South West Illinois News

Does more money equal a better education?

There’s perhaps no better way to examine that question than the real-life experiment known as the Chicago Public Schools (CPS), where over the past 10 years enrollment has fallen and spending has soared.

CPS enrollment in 2005 was more than 425,000. Last year it was less than 398,000.

But CPS isn’t spending less than 10 years ago to educate fewer children -- it’s spending more. Much, much more.

In fact, Chicago school spending has risen 30 percent in the past 10 years. Last year, per-pupil spending was $15,120, making CPS one of the richest school districts in the state.

Driven by an all-Chicago power structure in Springfield -- both the House and Senate have been controlled by Chicago Machine Democrats since the mid-1990s, and the 2000s saw two Chicago-bred governors (Rod Blagojevich, Pat Quinn) -- the burden for Chicago school spending now falls on state taxpayers.

Left with complete control of Springfield and state coffers, Chicago leaders did what you’d expect they would: they siphoned more money from downstate and the suburbs to CPS.

In 2005, Springfield sent $1.4 billion to CPS. Last year, it sent $1.8 billion -- for fewer students.

Comparing spending and test scores

So what were the results?

In last year’s statewide PARCC exam, 25 percent of CPS students passed. Put more cynically -- 75 percent failed a test in which failure means a student “isn’t ready for the next grade.”

How did Southwest Illinois schools fare?

Waterloo High School was the highest-performing school in the area with a 69 percent passage rate and spending only $8,922 per pupil, 70 percent less than Chicago.

Carbondale High School spent considerably more than Waterloo -- $14,443 per pupil -- but only achieved a 32 percent passage rate.

Anna CCSD 37 was the lowest-spending district last year in southwestern Illinois, at $7,496 per pupil. It spent less per pupil total than Chicago received in subsidies from the state and federal government. Yet it still beat Chicago’s test scores, scoring passage rates of 36 percent and 26 percent at its elementary and junior high schools, respectively.

Another strong performer -- Columbia’s Parkview Elementary School spent $7,813 per-pupil and scored a 56 percent passage rate.