By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
Too many Illinoisans have yet to connect the dots between their outrageous property taxes – the highest in the country – and the huge amount of money Illinois politicians keep pouring into K-12 education, now at $24,000 per student and highest in the Midwest. Education spending typically makes up anywhere from 50% to 70% of an Illinoisan’s property tax bill, so keeping a close eye on education spending matters.
Take a look at how fast education spending has gone up in the last 25 years. In 2000, the state spent $16.2 billion overall, including all state, local and federal dollars and covering everything from classrooms to pensions and debt. If that spending had grown at the pace of inflation, today the total K-12 spend in Illinois would be $29.5 billion.
But the actual number is far higher. It’s jumped to $43.9 billion. That’s a whopping $14.5 billion more in education spending in 2024 alone.
K-12 spending has increased by 172% since 2000, while inflation is up just 82%. For sure a big chunk of that spending increase has been the spike in pension costs for teachers and staff – some of the biggest pensions in the country – but much of it has come from a big jump in bureaucracy too, as we detail later.
That $14.5 billion is the equivalent of about 40% of all Illinois property taxes, both residential and commercial. So you can imagine what kind of property relief we could see in Illinois today if we made education spending more efficient and more affordable.
The above doesn’t consider the fact that education results are stagnant over the entire period. Only about one-third of Illinois’ students were proficient in math and reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests back in 2003. Two decades later, the results are exactly the same. One-third are proficient.
Spending – and property taxes – have spiked by the billions while student results have flatlined.
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Here’s another angle at how much we overspend.
Based on U.S. Census data, Illinois spent all-in nearly $22,000 per student in 2022. States like Kentucky, Indiana and South Dakota, meanwhile, spend $6,000 to $8,000 less per student than Illinois does, and yet their 4th-grade NAEP results are slightly higher than Illinois’.
How much would Illinoisans save if they spent the same amount per student as Indiana? $7,000 less per student on 1.9 million Illinois students totals about $13 billion in savings. That’s similar to the $14.5 billion we calculated above. Again, imagine the big property tax relief if only Illinois education spending was far more efficient.
You hear all the time from politicians that Illinois’ education system needs more money. From Quinn to Rauner to Pritzker, they’ve all parroted that line over and over. They’ve thrown billions more dollars at schools in search of “adequacy,” and yet our research, like The evidence so far on Illinois’ ‘Evidence-Based Funding’ for K-12 schools: It’s a flop and The big myth that needs debunking: Illinois needs more money for education, shows all that money hasn’t worked.
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What could Illinois’ education system cut back on to allow a major rebate?
It could start by consolidating its bloated education bureaucracy, one of the largest in the country with 860 separate school districts, many of them overlapping and duplicative. Many of those districts are home to highly-compensated superintendents and their big staffs. Check out the list of top pensioners from Chicago’s Southland school districts alone.
Non-teacher staffing is another thing to cut back on. The number of school and district administrators statewide has ballooned 70% since the turn of the millennium. And other certified staffing has risen an incredible 318%. There are 54,000 more other staff today than 25 years ago, even though student enrollment over that same period has dropped by nearly 100,000.
School choice through vouchers and education savings accounts of $8,000 to $12,000 would also save billions for the state, particularly in Chicago where per student spending is now at $30,000 per student.
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Illinoisans deserve major tax relief immediately. WalletHub just released its newest report that shows Illinoisans now pay the highest state and local tax burden in the country.
But tax relief won’t happen until Illinoisans finally demand it.
Read more from Wirepoints:
- A sample of trans-genderism taught in Illinois 4th-grade classrooms
- One big example of why Illinois badly needs a DOGE of its own
- No matter what Pritzker or the Tribune says, Illinois’ NAEP education results are abysmal
- Nation’s Report Card results are in: Illinoisans spend billions more on education, yet 2024 reading results are still below 2019 levels
- Illinois has more educators, less students than ever, yet officials complain about a ‘teacher shortage’
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
Great data. Please run the same for public universities.
36% of the top pensioners on the list are from Bremen CHSD 228. Amazing.
Test scores won’t improve until Common Core is abandoned. Ask any parent who tries to help their children with homework: It is complete insanity and gobbledygook. It’s nearly impossible these days for parents to help their children because common core is a really crazy way to teach student basic and mundane concepts. Smart children will always be eager to learn and understand the concepts but the rest of students are left hanging in the wind, which is why large percentages of children these days are unable to read. There’s a direct casual relationship in Illinois between student performance the introduction… Read more »
No increases for pensions until. Test scores improve and teacher absences decrease.
Illinois has had problems not funding pensions since the start in 1917.
https://www.teacherpensions.org/blog/illinois%E2%80%99-long-history-short-funding
“For sure a big chunk of that spending increase has been the spike in pension costs for teachers and staff “ By far the largest part of the pension expense is the debt from not paying what should have been paid years ago. The current state actuarial pension cost would be around $4 billion per year versus the $16 billion needed to actually balance the budget. The state would have $6 billion available for tax cuts if they hadn’t borrowed from pensions all these years. The budget would actually be truly balanced as well. Voters allowing elected officials to run up… Read more »
>Most generous pensions in the country
>thousands upon thousands of six-figure pensions
>pensions consume 21% of the state budget
>pensions consume even more at county, township and local level
>PPF says “YOU AREN’T FEEDING THE BEAST ENOUGH PENSION MONEY”
Pensions consume roughly 8% of the budget not 21%. The remainder of that expense is debt from skipping pension payments in prior years. I’m saying you borrowed the money by diverting funding from pensions when they were far more affordable and YOU NEED TO PAY MORE MONEY FOR PENSIONS now that you lived beyond your means. That’s what happens when you become addicted to debt.
Why do you lie so much, PPF? Why do you lie? Just be truthful for once:
Despite taking up 20% of the state’s general funds and $11.6 billion in total, experts said lawmakers still underpaid the five statewide government retirement plans.
Pension expenses are the single-largest item in the state budget, taking up nearly $10.5 billion, or 20%, of the state’s general funds budget, and nearly $11.6 billion across all state funds.
https://www.illinoispolicy.org/pensions-eat-up-11-6b-of-illinois-budget/
I realize you know the difference is point of view, but a few others may not. You’re both half-right, let’s say. The truth is that the direct payment to pensioners is about 8%, but the state has underpaid the various pension funds for so long that it takes roughly 20% of the state’s annual budget to pay the 8% to pensioners and the remaining 12% to the creditors who over many, many years lent the state the funds to do that. This is a perfect example of what happens when you—or any entity—borrow(s) money and consistently pay your creditors less… Read more »
Not quite James. I am talking about the “normal” costs of pensions if the pension funds were 100% funded. It’s not that 8% goes to pensioners and the other 12% goes to the pension funds. It all goes to the pension funds but the part that isn’t the “normal” costs of pensions is the remainder that is for the unfunded liability from all the pension shortages from the Edgar ramp as well as other pension holidays. I was incorrect on my 8% number though. The normal cost for pensions is less than 5% of our state budget.
No lie told although I was off on my 8%. It’s actually around 2.5 billion in normal costs and the rest is for the unfunded liability. The normal cost is, in essence, the present value cost of the benefits accrued in a given fiscal year. Put differently, if the respective systems were 100% funded, the State of Illinois would be obligated to pay the employer normal cost only, meaning there would be no amortization payments of the unfunded liability. The FY 2025 employer normal cost accounts for approximately 20% of the preliminarily-certified FY 2025 State contributions to TRS ($1.32 B),… Read more »
My view on this is that I wish the state had tried to properly fund the pensions all along. If they did, everybody would have seen that they were not affordable all along, they would have been fixed and the crisis averted.
I watched extremely excellent Youtube Jamie Sprayregan interview from 8 days ago on Public Affairs show (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASD4RTbQBcI) where he points out that Illinois 70s constitutional pension amendment was copied from NY 1930’s constitutional pension amendment but without the funding language. And then not sure what he’s referring to, I Google and read very excellent Liz Bauer article (wow, I miss her writing) from 2020 (https://www.forbes.com/sites/ebauer/2020/12/19/why-are-new-yorks-state-pensions-fully-funded-because-they-have-to/) where she clarifies this stark difference between Illinois & NY pensions and hence disastrous unfunded mess Illinois is in. The Springfield (Madigan) geniuses way back in 1970s either intentionally or unintentionally left out the funding… Read more »
We are posting that shortly. It’s excellent.
It was intentional.
While Delegate Green was under the misimpression that the
New York constitutional language expressly “mandated that state
to fully fund” its public pension funds “in two years”, he clarified
that the pension proposal was not offered to compel such a result
in Illinois.
The sponsors of the amendment left out the funding mechanism on purpose.
My issue is I wish the state never would have agreed to accept the cost shifting on accelerated pensions. The school districts played the game with employees nearing retirement by jacking up their pay to enhance the calculation on their pensions. Then sent the bill on to Springfield to pay. Now Springfield is sending the bill to us.
Possibly Mark. That’s why my view is we should pay the actuarial required payment NOW and force elected leaders to make a choice between new taxes and new spending. It would be nice if we didn’t have this crisis but that’s not the current issue. Our only choice is to solve the issue by paying down the debt at the expense of other spending or paying more in taxes.
Once passed, the Illinois Receivership Act will permit appointment of a receiver to protect public employees not retired from payouts from the underfunded plans that jeopardize pensions of those employees and may also protect continuation of other public services jeopardized by unsustainable contributions. Reality must intrude. RIP USAID. Read the bill and let me know if you agree … and if you disagree kindly provide rationale. Whoever was at fault is either immune or uncollectable and it’s past time to modify a contract that’s impossible to perform — either economically or politically.
“Whoever was at fault is either immune or uncollectable”
That’s true but It’s collectable from the current taxpayers. As far as the Receivership Act, the GA has no authority to pass ANY act that impairs or diminishes pensions. This has been litigated and discussed extensively. Reality will intrude and that means less spending elsewhere and more taxes. The problem is many refuse to accept this reality and continue to kick and scream that taxes can’t be raised any more while taxes continue to increase.
But we’re still grossly under-funding the kiddies according to the EBF?? What a complete scam
There is no correlation between education spending and student test scores.
No Pension should be more than the maximum Social Security payment, they should have 401k style savings programs to make up the anymore retirement income needed. No way should anyone retire before age 67 just like Social Security. Most are now in their mid 50’s and will get paid for more that 30 years with 3% annual increases, this is unsustainable by the taxpayers. It is the largest generational theft in history. Shameful that this should be allowed.
Then you would also need to start contributing to employees social security. So now the public employer would need to pay 6.2% of the employees salary to SS. Throw in another 4-6% in a 401k match. That’s more expensive than what the state is paying for current pension benefits which has been estimated at less than 9%. Yes the state pays more than 9% of salaries towards pensions but 75% of that spending is for pas debt from the state skipping payments. While I support your idea for new employees because it would force the state to fund retirement benefits… Read more »
Not so, a matching amount maximum of $5,000 per year on the 401 K. Social Security stops at $176,000 per year. Most government employees make less. Do not start paying benefits until age 67. Let them work the same as a private sector employee. Do not increase pension amounts any more than SS does or even less.
You can’t pay less than social security without triggering safe harbor issues. This would cause the public employer to also kick in 6.2%. Again, how does that save money? Your solutions to “fix” this only create more costs. You can collect SS at 62 and don’t need to wait until 67. This is the same as tier 2. What you are proposing is already law. You are offering unneeded and unhelpful solutions while being massively uninformed.
1. It’s what the voters want! The voters want nothing more than to shower more money and benefits on the school system.
2. But they have a contract! Contracts signed 40 years ago absolutely should bind people who were 5 years old at the time. There is nothing more sacred than a contract!
3. If you don’t like it, move! It’s the obvious fair solution.
Hope I didn’t forget any of the serious points in favor of continuing down this path.
“It’s what the voters want! The voters want nothing more than to shower more money and benefits on the school system.” The voters seem to like the current system or they are free to vote for different school board members that can change this trajectory. Otherwise they are supporting/condoning these decisions. So it must be what the voters want. “But they have a contract! Contracts signed 40 years ago absolutely should bind people who were 5 years old at the time. There is nothing more sacred than a contract!” Contracts are re-negotiated every two to five years. None of these… Read more »
“Just kidding, we all know that you won’t do anything about it other than complain.”
No, we vote, the most powerful tool we have…but our collective votes mean nothing in a one-party state.
Which means you need to engage with people that may currently disagree with you in order to convince them to be persuaded by your political views. That’s hard to do when you dehumanize the opposition as people that “hate” you as you so often drone on about. Good luck with that plan.
I am not sure stating it is what the voters want is entirely accurate. Most voters in the one party state are not bright enough or curious enough to understand the math. Mark Glennon mentioned this with regard to a significant majority of the Chicago City Council in authorizing $830M in borrowing with the final principal amount to be paid over 20 years from now at a cost of over $2B. Most of the council according to a source are too dim to understand the consequences of what they were voting for. Of course the loan proceeds may be spent… Read more »
Perhaps we should call it “the voters are getting what they THINK they want”. I also understand your point that not all voters are knowledgeable to choose wisely but that is one of the side effects of a democracy and even a republic. It’s probably why our founders originally just wanted land owners to vote. Even when the voters choose candidates that make poor decisions and implement things that they may not want, their lack of attention to these details and their overall lack of knowledge is at least getting them the government they deserve.
Teacher pensions share the same pedestal as the 1st Amendment. I’ll file that one with the comment that teachers are just like doctors, since doctors sometimes lose patients.
Your simple mind once again gets confused. Contracts and the right to not have private property stolen, share the same pedestal as the first amendment. In this case that contract happens to be for public employees. These are core values that we have all agreed to live by. Unfortunately for you, these core values prevent you from stealing other people’s property.
Even the IRS and big banks recognize that sometimes it’s in the best interest of both parties to negotiate a settlement on a debt.
You know who never ever negotiates? The thugs who use baseball bats or guns to collect.
At least they don’t try to tell us they are defending the Constitution by doing it.
It’s not in the pensioners best interest to negotiate away something that is owed to them and required by the IL Supreme Court. People that are holding the advantage don’t negotiate away debt because they know they will be paid first. The state has vast power to cut other spending as well as great power to raise taxes. Now we’ve been told that raising taxes will cause everyone to leave and tax revenue will plummet. Yet that hasn’t happened. Plenty of tax dollars to continue paying pensions.
The thugs wielding bats also count on the fact that legal avenues of recourse have been cut off.
No need for a bat when you are holding all the legal cards. We will save that for those without solid contracts that must be paid. It’s you that’s trying to violate the law just like a common street thug.
I think negotiating a realistic solution in which both sides must give up something is the only option here. Does that make me a street thug? Refusing to negotiate any change is the modus operandi of the criminal element.
At least the guys with the bats did lend you the money. They actually performed on the contract they are beating you up over.
You and others aren’t looking to “negotiate”. When have you or anyone else tried to negotiate with a pensioner? That’s a flat out lie. You and others are looking to steal from them through some fantasy legal loop hole. The courts have told you this is not allowed yet you continue to try and steal like a common street thug. You somehow think the laws don’t apply to you. Also, why would someone negotiate with the state for a reduced pension when a realistic solution already exists? The debt is owed by ALL Illinois taxpayers so the most realistic solution… Read more »
Public employees have destroyed Illinois. You should brag to everyone how you make the taxpayers suffer.
They only way out now is to get out, the roads are crowded with rich people leaving. Best of luck getting the new poor immigrants to pay the bills.
Don’t kid yourself. Those thugs were and still are part of the union leadership who owned the politicians that set up this racket. In my view anything union is the mob and thus invalid. Anyone who grew up here or dealt with any type of union knows there’s dark forces behind them.
One major reason not mentioned in this article is Ptell. The taxing bodies in a Ptell county will not get less revenue than the year before regardless of property values. So if your home drops in value by half over time the tax rate will double to compensate like it did during the housing crash. If they go up by the same percentage they are limited to 5% or 1/2 of inflation which ever is less. With Ptell there is no reason for the taxing bodies to reign in their costs. They will get the same plus up to 5%… Read more »
Sounds like PTELL needs to be ****-canned or at least revised.
Ah, yes . . . Ptell. In a budget meeting last year in a nearby town . . . Question: do we really need to take the full 5% Ptell property tax revenue increase for next year? Answer by prominent town council member, “If we don’t take it, it’s like leaving money on the table.” Result: the town’s call for revenue goes out at 4.95% or 4.98% above last year’s. Among other problems with this tax-generating system, the town library board seems to have a difficult time stashing all the cash they take in under the Ptell increases.
Uh oh……somebody is confusing a Democratic Party grift mechanism with education again…….