Prairie State Wire

Illinois’ K-12 instructional spending on benefits such as teacher pensions shot up nearly 175% between 2002 and 2019, the third highest increase of all 50 states, according to a new analysis from the Reason Foundation.

The Los Angeles-based policy institute used U.S. Census Bureau data to plot state-level education spending through 2019, the latest year for which data was available. Overall, during the 2002-2019 time period, the nation saw real K-12 revenues jump 24%, or $3,005 per student, the study found.

In Illinois, the per-pupil spending level reached $18,997 last year, a nearly 48% increase over per-pupil revenue in 2002, according to the Reason Foundation. That was the sixth highest per-pupil revenue among all the states, the researchers found.

The research indicates that benefit spending, which includes educator pensions, teacher health care, retiree health care and other outlays, is a key cost driver for spending on K-12 public schools. As of 2019, Illinois spent $3,622 per student on such instructional benefits, the study said. 

Nationwide, local  revenues made up 45.6% of overall K-12 education spending in 2019, according to the analysis, while states picked up 46.7% of the total tab, the Reason Foundation reported.  

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K-12 Instructional Benefit Outlays by State

Rank	State	2019 Benefit Spending	% Increase in Benefit Spending Since 2002
1	Hawaii	$3,009	234.14%
2	Pennsylvania	$3,772	177.71%
3	Illinois	$3,622	174.76%
4	New York	$5,623	147.15%
5	New Jersey	$3,934	145.03%
6	Connecticut	$4,105	132.57%
7	New Hampshire	$3,207	131.22%
8	California	$2,546	116.52%
9	Alaska	$3,194	113.34%
10	Kentucky	$2,202	108.03%
11	Washington	$2,075	106.06%
12	Vermont	$3,453	102.10%
13	North Dakota	$2,162	88.51%
14	Louisiana	$2,025	85.20%
15	Delaware	$3,409	83.90%
16	North Carolina	$1,524	76.61%
17	Massachusetts	$3,277	75.36%
18	Virginia	$2,116	74.08%
19	Colorado	$1,330	73.04%
20	Maryland	$2,744	71.91%
21	Wyoming	$2,726	69.48%
22	Rhode Island	$3,031	65.88%
23	Arizona	$1,022	62.42%
24	Kansas	$1,360	61.66%
25	Michigan	$2,716	61.41%
26	Tennessee	$1,356	60.00%
27	Nebraska	$1,996	56.81%
28	District of Columbia	$1,876	55.74%
29	Minnesota	$2,016	52.53%
30	Missouri	$1,375	46.53%
31	Oklahoma	$1,168	43.55%
32	Ohio	$1,908	42.98%
33	Oregon	$2,364	42.55%
34	Mississippi	$1,187	39.04%
35	Iowa	$1,678	38.83%
36	New Mexico	$1,361	38.85%
37	Nevada	$1,468	37.92%
38	South Carolina	$1,619	37.41%
39	Alabama	$1,395	35.98%
40	Utah	$1,420	35.50%
41	Georgia	$1,909	32.72%
42	Arkansas	$1,101	30.91%
43	Montana	$1,456	30.75%
44	South Dakota	$1,183	28.30%
45	Maine	$2,388	27.00%
46	Texas	$764	17.49%
47	Florida	$1,030	15.35%
48	West Virginia	$2,108	11.46%
49	Indiana	$1,996	8.70%
50	Idaho	$1,145	5.40%
51	Wisconsin	$2,039	2.67%

Source: Reason Foundation