Will County Gazette

Union SD 81 in Joliet receives $824 per student from the state to fund pensions for public school teachers and administrators – the most in Will County, according to a Wirepoints analysis of Teacher Retirement System data.

At the bottom, Taft SD 90 in Lockport receives $322 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.

Union SD 81, which relies on the state for 4 percent of its revenue and spends $28,340 per student, ranks 51 out of 848 districts for how much the state provides per student toward pensions.

Taft SD 90 relies on the state for 26 percent of its revenue and spends $8,520 per student. It ranks 835th 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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Will County 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*
Union SD 81	Will	Joliet	92	4%	$898,590	$28,340	$824
Laraway CCSD 70C	Will	Joliet	384	15%	$544,776	$18,814	$778
Will County SD 92	Will	Lockport	1,485	9%	$452,446	$15,078	$642
Reed Custer CUSD 255U	Will	Braidwood	1,404	6%	$445,202	$13,919	$612
Valley View CUSD 365U	Will	Romeoville	15,711	19%	$133,241	$12,980	$607
Joliet Twp HSD 204	Will	Joliet	5,617	14%	$446,165	$15,630	$598
Lockport Twp HSD 205	Will	Lockport	3,435	10%	$628,652	$13,514	$583
Lincoln Way CHSD 210	Will	New Lenox	6,447	10%	$537,211	$13,329	$560
Crete Monee CUSD 201U	Will	Crete	4,416	23%	$123,574	$11,442	$536
Richland GSD 88A	Will	Crest Hill	832	10%	$301,902	$11,325	$523
Summit Hill SD 161	Will	Frankfort	3,018	10%	$270,459	$11,502	$516
Fairmont SD 89	Will	Lockport	277	39%	$186,566	$14,518	$493
Homer CCSD 33C	Will	Homer Glen	3,480	11%	$270,498	$12,589	$490
Rockdale SD 84	Will	Rockdale	272	21%	$281,969	$10,725	$481
Elwood CCSD 203	Will	Elwood	360	9%	$244,068	$10,770	$474
Frankfort CCSD 157C	Will	Frankfort	2,403	9%	$308,071	$10,076	$462
Mokena SD 159	Will	Mokena	1,450	9%	$364,130	$11,958	$452
Lockport SD 91	Will	Lockport	590	15%	$214,752	$9,472	$449
Troy CCSD 30C	Will	Plainfield	4,018	12%	$241,033	$11,169	$447
Plainfield SD 202	Will	Plainfield	25,240	30%	$112,181	$9,794	$446
New Lenox SD 122	Will	New Lenox	4,841	11%	$245,488	$10,585	$428
Chaney-Monge SD 88	Will	Crest Hill	410	48%	$138,769	$11,066	$427
Joliet PSD 86	Will	Joliet	10,788	59%	$77,440	$11,317	$427
Beecher CUSD 200U	Will	Beecher	948	16%	$152,219	$9,421	$419
Channahon SD 17	Will	Channahon	1,122	5%	$549,107	$10,013	$410
Peotone CUSD 207U	Will	Peotone	1,454	15%	$225,447	$11,504	$402
Manhattan SD 114	Will	Manhattan	1,297	24%	$174,525	$7,817	$383
Wilmington CUSD 209U	Will	Wilmington	1,268	17%	$159,221	$11,421	$358
Taft SD 90	Will	Lockport	310	26%	$173,260	$8,520	$322

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.