Public schools' revenue growth outpaces inflation
You're a stakeholder in a multibillion-dollar enterprise.
Every year, you cut a check.
Every year, you give more.
Some years, you give much more -- even if you live in the same house, work the same job, pull down the same pay.
Like it or not, you're a contributor to big business -- the big business of Illinois public schools.
This multi-part Daily Herald series will help you understand the financial side of your investment.
SCHOOL FINANCE 101 Get the Daily Herald's School Finance 101 series in a single file which includes the stories and related data. PDF documentChapter 10 Chapter 10: 1 in 5 graduates college ready Bottom line on schoolsStudent costs and ACT scores
Here is the cost of educating a typical student, listed by elementary district with the high school district number in parentheses. View reportAlso available is a downloadable list of the same information.
[XLS document]Chapter 9
Here is the total amount of revenue area school districts collected in 2005-06, the total amount of bond debt for each district, their enrollment and how much the bond debt equals on a per-student basis. View report
Also available is a downloadable list with expanded information, including 1998-99 data (the earliest year electronically available), ADA (average daily attendance) for both years, plus bond debt as a percent of 2005-06 total revenue.
[XLS document]
Chapter 8
The Daily Herald combined 2005-06 statistics for area high schools and their feeder elementary districts. These are presented here next to unit districts (single K-12 districts) for comparison. After each high school district are its feeder districts in parentheses. We then list the total revenue for each unit and combined high school/feeder district, the number of students, total revenue per student, the amount of revenue from local sources (mostly property taxes and school fees), the administrative expenditures per student, superintendent compensation (excluding health insurance costs) and superintendent compensation per student. View report
Also available is a downloadable Excel file with the same information
[XLS document]
Chapter 7