Fiscal Focus

              Under guidelines set by the State Board of
Education, local school boards throughout
Illinois’ 872 school districts administer
public elementary and secondary educa-tion
for 2.1 million students. The mission
of the State Board of Education is to pro-vide
leadership, advocacy and support for
the work of school districts, policymakers
and citizens in making Illinois education
second to none. Carrying out this mission
of educating our children are more than
157,000 teachers, administrators and other
school personnel. The Board’s vision is
that Illinois public schools will enable all
students to succeed in postsecondary edu-cation
and career opportunities, to be
effective life-long learners and to partici-pate
actively in our democracy.
To carry out this mission requires enor-mous
resources. Total funding for Illinois
public education has topped the $20 bil-lion
mark annually during the last few
school years with the
average annual operat-ing
expense per pupil
exceeding $9,100. In
return for taxpayers’
investments, public
schools have produced
an annual average of
120,000 high school
graduates during recent
years.
Elementary and Secondary
Education Funding
In the 2004-05 school year (the last year
for which complete data are available),
more than $20.6 billion in revenues from
state, local and federal sources were
directed to elementary and secondary edu-cation.
The $20.6 billion receipted was
almost $600 million or 2.8% higher than
receipts in the 2003-04 school year and
$8.2 billion or 65.7% higher than during
the 1995-96 school year.
Local revenues, which are primarily from
property taxes, continue to be the largest
source of funding for public elementary
and secondary education. For the 2004-05
school year, local sources provided $11.5
billion or 55.5% of total revenues. State
sources provided just under $7.0 billion or
33.8% while federal sources contributed
$2.2 billion or 10.7%.
Cover Story ..........................front, 5, 8-10
Letter From The Comptroller................... 2
No Child Left Behind’s
Quality Teacher Provision ................ 2, 4
Illinois Scores Well On Standards and
Accountability, Low On Resource
Equity..................................................... 3-4
Revenue Sources
Dedicated for Education ...................... 6–7
Illinois’ School Districts
Spending Per Pupil .............................. 12
State Obligations to
Teacher Pension Systems....................13
The General State Aid Formula............14
State Responses to
Education Funding Issues ............ 15-16
June 2006 Tables.................................. 17
July 2006 Tables ................................... 18
August 2006 Tables.............................. 19
Did You Know .........................Back Cover
In This Issue:
• SEPTEMBER 2006 ISSUE •
Public Education in Illinois
A Publication of the Illinois State Comptroller
Fiscal Focus
Cover Story continued, page 5