Family Taxpayers Foundation

The Family Taxpayers Foundation School Accountability Project

Click here to view the list of school districts.

Introduction

Illinois taxpayers have greatly increased funding to the public schools for decades, yet there are never-ending cries for ever higher taxes to pour yet more dollars into the system. The reason for this is that the schools are terribly mismanaged. No amount of money will ever be enough.

The Family Taxpayers Foundation is committed to requiring all Illinois government-run school districts to fully disclose all financial information to the public. Currently, school districts resist efforts to report revenues and expenditures in a clear, understandable standardized format. This is unacceptable, since there is no accountability without transparency.

We are currently analyzing a few hundred Illinois school districts and the findings are startling. Pay increases far outpace those received by workers in the private sector; and estimated pensions for public school teachers and administrators dwarf those received by the very taxpayers who pay the lion’s share of the Teachers Retirement System and other public pension funds.

Click here to view the list of school districts. We'll be posting more over the course of the coming weeks and months.

Every year Illinois taxpayers increase funding to the government-run school system at an average of 6 percent – yet there is a never-ending effort underway to get ever more dollars by both raising property taxes through local referenda and by increasing the income tax via the Illinois General Assembly (which is beholden to the special interest groups).

The fact is that Illinois taxpayers are currently spending over $20 billion dollars to educate 2 million public school students. State funding for education in Illinois has doubled in the last twelve years.

Those who run Illinois’ government-run schools are not fulfilling our state’s constitutional mandate of providing an “efficient system of high quality public educational institutions and services.” We should note that the inclusion of the word “efficient” is not a mistake. The responsibility of those who run the government-run schools is to not be wasteful or unproductive. Instead, the government-run school system in Illinois is the worst-run enterprise in the country.

Instead of higher test scores, we get excuses. Instead of accountability, the schools resist disclosing how they are spending all the tax dollars they’re already receiving. From what little is disclosed, taxpayers have a window into the mindset that produces record spending and mediocre results.

The government-run school system doesn’t have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem. The solution is smarter spending and better management.

Follow these links to read more:

The Political Problem: School Children don't write PAC checks

Why don't we see real education reform? Because of powerful special interest groups.

Funding, Spending and The Money Myth

Illinois taxpayers have greatly increased funding levels and more money doesn’t produce better schools.

What to know about Illinois Public School Teacher and Administrator Pay
Market economics, the pay ratcheting game, and the problem of public sector unions.

What to know about Illinois Public School Teacher and Administrator Pensions
Enormous pay increases and million dollar pensions.

The Need for Government-Run School District Financial Transparency

What they’re disclosing…what they’re not.

Electioneering: Threaten the Customers

The threat to make the schools worse and other unethical referendum tactics.

Posted February 22, 2007.