The Illinois state government appears to think that the taxpayers is a never emptying ATM that can be squeezed for a never-ending glut of wasteful spending on things no one wants, or needs, and in many cases no one should even have.
Take Illinois’s baleful $100,000 and up salary club that includes more than 140,000 state employees, a heart sickening number.
Think about that. 140,000 people is more people than the population of every city in the state but the top five cities (Chicago, Aurora, Joliet, Naperville, and Rockford).
Naturally, the top recipients are the undeserving administrations of the state’s colleges, universities, and school districts.
The other huge problem is the state’s pension obligations, as Wirepoints noted recently. About the only ones in the top 25 who might deserve their salaries are the several top surgeons at the state’s university hospitals.
Wirepoints adds that there are 33,560 teachers in the state who make more than $100K, 16,135 state university employees that rake in that same kind of dough, and another 14,189 state employees of other types in that club. Others include judges (6), local government employees (11,432), Cook County employees (7,132), Chicago teachers (890) and a list of others such as city laborers, police officers, firemen, and park personnel.
School teachers are heavily represented on that list.
But teachers in Illinois are already in a more pleasing tax bracket than the average citizen.
Today, the average teacher’s salary in Illinois is $73,916. Many are well above that. This is more than $20,000 per year higher than the median Illinois income of $48,730.
In Chicago, the median salary for teachers is $61,062, which is considerably more than the median income for the rest of the Windy City which is $40,068.
So, the constant claim from teachers unions that teachers are treated shabbily in Illinois just isn’t really true.
Teacher salaries are one thing. At least one might justify that expense, but administrators is a whole other question.
In Chicago, for instance, there are about 16833 non-teaching staffers in the Chicago Public Schools, about 21,974 teachers, and 516 principals. That means there are about 160 administrators per student in Chicago (compared to 141 in the rest of the state).
The Chicago Public School system is set to shed some staffers at 150 of its 646 schools. But some schools are gaining staff and money even though they are losing students en masse.
“On the flip side, Douglass High School in the west side neighborhood of Austin — where just 35 students were enrolled this year — would get the largest increase. It’s slated to add nine people to its staff of 23,” Chalkbeat reported.
You can’t make this up.
A public school in Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s neighborhood will now employ 32 staff members to serve 35 students in a school building originally built for 888 students (96% empty).
This is the result of Johnson’s former employer and top financial… pic.twitter.com/B5uxGnxrnV
— Austin Berg (@Austin__Berg) May 29, 2024
What sense does that make?
With Illinois spending hundreds of millions more than it is taking in, these exorbitant salaries, and ridiculous budgets are ripe for trimming. The state is set for a nearly $900 million deficit through 2025, but is cutting in the picture? Not a chance.
And what is Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson doing? Setting up a task force to look into paying slavery reparations to the city’s black population.
There’s a great use of city tax dollars.
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