There were 41 white students enrolled in Thornton School District 154 in the 2024-25 school year, 12.8% fewer than the previous year, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.
Data showed that Thornton School District 154 welcomed 236 students during the 2024-25 school year. Among them, white students comprised 17.4% of the student body to be the second least represented ethnicity in the district.
Thornton School District 154 roughly covers schools within Cook County and has a main office in Thornton.
Wolcott School is the only one school in the Thornton School District 154 that recorded enrollment of white students in the 2024-25 school year, with a total of 41 students.
Nationwide, public K-12 education spending has approached roughly $857 billion, with average per-student spending near $17,000, funded primarily through state and local sources. Spending varies widely by state, and Illinois ranks above the national average, with roughly $22,000 spent per student when state, local, and federal funding are combined.
Illinois public school enrollment continues a long-term downward trend. According to statewide reporting and education data analyses, total enrollment fell to about 1.85 million students as of the 2023-24 school year, and major districts such as Chicago Public Schools saw further declines—for example, CPS reported a drop of more than 9,000 students between the 2024-25 and 2025-26 counts.
| Year | Total District Enrollment | Total of White Students | White students (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | 236 | 41 | 17.4% |
| 2023-24 | 243 | 47 | 19.3% |
| 2022-23 | 245 | 53 | 21.6% |
| 2021-22 | 233 | 63 | 27% |
| 2020-21 | 230 | 55 | 23.9% |
Information in this article was obtained from the Illinois Report Card. The source data can be found here.
