How Effective are IL School Districts in Using Property Tax Dollars? Decide for Yourself

Topic: Property Tax Administration

Thursday, 02 August 2012 by David H. LeVan

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We hear a lot of talk about government spending in relation to rising property taxes.  On one side we hear the cries of county officials saying they need more money or they’ll have to cut services.  On the other side we hear the cries of taxpayers (including this one) against excessive government spending.  These arguments are particularly prevalent when it comes to school spending, which accounts for over half of all property tax revenues.

So…. How effective are school districts in using property tax dollars?  Which districts are spending excessively?  Which should be spending more?  Let me introduce you to a very informative site that will give you the opportunity to decide for yourself (at least when it comes to school districts in IL).  The site is www.familytaxpayers.org.  The organization, Family Taxpayer’s Foundation, describes themselves as the following:

“Family Taxpayers Foundation (FTF) is an advocate for an efficient, high quality public education system in Illinois and for responsible, effective use of tax dollars by local and state government.  FTF’s goal is to raise public awareness of abuses within the public education system and strive to influence public opinion in favor of solutions that will bring about real reform in public education.  Our focus is on fiscal accountability and transparency in all matters related to the use of tax dollars, specifically the public education pay system, administrative practices, the state school construction program, and Illinois’ Teacher pension system .”

You may find the “School Accountability  Project” and “Teacher Salary Database” particularly interesting; I know I did.