School funding levels in Illinois are strongly correlated with local property tax wealth. The Metropolitan Planning Council collected data from the Illinois State Board of Education on three key variables — school funding, local property tax base, and low-income pupil concentration. With few exceptions, a strong correlation can be drawn among these three variables. Those districts with lower property values tend to have lower school spending and higher poverty concentration.
Figures 1 and 2, "School Funding per Pupil: Elementary and Unit School Districts," depict the level of school funding for all elementary and unit districts. These maps show that there are areas of low school spending in all regions of the state. They depict all sources of school funding, including state and federal funds for low-income concentration, but the range varies widely — from over $4,000 to over $18,000 per student.
Figures 3 and 4, "School Funding per Pupil: Secondary and Unit Districts," show the same characteristics, but for secondary instead of elementary districts. The map of these larger districts shows more clearly that suburban Cook county, southern Lake county, most of DuPage county, and only a few districts downstate have school funding over $9,000 per student. Most downstate districts spend under $7,500 per pupil.
Figures 5 and 6, "Property Tax Wealth per Pupil: Elementary and Unit Districts," and Figures 7 and 8, "Property Tax Wealth per Pupil: Secondary and Unit Districts," show that the key contributor to the differences in school funding is local property wealth. Those areas in red and brown that have the highest local value tend to have higher school spending (compare to Figures 1 through 4).
For example, Figure 8 shows the differences in property value within the Chicago region. It shows that areas in suburban Cook, Lake, DuPage, and parts of Will and McHenry counties have over $300,000 in property wealth per pupil. These districts have a larger tax base to use to support their schools, but this alone does not tell the whole story. Developing areas of Lake, Will, and McHenry counties may have high property values, but with tax caps that have been in place for the past decade, they may not have access to this increased value, producing districts with lower school spending than one would expect. These areas — such as District 300 in McHenry county or Elgin District 46 — are now experiencing a fiscal shortfall each year, with ever increasing student bodies, but inadequate growth in revenues from the local, state, or federal levels.
Increasing the state's General State Aid funding for schools would help districts with low property values. This is because the formula is based largely on property values, providing more resources to areas with lower property wealth. A+ Illinois aims to bring all districts to an adequate school funding level (at least $5,835 per pupil based on a number of research studies), without penalizing districts with greater school funding levels. By reducing the state's over-reliance on the local property tax that causes such great inequities, the state can finally make meaningful progress toward the goal of providing access to a quality education no matter where a child happens to live.