Big Schools, Large Class Sizes AND Big Administrative Bureaucracies.

As the saying goes, God must love Illinois school district administrators. He made so many of them.

While class sizes are getting larger and schools are getting larger, school districts throughout the state remain relatively small. Translation: Big schools, big classes, and BIG redundant administrative and school board bureaucracies.

The Sunday Tribune provides some interesting data:

Illinois has 875 local school districts.

More than 200 of those districts have only one school.

Several dozen towns are served by more than one district.

Florida has one school district for every 37,909 students. In North Carolina, it's one district for every 11,418 students.

Illinois has one district for every 2,334 students. That's fewer students per district than in any of the 14 largest states, except New Jersey.

Every Illinois district, of course, has a superintendent, a staff and a full school board with expenses. Oh yes, and an attorney.

According to the Tribune's analysis, this costs $643 million per year just on administrative expenses. These are dollars that never find their way to the classroom.

These administrative costs have to be placed in the context of reduced federal and state financial aid to local school districts and increased dependence on local funding which tax caps and commercial tax appeals have hamstrung. This has forced school boards to depend on frequent referenda, which frequently fail.

Maine South High School in Maine Township High School District 207 and Park Ridge Niles District 64 serve the same community. Almost all District 64 students feed into Maine South.

The District 207 teachers’ salary schedule tops out more than 10% higher than District 64. The District 207 superintendent earns about $225,000 a year. The District 64’s superintendent’ salary is roughly $200,000 a year. Same town. Same students. Same taxpayers.

I can’t see how this makes any sense.