McLean County Times

Rooks Creek CCSD 425 in Graymont receives $728 per student from the state to fund pensions for public school teachers and administrators – the most in McLean County, according to a Wirepoints analysis of Teacher Retirement System data.

At the bottom, Olympia CUSD 16 in Stanford receives $398 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.

Rooks Creek CCSD 425, which relies on the state for 12 percent of its revenue and spends $15,706 per student, ranks 95 out of 848 districts for how much the state provides per student toward pensions.

Olympia CUSD 16 relies on the state for 21 percent of its revenue and spends $10,412 per student. It ranks 695th 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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McLean 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*
Rooks Creek CCSD 425	Livingston	Graymont	49	12%	$318,177	$15,706	$728
Dwight Twp HSD 230	Livingston	Dwight	252	16%	$389,928	$15,846	$677
Odell CCSD 435	Livingston	Odell	137	29%	$141,792	$13,083	$636
Saunemin CCSD 438	Livingston	Saunemin	104	33%	$101,763	$13,812	$614
Pontiac Twp HSD 90	Livingston	Pontiac	660	23%	$283,739	$12,459	$600
Flanagan-Cornell Dist 74	Livingston	Flanagan	317	23%	$199,140	$12,497	$594
Tri Point CUSD 6-J	Livingston	Kempton	343	18%	$182,444	$15,360	$562
Lexington CUSD 7	McLean	Lexington	442	18%	$159,256	$11,704	$545
Pontiac CCSD 429	Livingston	Pontiac	1,102	34%	$146,859	$10,520	$535
Cornell CCSD 426	Livingston	Cornell	98	20%	$198,638	$11,669	$522
Tri Valley CUSD 3	McLean	Downs	932	18%	$159,687	$11,321	$514
Bloomington SD 87	McLean	Bloomington	4,801	15%	$173,418	$11,969	$511
Ridgeview CUSD 19	McLean	Colfax	547	10%	$206,863	$10,781	$508
Prairie Central CUSD 8	Livingston	Fairbury	1,830	30%	$112,323	$11,225	$505
LeRoy CUSD 2	McLean	Le Roy	744	24%	$135,178	$10,412	$476
Heyworth CUSD 4	McLean	Heyworth	886	34%	$95,454	$9,751	$463
Woodland CUSD 5	Livingston	Streator	485	25%	$105,098	$11,405	$446
McLean County USD 5	McLean	Normal	12,613	17%	$165,765	$10,189	$440
Dwight Common SD 232	Livingston	Dwight	484	19%	$212,086	$8,670	$400
Olympia CUSD 16	McLean	Stanford	1,690	21%	$161,273	$10,412	$398

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.