Quality Education Where did all the money go?
In a sentence: school operations and, yes, some ended up in a surplus fund--and it is still there.
For the ten years from 1995 to 2005, the consumer price index (CPI) increased 28%, however, the Employee Cost Index ( ECI) increased 41.66% nationally. That’s you, me, the teachers, everyone.
What is ECI, employer's cost index?
The ECI is a measure of the total change in labor costs factoring in a number of variables. Once these additional costs/variables are factored in, the 10 year increase in the cost of the workforce as a total, went from 28% to 41.66%.
So let's consider the increase in district spending.
Overall spending increased from 110 million 1995-96, to 188 million 2005-06, a 71.3% increase. The Education Fund spending went from 80 million to 153 million, a 91.7% increase or 83.2% on a per pupil basis. The education Fund is where the money gets spent so lets take a look at that.
How was that increase divided up?
50.5% is the (41.66%) increase in ECI for teachers and staff
17.6% New Special Instruction i.e. Special, Remedial and Vocational Ed.
8% Required Increases in Student Support; Nurses, Social Workers, Counselors, Physical Therapists.
Mandated by the State Of Illinois:
6.6% Teachers compensation in excess of the ECI
5.5% New Technology
4.89% Instructional Implementation and Testing
3.5% Increase in Insurance and Legal costs.
2.3% Increase in Tuition/other. Cost to pay others for education of special students at other facilities
1.4% Increase in School site Admin.
The above represents where the additional tax revenue went. Our question is, "what would you cut?" The teachers are entitled to the same wage increases as you and I aren ’t they? Much of the rest is either federally or state mandated, or contractually obligated; the district has no choice.
The bottom line is this. The district was ethical and lawful in its implementation of the tax increase. It received more than was estimated and the breakdown above shows how it was spent and the rest is in a bank account. Look over these pages, look at the statistics on other districts, consider the test scores of our children, and ask yourself "what would you have done differently?"
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