Quincy Reporter

Liberty CUSD 2 in Liberty receives $419 per student from the state to fund pensions for public school teachers and administrators – the most in Greater Quincy, according to a Wirepoints analysis of Teacher Retirement System data.

At the bottom, CUSD 4 in Mendon receives $358 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.

Liberty CUSD 2, which relies on the state for 47 percent of its revenue and spends $8,647 per student, ranks 627 out of 848 districts for how much the state provides per student toward pensions.

CUSD 4 relies on the state for 44 percent of its revenue and spends $9,109 per student. It ranks 795th 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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Greater Quincy 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*
Liberty CUSD 2	Adams	Liberty	555	47%	$97,965	$8,647	$419
Quincy SD 172	Adams	Quincy	5,878	27%	$138,232	$10,016	$383
Central CUSD 3	Adams	Camp Point	840	46%	$93,744	$8,547	$379
Payson CUSD 1	Adams	Payson	505	42%	$90,599	$7,975	$375
CUSD 4	Adams	Mendon	633	44%	$95,604	$9,109	$358

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.