Chapter 5: Non-class costs weigh heavy on schools

It's a common refrain among education critics: More money needs to stay in the classroom and less spent outside.

And they have the numbers to point to.

Over a decade, most of the 94 districts in the Daily Herald coverage area consistently spent more money outside the classroom than they did on instruction.

From the 1996-97 school year through 2005-06, the imbalance was worse in some districts than others:

bull; 82 area districts spent more than half their revenue outside their classrooms.bull; 20 districts spent more than two-thirds of their total revenues outside the class.bull; Two districts spent all of their revenue outside the classroom.Actually, Huntley Unit District 158 and Big Hollow Elementary District 38 both spent more on busing and building, heating and cooling, lawyers, a laundry list of support staff and other costs than they collected from local, state and federal sources. SCHOOL FINANCE 101 Chapter 5Non-class costs weigh heavy on schools The numbers: Spending outside the classroom
Here are the total amounts of revenue area school districts collected in the 2005-06 school year and the percentages of revenue spent on administration, support services and other costs. View report Also available is a downloadable, 10-year look at area school districts and their total revenues, with expenditures on instruction, administration, support services and other costs each year, and the 10-year totals for each category.
[XLS document] Chapter 4

1 of every 2 education dollars stays in classroom

65-percent solution gains traction

The numbers: Spending in the classroom

Here are the total amounts of revenue area school districts collected in the 1996-97 and 2005-06 school years; instruction expenditures each year; and the percentage of revenue spent on instruction. View report

Also available is a downloadable, 10-year look at area school districts and their total revenues, instruction expenditures, and the percent of revenue spent on instruction.
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Chapter 3

Suburban taxpayers' heavy share

The numbers: A decade of local funding

Here are the total amounts of local revenue area school districts collected in the 1996-97 school year, the average daily attendance that year, and the local revenue on a per pupil basis; then the same data for the 2005-06 school year; and finally, the total amount of local revenue received over the 10-year period. View report

Also available is a downloadable look at the amount of local revenue area school districts collected in each of the school years from 1996-97 through 2005-06. With each year's local revenue total is that year's average daily attendance (ADA) and the local revenue shown on a per pupil basis (pp). At the end of each row is the total amount of local funding each district received over the 10-year period, and how much the revenue, attendance and per pupil revenue changed over those 10 school years.
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Chapter 2