St Charles CUSD 303 in St. Charles receives $620 per student from the state to fund pensions for public school teachers and administrators – the most in Kane County, according to a Wirepoints analysis of Teacher Retirement System data.
At the bottom, Aurora East USD 131 in Aurora receives $488 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.
St Charles CUSD 303, which relies on the state for 7 percent of its revenue and spends $13,104 per student, ranks 172 out of 848 districts for how much the state provides per student toward pensions.
Aurora East USD 131 relies on the state for 60 percent of its revenue and spends $11,676 per student. It ranks 400th 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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Kane 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* |
| St Charles CUSD 303 | Kane | St. Charles | 11,544 | 7% | $229,723 | $13,104 | $620 |
| Batavia USD 101 | Kane | Batavia | 5,601 | 10% | $197,466 | $13,309 | $605 |
| Aurora West USD 129 | Kane | Aurora | 11,216 | 32% | $113,043 | $12,040 | $604 |
| Geneva CUSD 304 | Kane | Geneva | 5,466 | 7% | $229,100 | $15,279 | $583 |
| Kaneland CUSD 302 | Kane | Maple Park | 4,167 | 14% | $165,832 | $13,121 | $579 |
| SD U-46 | Kane | Elgin | 34,759 | 29% | $117,090 | $12,095 | $531 |
| Central CUSD 301 | Kane | Burlington | 3,625 | 13% | $153,026 | $11,953 | $517 |
| CUSD 300 | Kane | Algonquin | 19,010 | 20% | $139,637 | $11,330 | $505 |
| Aurora East USD 131 | Kane | Aurora | 12,731 | 60% | $42,162 | $11,676 | $488 |
*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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