Kankakee Times

Bourbonnais School District 53 has $7,605,000 in debt, which is $1,224 per household in the district, according to Illinois State Board of Education 2016 financial reports obtained by the Kankakee Times.

Because state law allows the district to borrow a total of $27,602,844, Bourbonnais SD 53 has reached 27.6 percent of its debt capacity.

The state limits how much school districts can borrow, capping their debt at a percentage of the district's property wealth, as determined by county and township assessors.

Community unit school districts are able to borrow up to 13.8 percent of their total property value, or Equalized Assessed Value (EAV). Elementary school districts are able to borrow up to 6.9 percent of their EAV.

However, school districts exceeding these debt caps are not punished or sanctioned, as the state has no enforcement mechanism in place.

In 2015, Bourbonnais 53, an elementary school district, had an EAV of $400,041,218, according to ISBE.

The following table ranks debt held by Kankakee County school districts.