Family Taxpayers Foundation

Over 200 Illinois public school districts post above average pay increases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Lidia Downs

847-428-0212

mail@thechampion.org

An ongoing study being conducted by The Champion Foundation has found that full-time public school teachers and administrators in Illinois receive average pay increases and estimated pensions far above those seen by private sector workers.

“National compensation surveys continue to show average annual pay increases hovering in the low single digits, yet only occasionally do we see such modest increases in the taxpayer funded public schools,” said John Biver, president of The Champion Foundation. “While the schools cry poor to the Illinois General Assembly, our research shows they pay themselves as if they’re rich.”

One example is Bloom Township High School District 206, where the lowest one-year average pay increase for teachers in that district was 7.9% (1999 to 2000) and the highest was 14.8% (2003 to 2004). Administrators’ average increases ranged from as low as 9.5% (2003 to 2004) to as high as 20.8% (2001 to 2002).

During the three-year time span from 2001 to 2004, Dolton School District 149 teacher pay increases averaged 34% and administrator pay increases averaged over 62%.

Over 200 of the approximately 900 public school districts in Illinois have now been analyzed by The Champion Foundation's “School Accountability Project,” which computes the pay increases of full time staff for one and three year time spans.

The findings have remained consistent: average pay increases and estimated pensions for those in the education field are far above those of private sector workers.

“These pay increases have nothing to do with performance,” Biver said. These extremely high pay increases are the result of the teacher unions’ monopoly power and the right to strike. Taxpayers are bearing the burden of this excess because basic economic principles are ignored and market forces are kept out.”

While school districts continue to push for ever more funding through General Assembly action and property tax referendums, The Champion maintains that better options are available, including:

Increasing incentives to efficiency by empowering parents through school choice and increasing the number of charter schools.

Full disclosure of all public school expenditures through online searchable databases and all employee contracts so there can be citizen oversight.

The creation of a rational pay structure for Illinois public school employees based on state and federal civil service pay structures.

“The state constitution calls for both high quality and efficiency in the public schools, and the citizens of Illinois are being short-changed on both accounts,” Biver said. “The Champion Foundation continues to call for specific reforms that will help accomplish that constitutional mandate. Choice and competition are what our public schools need; not more money that will be spent on excessive pay increases rather than on educating children.”

State funding for education in Illinois has doubled in the past 12 years, and Biver believes it is time for innovation rather than increased spending.

“These incredibly high salary increases are not justified and taxpayers cannot afford to continue to reward a system that is failing Illinois’ school children.”

The Champion School Accountability Project uses only Illinois State Board of Education public school teacher and administrator pay data.

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For more information about The Champion School Accountability Project, click here.

The Champion Foundation website, www.thechampion.org, also posts all salaries for public school teachers and administrators going back to 1999.

The Champion Foundation

8 East Main Street

Carpentersville, IL 60110

847-428-0212

Posted August 24, 2007.