Illinois ranks among the 10 states with the greatest disparity of funding between its poorest and richest school districts serving elementary and secondary students, according to a new WalletHub study.
The Prairie State earned an overall score of 39.72 in the study, which focused on two calculations: average household income per school district and public school spending per student. The greater the score, the higher the state’s funding disparity between the richest and poorest districts.
In total, 49 states – Hawaii lacked enough data to be included in the analysis – were ranked based on the average equitability of school districts in these states. Those states with the least equity tend to provide more resources to their more affluent school districts and less to districts with lower-income students, according to WalletHub.
The disparities between richer and poorer districts were exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic, with lower-income students suffering larger gaps in learning as districts moved to partial or total online education, the study found.
Nearly 13,000 school districts across the U.S. were examined in the WalletHub study.
—
How States Rank on Equity in Education Funding
| Overall Rank (1=Most Equity) | State | Total Score |
| 1 | Iowa | 15.91 |
| 2 | Arkansas | 15.99 |
| 3 | North Carolina | 16.09 |
| 4 | Indiana | 17.11 |
| 5 | Florida | 17.93 |
| 6 | West Virginia | 18.04 |
| 7 | Mississippi | 18.56 |
| 8 | Minnesota | 19.71 |
| 9 | South Carolina | 19.89 |
| 10 | Kansas | 20.16 |
| 11 | Nebraska | 20.29 |
| 12 | Wisconsin | 21.14 |
| 13 | South Dakota | 21.31 |
| 14 | Vermont | 21.91 |
| 15 | Wyoming | 22.17 |
| 16 | Tennessee | 22.35 |
| 17 | Alabama | 22.99 |
| 18 | Maryland | 23.03 |
| 19 | Georgia | 23.5 |
| 20 | Utah | 24.53 |
| 21 | Kentucky | 24.75 |
| 22 | Ohio | 24.87 |
| 23 | Louisiana | 25.92 |
| 24 | Texas | 26.49 |
| 25 | Rhode Island | 26.87 |
| 26 | Nevada | 26.88 |
| 27 | Alaska | 27.11 |
| 28 | Michigan | 27.45 |
| 29 | Pennsylvania | 27.53 |
| 30 | Oklahoma | 28.18 |
| 31 | Missouri | 28.42 |
| 32 | North Dakota | 28.96 |
| 33 | Colorado | 28.98 |
| 34 | Washington | 29.36 |
| 35 | Delaware | 29.78 |
| 36 | New Hampshire | 29.82 |
| 37 | Connecticut | 29.86 |
| 38 | New Mexico | 30.72 |
| 39 | Virginia | 30.97 |
| 40 | Idaho | 32.25 |
| 41 | Massachusetts | 33.23 |
| 42 | Maine | 34.1 |
| 43 | New Jersey | 34.35 |
| 44 | Arizona | 36.1 |
| 45 | Oregon | 38.43 |
| 46 | Illinois | 39.72 |
| 47 | Montana | 40.91 |
| 48 | California | 41.82 |
| 49 | New York | 46.92 |
Source: WalletHub.com
