By Kevin Bessler | The Center Square
A new study shows that Illinois continues to pump money into education without seeing tangible results.
The Reason Foundation found that Illinois’ inflation-adjusted education revenue grew from just over $13,000 per K-12 student in 2002 to over $20,000 per student in 2020, a growth rate that ranked third highest in the U.S.
“A lot of it is driven by teacher pension debt and Illinois is a pretty good example of this trend,” said Aaron Smith, director of Education Reform and co-author of the study. “During the time period we examined, their per student spending on benefits went up nearly 200%.”
That ranks Illinois second in the country, going from $2,024 per student in benefits spending to $6,062 per student. In 2020, Illinois had $22.56 billion in total education debt, up $2,934 per student in real terms since 2002.
Despite the increase in spending, the study found that between 2002 and 2020, Illinois’ total student population declined by about 6%. At the same time, the number of teachers increased by 2.5%. During that time, U.S. public school enrollment increased by 6.6% while total staff grew by 13.2%.
During this time, Illinois’ eighth grade reading scores decreased by two points, ranking 29th in the country.
“One of our findings was that there isn’t a consistent relationship between funding growth and student outcomes,” Smith said.
More here.
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