Why is amazing is how does a district 100 get itself into this situation? When district 98 is doing fine? I would have to guess the tax payer has always bailed them out. I wonder why district 100 doesn't monitor district 98 to see what they are doing better! Could this be a situation of egos or political nonsense?
D98 was getting $1500 more per student from the state than D100. That's a $4 million dollar difference.
In addition, D98 had a tax rate that was 20% higher than D100 (before the referendum). That's another $2 million dollar difference.
In short, D98 had more money per pupil than D100. If D100 had the same money from the state and the same tax rate, they would have had $6 million dollars more. On a budget of around $45 million, that is an increase of around 13%.
The state has changed the funding formula and the tax rate has now increased to be above the D98 tax rate.
D98 has had better test scores than D100 since the state changed the testing model.