Imagine Waukegan lawmaker Rita Mayfield’s shock during the waning days of the spring legislative session when a seemingly beneficial bill she sponsored was shot down in flames. It was one of several opposed by the state’s powerful public employee unions during the General Assembly’s 2021 spell.
Democrat Mayfield has been a supporter of, and been supported in the past by, Illinois teachers’ unions — the House member is a former Waukegan Unit School District 60 board member — but that didn’t stop union opposition to her House Bill 7, the Classrooms First Act.
The measure, if it had been adopted and signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, was too much for leaders of the Illinois Federation of Teachers and Illinois Education Association to bear. Their membership might not agree as they prepare to head back to the classroom for another academic year after the summer off following a COVID-19 school year mainly teaching remotely.
Mayfield’s bill would have created the School District Efficiency Commission that would force about 25% of school districts in Illinois to hold referendums to consolidate, with the aim of cutting bureaucracy. Lake County has plenty of school districts that could be merged, an aim of several proposals which have yet to be initiated.
That, even though Illinois has the most taxing districts of any state while we continue to lose population. Her bill also would have commissioned a study to review excessive administration costs in school districts.
It was estimated the measure could have saved Illinois taxpayers $716 million in bureaucratic costs, according to the conservative Illinois Policy Institute. Administrative costs include salaries for superintendents, associate superintendents, deans, principals, assistant principals, vice principals and more.
The group produced that figure by determining the state spends about $598 per student on administrative costs, more than twice the national average. If Illinois dropped its administrative spending to the national average, that would be the savings.
Not a major bump when it comes to the state’s billions of dollars pension deficit, but at least a start in trimming debt. Especially considering most Lake County school districts have plenty of administrators. Check your local school district if you don’t believe me.
Those toiling in the classroom trenches always complain about administrative salaries, especially during teachers’ strikes. Wouldn’t they want to see any funds saved to be used “for the kids” and actual learning?
Under Mayfield’s measure, money saved from high salaries for administrators — who don’t teach — would be used for classroom funding, like teachers’ salaries. Seems like a win-win.
The Policy Institute says there are more high-level administrative staffers in the Land of Lincoln than in most other states. That should come as no surprise to Lake County property owners whose large tax bills — some of the highest in the nation — are from underwriting public school districts in their respective communities.
Remember that next month when the second installment of property tax bills are due at the county treasurer’s office in Waukegan. Or when a school district comes calling for a tax referendum.
The think tank has found salaries for top administrators in Illinois averaged more than $111,293 last year. Certainly, that figure is a lot higher among Lake County’s administrative elite.
The state salary average for administrators is about the same as the pay for two teachers. That discrepancy is what the bill sought to erase.
Putting money into the classroom should always be a priority. Despite bipartisan support for Mayfield’s bill, the teachers’ unions opposed it and it was defeated in the House by a 55-42 margin. What public employee unions want in Illinois, they usually get.
No clear reason for opposition to her proposal surfaced, only that the unions’ bosses came out against it. Fewer school districts mean fewer dues-paying union teachers.
In proof that politics make strange bedfellows, also opposed was the Illinois Association of School Boards, maintaining that local decision-makers, not state mandates, should prevail. Considering that school boards, who set those administrative salaries, are normally rubber stamps for administrators, the association’s opposition was understandable.
Eventually, administrators and teachers’ unions will have to face the growing Illinois exodus and the need for fewer classrooms.
Charles Selle is a former News-Sun reporter, political editor and editor.
Twitter: @sellenews
