However, if Blagojevich insists on trying to squeeze school funding out of the already dry well of the state’s general fund, he may be remembered not as a fiscal conservative, but as a man who lacked the political will to finally fix things for kids.
So, no mention of Jim Edgar’s lie about doing the tax swap during the 1994 campaign and then turning around and attempting exactly that?
I’m happy to slag on the Governor, but let’s not forget the garbage that got us into this place. Edgar is one of the most popular public officials in the State of Illinois to this day, but he lied about school funding and then failed to pass it. It’s hard to say that such a stance is going to hurt a Governor’s legacy.
That said, the rest of the column lays out a clear and coherent argument about the problem with the current system, but it doesn’t go far enough.
Over reliance on property taxes hurts rural schools and inner ring suburbs (AKA Daily Southtown areas) harder than areas that are relatively property rich. That is where the school are hit the hardest.
Ideally, a system should be set up where the State provides a minimum amount a community needs to run a school system and then it can tax itself if it wants to improve that level of education. With the state of the rural economy, the capacity to tax many rural districts is very, very small.
The problem is that we also simply have too many school districts. Many of the rural districts need to be forced to consolidate and when they do that, they need to be assured the consolidation assistance is there for them.
Unfortunately, there’s no silver bullet for public-school financing. In Oregon, where I grew up, we’ve tried the guaranteed state-provided minimum coupled with a local option for additional taxes, and that only works well in high property value areas where people are willing to pay high property taxes (our equivalent of Evanston or Highland Park, say).
What the state should consider, given my experience at home, is mandate a minimum level of funding per student, allow districts to set individual per-student levels at or above that, and provide a certain chunk from the general fund towards the minimum for districts that need it (and grade the district block grants from zero to some maximum, based on assessed tax base). That should appease the poorer school districts, which struggle to pay for schools, and the wealthier school districts, which would still be free (as always) to overpay for their kids’ education.
The problem isn’t in school funding, in Illinois from 1995 to 2003 school funding per student has increased over inflation by $1600, there is plenty of funding to go around. The school district administrators presuppose a driver contrary to conventional wisdom. It’s not about the students, but about the system. In today’s Herald article, “Dist. 15 Tax Hike Barely Rejected”, administrators from the district are quoted as saying, “All interscholastic sports, clubs and field trips will be eliminated, saving about $200,000”
The essence of this approach (indifference to the impact to the student) is failed. Unfortunately it is an approach I see my own district articulating as a reaction to rejected tax hikes. Over the past few months, I’ve read accounts in print media of “high paid salaries” across school districts in Lake county, so I decided to research things out for myself on district 15. Just some data from the 2003-2004 ISBE Teacher Service Record on compensation (social worker and librarian are for 10 months):
ASSISTANT district superintendent – $209,000.00
ASSISTANT district superintendent – $203,000.00
District superintendent – $195,000.00
Social worker – $135,000.00
Librarian/media specialist – $132,000.00
“ALL interscholastic sports, clubs and field trips” or “egregious district salaries” – this would not be a starting point for identifying the minimum amount a community needs to run a school system.
I need to change jobs. Where was that Librarian position?
As Zoe put it, “The problem isn’t in school funding”. She is right, funding for schools increased 70% over that time period while the student population increased barely 5%. We have a spending problem in Illinois.
I homeschool my kids now because of the public schools. A coworker of mine does as well. New buildings don’t make good schools.
Crystal Lake Area High School District 155 appears to be a well run district. Check out this article. They hold the line on spending and get results.
Wow. No kidding, there’s a spending problem here in Illinois. If only my school district had had that kind of funding, maybe we would still have had a band program…
The year I reported on the school board’s search for a new head, the superintendent of the Portland Public Schools — the largest school district in the state of Oregon — was paid about $100,000. Of course everyone used to say, the reason we couldn’t attract a superintendent is that we wouldn’t pay them what they’d deserve for the hassle of running a unified district of 40,000 students.
I mean, I’m sure the cost of living is a tad higher in Lake County than in Multnomah County, but even still.
Of course, you can one of the highest paid administrators in the state and post their numbers. The overall situation is nowhere near as bleak as you portray.
” the range of salaries for superintendents in the state varies from a low of $58,468 to a high of $255,744, the average salary for all superintendents reflects a 10 percent increase from $109,228 in 2002-03 to $120,398 for the 2003-04 school year. This average includes all types and sizes of districts.”
Source: Illinois School Board Journal, January/February 2004
http://www.iasb.com/files/j4010203.htm
The fact that a few rich school districts overpay their management is not an argument to starve every school district of money. I’ll agree with AP that the problem is the disparity in resources between various districts. Some districts can afford to overpay. Those folks that allow that to happen should be brought to account, but don’t punish everyone in the state to punish a few spendthrift school boards.
Wes –
District 15 is even worse than that. The superintendent that just retired made $363,000 in salary his last year. He retired getting a $183,000 / a year pension.
I live in D15, and they had the gall to ask for money money via referendum earlier this week ‘or else’. I think I am going to start a D15 watchdog blog.
More about this later, but the stunning thing for people who read the original post is that I tend to think the swap ought to be revenue neutral overall–and then let people argue over the rate for local taxes.
In the case of Palatine those are very high numbers and they appear to be the perfect example of the problem with pensions for highly paid personnel. Nearly every one of those cited is near retirement–and it looks like big pay hikes over the last year following that pattern. Frankly, that’s a local issue and not really relevant to the point. Go through and look at the largely rural and inner ring suburbs and notice the pay disparities. Certainly there are differences based upon cost of living, but that doesn’t make the biggest difference.
Now, one assumption made by many is that any tax swap is going to increase overall funding because wealthy districts will insist on a hold harmless clause. I can live with that assuming we deliver help to those who need it–though I’d prefer not to have it.
Revenue Neutral!? The whole scheme is being cooked up to cover a $2 billion “structural deficit!”
It is a net loser for any county above the income average line, and a possible net gain for the poorest counties and poorest districts. (I personally get screwed to the tune of about $1000 – and it will get even worse as the “abatement” disappears to nothing in 2 years)
The fact is that it is entirely un-necessary. You want to give more money to the poor districts; take it from the rich. Deerfield gets $5.2 million from the state while taxing its citizens into oblivion.
Voucherize the few Deerfield residents who qualify for aid, fire the bureaucratic bloat, and give the money to Bellwood. (force them to fire some bloat too)
I’ve been attending Speaker Madigan’s dog & pony shows, and they are unwittingly making the case for reaming out the education sector.
One of their slides shows that from 1987 thru 2003, the number of students in IL public schools rose 13% while spending on Education rose 157%!
All the ISAB cooked stats in world can’t hide what that figure represents, a wholesale capitulation to the government/education complex – in terms of featherbedding, over-staffing, over-building and other favorites of the protected monopoly.
All this talk of a tax swap could cease if our legislature just converted that 157% growth to a “rainy day fund,” gave the community colleges, women’s shelters, and libraries the support they deserve, all from the pocket books of the voracious edu-ma-cation sector.
And we haven’t even covered how this tax increase will affect the IL business climate…
Bruno writes, “…, fire the bureaucratic bloat, …” I couldn’t agree with this point any more, unless I wrote it myself, Bruno beat me to it.
I quote from FlakCat’s ISBJ source (http://www.iasb.com/files/j4010203.htm),
“The Teacher Service Record data aggregates the results of 442 district reports, from 889 possible districts …”
So let me get this straight, there are 889 possible district superintendents AND (a stretch here) at least 889 ASSISTANT superintendents (District 15 has two ASSISTANTs) in Illinois.
Let me do the math, avg. 2003-2004 district superintendent salary is $120,398.00 so the grand total is (drum roll please) $107,033,822.00
My GOD that’s in dollars not lira. (I actually had to enter this into the calculator a few times to make sure I didn’t FAT FINGER and extra zero.)
I live in D15 with children attending the schools there. I want my children to be able to compete in a global marketplace well educated and with the ability to run, draw, play music, play sports…..
If the D15 referendum fails they WILL cut 2.1 million dollars from the budget eliminating phys ed for grade schoolers (look how fat our country is already); language; technology; art; music; afterschool programs; middle school children WILL get our at 1:15 with NO programs available for them to occupy time.
I do not wish to pay higher taxes but will do so gladly to ensure my kids get a good education. Also, if the referendum fails you WILL see property values in McHenry DECREASE and crime will INCREASE. The state WILL come in and take over the school district and they WILL raise taxes without homeowners approval. Some Illinois districts have seen 60% increases in taxation…..
Vote YES D15 or we will pay the consequences in many ways….