers, effective curriculum and instructional practices, support and assessment systems that will guide learning, and a concerted school-community effort for all students to meet these expectations. The commitment to meeting Illinois achievement standards should match the zeal communities have for their basketball or football teams heading to state championships or their dance team heading to a national competition.