House Moves to Increase Dual School District Homeowners’ Real Estate Taxes

Supporters of the Illinois Policy Institute think of it as a conservative, taxpayer-friendly organization.

But, wait, if yo live in a grade school and high school district, the Illinois House Committee on Education has advanced House Bill 7 with the help of the organization.

Its passage will result in higher property taxes for those living in grade and high school districts.

The pitch being made is that there should only be unit districts in Illinois.

From a structural point of view that makes sense.

There should be

However, the claim that eliminating duplicative administrative positions will save taxpayers money is false…unless one is naïve enough to think that elementary school teachers, who are paid less than high school teachers, will be willing to remain on a lower pay scale once the districts are combined.

If I were running against someone who votes for this bill–the tally was unanimous in the Education Committee–and who represented so-called dual districts, I would have hit pieces claiming my opponent had voted for higher school taxes.

Back in 2011, the Associated Press figured out that administrative savings would not exceed teacher salary increases when Governor Pat Quinn made a similar proposal:

One does not have to be an expert in organizational theory to figure out who would dominate the teachers’ bargaining committee.

that’s because there are more grade school teachers than high school teachers.

AP school consolidation story of March 11, 2011.

Associated Press, which I assume has looked at the legislation, puts it this way:

“That’s because when two districts consolidate in Illinois, teachers in the lower-paying district are allowed to switch to the higher pay offered by the other.”

I guess that means there would not even have to be collective bargaining to raise grade school teachers’ salaries.

Below is the analysis I did ten years ago.

The numbers are different now, but the cost-benefit analysis is not.

School Consolidation Would Cost Taxpayers Plenty

Posted on  by Cal Skinner

Governor Pat Quinn thinks that consolidating schools will save big money because fewer administrators would be required.

The average Crystal Lake High School District 155 teacher salary is $91,573.

Reading the Daily Herald article, I notice that no mention is made of equalizing up elementary school teacher salaries to the level paid by the overlying high school districts.

$68,489 is the average teacher salary in the Cary Grade School District, the one is such financial trouble recently.

All Quinn mentions is saving $100 million in administrative costs. That’s well under one-half of one percentage of what’s spent on schools in Illinois.

In Fox River Grove the average grade school teacher makes $60,507.

Pretty much peanuts, in other words.

In the Prairie Grove Elementary School District underlying Crystal Lake High School District the average salary is $59,840.

The Northwest Herald has bought into the argument, also incorrectly assume that consolidating hundreds of school districts in Illinois will save big money.

The largest of the District 155 feeder schools, Crystal Lake District 47, pays its teachers $57,788 on the average, according to the 2010 School Report Card.

“… there’s no good reason why towns such as Cary, Crystal Lake and McHenry should have separate elementary and high school districts.”

That’s what the Northwest Herald wrote Thursday.  (Look quickly.  Soon you will have to pay to see it.)

Might I suggest that a salary comparison be made?

Look what took me less than ten minutes to find.

High school salaries in District 155 are higher than those in Crystal Lake Grade School District 47, Cary Grade School District 26 and Prairie Grade School District 46.

Let me list them:

  • Crystal Lake District 155 – $91,573 (412 teachers)
  • Cary District 26 – $68,489 (198 teachers)
  • Fox River Grove 3 – $60,507 (41 teachers)
  • Prairie Grove District 46 – $59,840 (68 teachers)
  • Crystal Lake District 47 – $57,788 (564 teachers)

The weighted average of grade school teachers in the three districts is $60,505.

The difference between the average weighted elementary school salary and the District 155 High School teacher’s average salary of $91,573 is $31,066.

Let’s do some multiplication.

First, let’s estimate. You know, what grade school students are taught to do.

What’s $31,000 times 900?

Hey, that’s over $25 million.

The exact figure is $27,058,486 my calculator says and it didn’t take tens of thousands of dollars paid to some Northern Illinois professors to figure that out.

So, let’s be rational and assume no teacher would be willing to take a pay cut and all grade school teachers would want to be put on the same salary schedule now enjoyed by area high school teachers.

Looking at these figures, it is hard to believe they would not expect an average raise of $31,000 if consolidation were to occur.

Now, I’ll admit that I have not made detailed comparisons to take into account the longevity bonus that high and grade school teachers get.

Maybe after making such adjustments the raise for unifying the pay schedules wouldn’t average over $31,000 a grade school teacher.

Pick your number and multiply it by 871.

Then, compare that mid-$20-some million number with the $100 million statewide savings that Quinn projects in savings from unneeded administrators.

Anyone think the savings by getting rid of redundant administrators within the Crystal Lake-Cary-Fox River Grove-Prairie Grove area would approach $25 million?

So why is the Governor proposing something that is going to cost every part of the state with both high and grade school districts big money?

Would I be being too cynical to suggest that Quinn may be trying to reward Illinois Education Association members who supported his re-election?

Would anyone think Illinois union leaders would let teachers in the same unified district be on two different pay scales?

The IEA Uniserve Directors would be knocking at school administrators’ doors the day after a merger.  Maybe before.

The entrance to Disney World’s Fantasy Land looks so enticing, but what’s beyond looks like a carnival to me.

Proof is how teacher unions won’t allow a consolidated school district to use even two different pay scales.

The elementary physical education teacher that teaches kindergarten P.E. classes is on the same pay scale as the high school math and science teachers.

Only in editorial and Quinn Fantasy Land unions would be helping to save money.

The result would be teachers hearing the sound of “Ca Ching!”

Years later you would likely read editors bemoaning how this couldn’t have been foreseen.

But that’s what collective bargaining will bring if all school districts are shoved into the unit district mold.

It will be the result of collective bargaining. You know, what the fight in Madison, Wisconsin, is all about.


Comments

House Moves to Increase Dual School District Homeowners’ Real Estate Taxes — 8 Comments

  1. Kinda like eliminating townships and having the county take over.

  2. There is nothing in the school consolidation prposal thazt mandates lower taxes.

    There is a 10% cut mandated in the township consolidation law.

  3. Enough is enough!

    I’ve got yesterday’s lunch for them!

    Bon Appetit!

  4. Those dipshits at the Northwest Herald have never been right about anything.

    In my opinion, I would be embarrassed to be employed.

    I’m sure that they’d print it was Monday if told by their string pullers.

    The Northwest Herald synonymous with opinion rather than facts.

  5. Mike? You forgot to mention that the Northworst disseminates outright filthy total lies. You cannot trust ANY of their “information” to be anything but brainwashing trauma-based mind control stories. They are down with the Communists. Have been for ages.

  6. we need another depression where the house values fall really low and we let them go into foreclosure.

    Then nobody buys them and lets them dilapidate and be razed.

    Otherwise, these tax whores know that you can threaten to leave Illinois all you want to but they know that before you can leave, you have to sell your house to another sucker and get the highest amount you can.

    It would be cheaper for everybody if we let our houses go, they cannot evict you, save your mortgage and tax money in cash and buy another house in say, Kentucky or another Red state for .25% of what your pay here, when and if they finally evict you.

  7. After a quick read, it looks like they are creating the “School District Efficiency Commission”.

    Its function will be to generate consolidation proposals for any/all school districts.

    The proposition goes to the State Superintendent of Education who reviews/approves the proposition and from there is treated as a petition approved under subsection (b) of Section 11E-50.

    That would begin the laborious work to analyze the operational/financial factors impacting a “new” consolidated school district.

    Ultimately, it looks like it would still go to the voters for approval.

    The bottom line is it looks like the state is going to force all these districts to look at consolidation by cramming down these consolidation proposals/petitions.

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