Opinion

What are real costs in education funding?

Posted April 28, 2016 1:00 am

In his guest column last week, Ralph Martire cites the "nonpartisan" Education Funding Advisory Board's recommendation level for K-12 funding in Illinois, but fails to mention that the EFAB is overseen by the Illinois State Board of Education.

So it's not terribly surprising that their recommendation is to increase spending by nearly 50 percent.

In the uproar over District 15's new 10-year contract, it's asserted that early retirements will save the district money. My suspicion is that's only because the district doesn't consider pension costs part of their costs. Of course, the taxpayers get to pay both current costs and pension costs.

Makes you wonder, when the EFAB counts up, what we pay per student, if they conveniently ignore the pension cost they've moved off their books.

Tim Hein

Palatine

Article Comments

Article Categories
Communities Letters to the Editor Opinion Palatine

Article Comments

Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.