South West Illinois News

Coulterville USD 1 in Coulterville receives $542 per student from the state to fund pensions for public school teachers and administrators – the most in Southwest Illinois, according to a Wirepoints analysis of Teacher Retirement System data.

At the bottom, Steeleville CUSD 138 in Steeleville receives $383 per student.

Wirepoints examined the system in which school districts pay salaries to teachers and administrators, but not pensions, which are funded by state tax dollars.

"It’s a scheme that allows districts to spend more money on salaries and perks than they otherwise would," Wirepoints reported. "Wealthy districts – like those on the North Shore – benefit far more from the state’s pension payments than poor districts do."

Almost 50 percent of what the state pays toward education has gone to teacher pensions in recent years, according to Wirepoints. Bigger pensions in wealthy districts means there’s less money to adequately fund districts with less property wealth.

Coulterville USD 1, which relies on the state for 50 percent of its revenue and spends $9,867 per student, ranks 283 out of 848 districts for how much the state provides per student toward pensions.

Steeleville CUSD 138 relies on the state for 39 percent of its revenue and spends $8,213 per student. It ranks 739th in the state.

The analysis shows Rondout SD 72 in Lake County received the biggest subsidy in the state and Earlville CUSD 9 in LaSalle County received the smallest subsidy.

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Southwest Illinois districts receiving state-provided pension subsidies

District	County	City	Average daily attendance	Percent of district revenue provided by the state	EAV (taxable property) per student	District spending per student	State-provided pension subsidy per student*
Coulterville USD 1	Randolph	Coulterville	193	50%	$75,643	$9,867	$542
Prairie Du Rocher CCSD 134	Randolph	Prairie Du Rocher	164	52%	$63,689	$8,757	$522
CCSD 204	Perry	Pinckneyville	136	15%	$196,869	$9,770	$473
Red Bud CUSD 132	Randolph	Red Bud	941	10%	$241,417	$10,371	$470
Valmeyer CUSD 3	Monroe	Valmeyer	429	26%	$123,414	$9,111	$464
Tamaroa School Dist 5	Perry	Tamaroa	111	56%	$62,091	$9,662	$453
Duquoin CUSD 300	Perry	Du Quoin	1,303	47%	$57,915	$9,696	$437
Pinckneyville CHSD 101	Perry	Pinckneyville	402	33%	$241,177	$9,833	$436
Columbia CUSD 4	Monroe	Columbia	1,877	17%	$160,685	$8,353	$427
Pinckneyville SD 50	Perry	Pinckneyville	508	52%	$126,039	$8,914	$414
Chester CUSD 139	Randolph	Chester	837	45%	$95,321	$9,276	$414
Sparta CUSD 140	Randolph	Sparta	1,140	41%	$81,448	$9,606	$406
Waterloo CUSD 5	Monroe	Waterloo	2,522	20%	$159,601	$9,081	$402
Steeleville CUSD 138	Randolph	Steeleville	413	39%	$95,887	$8,213	$383

Source: Source: Illinois State Board of Education, ILEARN data 2016; Total earnings data received from a 2018 FOIA request to the Teachers' Retirement System; TRS actuarial report 2017; Wirepoints calculations

*Proxy of the pension subsidy provided to each school district. District subsidy is calculated by taking the TRS employer normal cost in 2017 ($871 million) and multiplying it by each district's share of TRS total employee earnings. To calculate the subsidy per student, each district's share is divided by their average daily attendance.