Newark Community High School District 18 in Newark receives $747 per student from the state to fund pensions for public school teachers and administrators – the most in Kendall County, according to a Wirepoints analysis of Teacher Retirement System data.
At the bottom, Newark Community Consolidated School District 66 in Newark receives $320 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.
Newark CHSD 18, which relies on the state for 7 percent of its revenue and spends $16,448 per student, ranks 83 out of 848 districts for how much the state provides per student toward pensions.
Newark CCSD 66 relies on the state for 11 percent of its revenue and spends $8,953 per student. It ranks 837th in the state.
The analysis shows Rondout School District 72 in Lake County received the biggest subsidy in the state and Earlville Community Unit School District 9 in LaSalle County received the smallest subsidy.
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Kendall County 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* |
| Newark CHSD 18 | Kendall | Newark | 161 | 7% | $644,522 | $16,448 | $747 |
| Yorkville CUSD 115 | Kendall | Yorkville | 5,353 | 20% | $133,578 | $10,862 | $545 |
| CUSD 308 | Kendall | Oswego | 17,289 | 30% | $92,668 | $9,996 | $510 |
| Lisbon CCSD 90 | Kendall | Newark | 102 | 12% | $275,372 | $9,943 | $490 |
| Plano CUSD 88 | Kendall | Plano | 2,150 | 35% | $73,841 | $10,268 | $444 |
| Newark CCSD 66 | Kendall | Newark | 230 | 11% | $309,196 | $8,953 | $320 |
*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.
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