In 1854, Ninian Edwards became the first superintendent of public education. His first and most difficult task was to convince pioneer parents that a formal education was a necessary item in the lives of their children. By the mid-1870s, education in Illinois had become a going enterprise. Edwards helped create an outstanding public school system, although the city of Chicago was hard pressed to construct enough school buildings to serve the growing numbers of students until foreign immigration subsided in the 1920s. The dedication of these educators continued to improve the quality of education, but it was not until the development of a good highway system and state funding for the transporting of students, that rural Illinois was to see the demise of one-room schoolhouses. In one decade, 1944–54, state-mandated school consolidation/reorganization reduced the number of school districts from 11,955 to 2,607.
Illinois tends to have slightly higher literacy levels than the national averages. In 2000, 81.4% of the Illinois adult population held high school diplomas, with 26.1% continuing their education and earning a bachelor's degree or higher.
Total public school enrollment for fall 1999 stood at 2,,027,600. Of these, 1,462,234 attended schools from kindergarten through grade eight, and 565,366 attended high school. Minority students made up approximately 41% of the total enrollment in public elementary and secondary schools in 2001. Total enrollment was estimated at 2,048,197 in fall 2000 and expected to reach 2,251,000 by fall 2005.
Nonpublic schools, dominated by Chicago's extensive Roman Catholic school system, have shown a slight decrease since the early 1980s. Enrollment in nonpublic schools in fall 2001 was 299,871, down from 320,880 in 1995/96. Rising tuition fees, caused in part by higher salaries for lay teachers and a drop in the number of teaching sisters, threatened the parochial schools. High-tuition private schools continue to flourish in Chicago, however.
As of fall 2000, there were 810,038 students enrolled in college or graduate school. In the same year Illinois had 181 degree-granting institutions. In 1997, minority students comprised 29.2% of total postsecondary enrollment. Public universities enroll about one-quarter of the Illinois college student population. The University of Illinois system has both the largest and smallest public university campuses. The University of Illinois at Springfield was formerly Sangamon State University. Champaign-Urbana is the state's most populous campus. Nearly half of all Illinois college students attend one of the state's 48 public community colleges. Private institutions enroll the remaining quarter of Illinois college students. Private-sector institutions are broken down into two broad categories—not-for-profit and proprietary. There are 103 independent, not-for-profit colleges and universities.
Illinois education is financed through a combination of state, local, and federal funds. In 1999/2000, the estimated mean expenditure per student was $5,856; the average United States expenditure was $6,356. Expenditures for public education in 2000/01 were estimated at $7,668,000.