Illinois taxpayers pay for more school staff despite fewer students

The number of administrators and teachers in Illinois public schools has increased while the number of students has declined. Illinois is adding administrators faster than teachers.

Illinois public schools are educating more than 125,000 fewer students than they were in 2000 but have continued to hire more administrative staff and teachers.

Adding staff could be justified if student proficiency were rising. But it’s not. Illinois students’ reading and math proficiency has trended downwards despite the increase in teachers and administrators.

It seems the Illinois public school system may be more determined to provide jobs for adults than educations for students.

Administrator growth outpaces teachers as enrollment declines

Between 2000 and 2023, the number of administrators in Illinois public schools increased 55%, outpacing the 8% increase in the number of teachers. The dramatic increase in administrators and teachers came as the number of students enrolled in Illinois public schools dropped 6%.

In the 1999-2000 school year, Illinois public schools employed 8,315 administrators. That number increased to 12,929 by the 2022-2023 school year, the most recent year for which the Illinois State Board of Education has published data.

The number of teachers increased by over 10,500 during that same period, from 124,279 to 134,817.

As the state spent more on administrators and teachers, enrollment in public schools steadily declined. Between 2000 and 2023, student enrollment dropped 6%, or more than 125,000 students.

Student proficiency declines despite more administrators, teachers

Students are performing worse on Illinois’ state assessments since 2000 despite the public school system employing more administrators and more teachers to educate fewer students.

In the 1999-2000 school year, the average proficiency rate on the state assessment for third graders across Illinois’ public school districts was 65.5% of students meeting reading standards. In the 2022-2023 school year, the average reading proficiency rate for third graders had dropped to only 28.8%.

That’s a nearly 37 percentage point drop during those 24 school years. Students were assessed by the Illinois Standards Achievement Test in spring 2000, but by spring 2023, the state was using the Illinois Assessment of Readiness to measure students’ reading proficiency. In 2015, the state changed its proficiency standards to align with Common Core standards.

While Illinois public schools seem focused on employing more and more adults, they are failing to prepare students for achievement in their own adult lives. It’s time Illinois’ public education system placed more emphasis on ensuring students receive a quality education which will prepare them for success after graduation.