Illinois Superintendent of Schools Tony Sanders | Greg Bishop / The Center Square
By Jim Talamonti | The Center Square
In return for soaring state spending on education, Illinois taxpayers are getting chronic absenteeism, poor academic proficiency and declining enrollment from the state’s public schools.
The Illinois Policy Institute found that Illinois’ education budget increased by nearly $4 billion over the last decade, while the number of students enrolled in public schools decreased by about 177,000 during the same period.
Illinois Policy Institute Policy Analyst Hannah Schmid said poor academic proficiency and chronic absenteeism are coming at a higher cost.
“So the state spending has grown over two times faster than student achievement has grown. We’ve actually seen achievement in math decline over the past few years,” Schmid told The Center Square.
The state’s education budget for the 2025-26 school year is a record-high $11.2 billion.
“Spending is up 24%, reading is just up 9% and math has actually dropped by 11%, so we’re seeing poor outcomes for students,” Schmid said.
According to the Illinois State Board of Education’s Illinois Report Card, the state’s public school students had a chronic absenteeism rate of 26.3% last year.
More here.