The present and future impact of tax caps on small, rural Illinois school districts

The study examined the present and future impact of tax caps in Illinois, known as PTELL, on small, rural school districts with respect to the financial health, quality of the delivery of instruction, and decision-making. Mixed methods research was used. Quantitative data was collected from the Illinois State Board of Education. Qualitative data was collected from interviews and open-ended questionnaires to PTELL superintendents. The study included districts in Illinois except Chicago and the surrounding counties. The population for the quantitative research was the total set of 39 rural unit school districts with student populations less than 1,000 and 39 purposively matched non-PTELL districts. Descriptive statistics, independent samples t-tests, and eta squared tests were used. The 25 PTELL superintendents in the qualitative portion of the study were selected randomly from each of the PTELL counties with a small rural unit district.;Quantitatively the study examined the change in the districts from 1998 to 2007 in the instructional expenditures per student, average high school class size, pupils per certified staff, and average teacher salary to measure of the quality of instruction. The change in the EAV per student, total tax rate, sum of the four fund balances per student, and revenue minus expenditure per student were used to measure the financial health of the districts. In all measures of the quality of instruction and the financial health there was no statistically significant difference.;In contrast, the vast majority of PTELL superintendents responding to the open-ended questionnaire and all the superintendents interviewed stated that PTELL had greatly diminished their ability to collect revenue. These superintendents specifically mentioned many cuts and reductions the districts had taken because of the reduced revenue.