Which Elmhurst Schools Get the Most Money Per Student?

ELMHURST, IL — Conrad Fischer Elementary School in Elmhurst has, by far, the greatest share of low-income students of the city school district's eight elementary schools — nearly 60 percent. The other schools range from 2 percent to 9 percent.

At the same time, the district spent the third least per student last year at Conrad Fischer, on Elmhurst's north side, according to the Illinois Report Card website.

The district spent the most per student at Emerson last year — $15,238 vs. $13,564 at Conrad Fischer. If the district spent as much per student at Conrad Fischer as it did at Emerson, the school would see nearly $850,000 more a year.

Here's a look at Elmhurst School District 205's elementary school statistics in the 2019-2020 school year:

Asked about Conrad Fischer's financial position, Bev Redmond, the district's communications director, said in an email, "In addition to per pupil spending due to the percentage of low income students at each D205 elementary school, special education costs also are a factor. Several other schools also receive additional dollars due to special education programs. Edison, Emerson, Hawthorne, Jackson, and Jefferson have self-contained special education programs that add to their average per pupil expenditure."

Of the three schools without self-contained special education programs — Conrad Fischer, Field and Lincoln — the districts spends the most per student at Conrad Fischer.

In Hinsdale High School District 86, debates rage over whether Hinsdale South gets the short end of the stick compared with the significantly wealthier Hinsdale Central. Yet state figures show the district spent a third more money at South per student than Central last year.

Last year's figures also show that La Grange School District 102 spent the most money per student at schools with greater shares of low-income students.

"This was done by design," Superintendent Kyle Schumacher said in an email. "Through both local and (federal) Title funds, we utilize additional resources at Congress Park and Forest Road to support our students where they are. This is both a philosophical and intentional effort to provide resources to where they are needed most."

According to the Illinois Report Card website, low-income students are defined as those who are eligible under family income guidelines to receive free or reduced price lunches, among other factors.

The Daily Herald recently looked at school districts in Algonquin and Elgin, where schools with bigger shares of low-income students got the short end of the stick financially. The newspaper interviewed Marguerite Roza, an economist at Georgetown University and the director of its Economics Lab, who has studied school districts' spending choices.

"Those are very much district choices, but districts would say, 'What? We never made an intentional decision to give more money to the wealthier schools,'" Roza told the Daily Herald.

Rucker Johnson, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley, said his team has connected per-student spending to better outcomes in standardized test scores and graduation rates, according to the Daily Herald.

"At every stage, higher spending led to significant increases in student outcomes and narrowing of achievement gaps by race and poverty status," Johnson told the newspaper.