Prairie State Wire

Educational spending per student in Illinois grew by a rate nearly two times that of the national average over a 12-year period, according to a new Wirepoints analysis.

Wirepoints pegged the actual increase at 70 percent between 2007 and 2019, or at $16,227 per student, making Illinois home to the highest rates in the entire Midwest for nine years and running.

Making the trend all the more troubling is the government watchdog found all the spending hasn’t translated into better outcomes for Illinois students, with the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) finding that the state’s test scores have remained flat since 2007.

“This new Census data helps dispel the claim that Illinois needs billions in additional Pre-K to 12 funding,” said Wirepoints president Ted Dabrowski. “Gov. Pritzker, like Gov. Rauner before him, has embraced the ‘underfunded’ narrative in Illinois education and continues to push for additional funding every year. But what’s lost in the spending demands of lawmakers and education officials is that Illinoisans already pay the 10th-highest overall tax burden – along with the nation’s 2nd-highest property taxes – for a system that largely fails to deliver student achievement.”

As Illinois ranked 12th among all states in total per student spending and eighth when cost-of-living is factored in, neighboring states have amassed better student outcomes in recent times while spending as much as 60 percent less per student.

Data shows students in those states regularly outscored Illinois students on the NAEP. For example, Illinois fares worse in NAEP proficiency in fourth-grade math versus all its neighbors except Michigan.

“Lawmakers should discuss how to better spend the education money Illinois already has,” Dabrowski added. “But first, they have to acknowledge how much Illinois already spends and how little student achievement has improved, despite billions in additional funding over the years. Illinois has hundreds of overlapping, duplicative school districts, a bloated administrative bureaucracy, overgenerous retirement perks, a regressive pension funding system, and more, that have siphoned away billions in direct funding for classrooms and Illinois’ neediest districts.”