Operational spending at Thomas Elementary School in Jackson is 21 percent less than the average Chicago public school.
Thomas Elementary School is in the Carbondale ESD No. 95 School District, where operational spending is $11,977 per year, per student.
In the Chicago Public School District (CPS), the average school spends $15,120 per year, per student.
The number of students per classroom at Thomas Elementary School is actually fewer than at CPS. At Thomas Elementary School, there are 22 students per classroom, while at CPS there are 24.
However, at CPS, while schools are staffed for full enrollment, 27 percent of students are "chronically truant." That means adjusted for actual student attendance, CPS has 17.5 students per classroom.
At Thomas Elementary School, the truancy rate is 8.7.
The Chicago Teachers Union has called upon state taxpayers to increase state funding to CPS by 33 percent, or to $20,000 per student. City officials are considering filing a federal lawsuit to require the rest of Illinois to provide this funding.
Meanwhile, 26.7 percent of students at Thomas Elementary School earned a passing score on the 2015 Illinois standardized K-12 test, or "PARCC" exam.
On the same exam, 25 percent of CPS students earned a passing score.
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