Dupage Policy Journal

Wirepoints has issued the following press release:

CHICAGO - Wirepoints has generated a series of new fact sheets that put individual school district statistics in the spotlight. Wirepoints dug into Illinois State Board of Education and U.S. Census data to lay out the outcomes in the state’s 20 largest school districts and a select few others.

The data shows student outcomes are dismal, most children are passed along and yet teachers consistently receive high evaluations. Meanwhile, spending and tax burdens continue to grow while Illinois home values continue to suffer compared to the rest of the country.

Illinois ranks 8th in per student spending and has the highest property tax burden in the nation. Yet despite that spending, just 30% of Illinois students are reading at grade level and only 26% are proficient in math. 

Results are even worse for Illinois’ minority students. Just 18% of Hispanic students and only 12% of black students statewide can read at grade level. 

Local school district results include: 

• In Springfield SD 186, student spending has increased by 50% and property taxes have risen 29%. Yet only 21% of students are reading at grade level and just 15% are proficient in math.

• In Wheaton Warrenville District 200, where property taxes have gone up 30% in the past decade, only 44% of students are reading and only 45% can do math at grade level.

• In Township HSD 214, property tax revenues are up 32% even though enrollment has dropped 11% and median home values have fallen by 2% between 2010 and 2021.

• In Oswego District 308, where student spending has increased 75% in the past decade, only 32% of students are at grade level in reading and math. 

• In Peoria SD 150, only 13% read at grade level and just 10% of students perform math at grade level, yet 100% of teachers are rated “Excellent or Proficient.” 

• In Elmhurst District 205, 92% of students graduate while only 53% can read at grade level.

• In Elgin U-46, only 9% of black students are proficient in math, while 99.1% of teachers are rated “Excellent” or “Proficient.”

• In Chicago 299, the district’s operating spending exceeded $20,000 per student, yet only 11% of black students and 17% of Hispanic students could read at grade level.

• In Rockford SD 205, 16% of students read at grade level and 11% are proficient in math, even though per student spending has increased 43% between 2010 and 2021.

• In Palatine District 211, where 99.8% of teachers are rated “Excellent” or “Proficient,” only 33% of students can read at grade level. 

• In Niles District 219, only 38% of students read and 39% perform math at grade level. Property tax revenues are up 23% even though enrollment has dropped 3% and median home values have fallen by 8% between 2010 and 2021.

“Families move into some of these districts – like Wheaton – for the schools,” said Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski. “They’re paying such high property taxes that their home values are actually declining. And yet the schools they believe are excellent are actually failing many children.

Across Illinois, student performance has steadily declined, yet kids are pushed from grade to grade and eventually graduated regardless of their actual skills. Meanwhile, these school systems have rewarded themselves and avoided any accountability. 

It’s completely dishonest. We hope that parents and taxpayers will use our report cards to begin to impose some real accountability on the system.”

Click here to view Wirepoints’ School District Report Cards.