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The board would initially be split between mayoral appointees and elected members, then become fully elected in 2027. The bill needs to be sent back to the House so members there can agree on the changes made to a previously approved bill.
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Audio and summary Illinois bill would override local law to allow homeless living in all public parks – Wirepoints
April 14, 2026
24 Comments
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
Mark Glennon on AM560’s Morning Answer: Chicago Fiscal Crisis Worse Than Pre-Bankruptcy Detroit, HIV Surge and Public Health Threat From Open Borders Goes Unreported
April 10, 2026
2 Comments
Summary and audio linked here.
Mark Glennon on AM560’s Morning Answer: Chicago pension buyout plan mostly shifts debt rather than eliminating it, property tax surge doubles inflation over three decades
April 3, 2026
9 Comments
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
WBEZ and Chicago Sun-Times falsely blame Texas Gov. Abbott for 2020 to 2024 surge in Chicago Latino HIV, AIDS infections – Wirepoints Quickpoint
March 31, 2026
11 Comments
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
Woodstock CUSD 200 has an elected school board.
Here are relevant stats:
Elect a school board, don’t elect a school board…taxpayers need to SHOW UP at school board meetings, delve into illegal expenditures, and litigate when appropriate.
Woodstock District 200 per pupil expenditures (and the Illinois averages, for that matter) seem to reflect the Lake Wobegon Effect–these boards must figure that their schools are golden and “all the children are above average.” Thanks for your related comment with reference source on public school spending comparisons over at Wirepoints “Illinois 2022 budget: The state’s financial cliff . . .” Also in that article, Ted and John’s charts on Illinois’ level of K-12 spending never cease to amaze. And the idea that Illinois State Board of Education has a formula under which that funding will continue to grow in… Read more »
A friend of mine has a wife who works in one of the wealthiest school districts in the state; and this last weekend, she somehow managed to complain that we Illinoisans did not spend enough on ‘education’.
Code for: Bill ensuring 21 member CTU School Board passes fully paid for legislature.
Maybe they can call it the Really Big Super Duper Mouth Breathing Anarchist Doofus Board.
So you’re afraid that when the Chicago voters have a chance to listen to CTU members or non-CTU members that they will choose to vote for the CTU member to sit on the board? Not only that you’re stating that CTU members will so trusted that not one non-CTU member will get elected? If that’s the case then the people of Chicago will get the schools that they choose and deserve. It’s like you are against the people voting for and choosing their own government.
I think he is saying regardless of elected or not, it will be rife with political machine hacks and nothing will change. The communists at the CTU run the show anyway, they will just strike, after all, “it’s for the children.”
Looks like Chicago will finally (assuming 71 of 73 house democrats approve) get to have an elected school board. I’m sure all the people that don’t trust or respect the will of the voters will be upset.
I get what you’re saying, but your cynicism is in the wrong direction. It won’t be long before there is no Republican party in IL, gerrymandered out of existence, with only Democrat incumbents on the ballot in each district…Of course, voters will have a choice, but only one choice, the local incumbent Democrat! Because why would they want to choose anyone else? It’s the will of the voters to have no choice of their political representative at all! Democrats have all voted to let Springfield choose their local state rep for them!
I think you meant to say those who don’t respect the will of the CTU will be upset.
You are correct, the CTU is salivating over the ability to completely control the very board in charge of the schools.
Why are you anti-democracy? If the people of Chicago choose to elect CTU members then that is their choice. It seems to me all the suburban people that hate teachers are mad about this while the people that actually live and vote in Chicago want an elected school board. It’s sad how so many of you don’t want to respect the will of the voters.
The City of Chicago chooses its mayor who controls the schools. That’s democracy.
An elected Chicago School Board is anti-democratic, and everyone has known this for generations, because the board will be captured by the CTU. The CTU is anti-democratic because they do not allow non-union members to participate in their votes.
So all the suburban school districts are anti-democratic? Good thing we have you to let us know which elections are good and which ones are anti-democratic. That’s quite a service that you’re performing. The only problem with your logic, we also elected representative to our state government. Those duly elected representative believe that an elected school board is democracy and they want to give the voters the right to choose a mayor as well as school board members, just like the other districts. I get that you don’t like the idea of an elected Chicago School Board but to argue… Read more »
“The only problem with your logic, we also elected representative to our state government.” Sure, my two state Democrat representatives were ‘elected’ in the sense that they were the only choice on my ballot. I had 1 choice and I had to take it. Springfield decided who my representatives were going to be, drew districts around them, put them on the ballot, and then said, “Here’s your Democracy, you right leaning suburb, we are going to purposely divide your community into no less than 5 separate legislative districts, and combine them with heavily Democrat neighborhood miles and miles away, all… Read more »
Republicans in the state make up about 40% and in the Illinois House it is 38% republican. The party in power has used said power to draw favorable maps, just like every other state. So you are slightly less represented in the house as well as the Senate. None of that changes that you are in the minority and the majority wants to allow for an elected school board. Why are so against democracy? The majority of the Chicago voters want this. Why are you so against people voting and ruling their own lives? You can complain about gerrymandering non… Read more »
maybe they didn’t leave the R party; maybe they left Illinois.
Even if that’s the case it only means that the constituents don’t support Republicans and it has nothing to do with gerrymandering. Although I don’t think your theory holds water. DuPage had 286k total votes for Gov in 2014 and 365k total votes in 2018. The last 2 presidential elections DuPage had 423k total votes in 2016 and 485k total votes in 2020. The population of DuPage County has slightly increased so there isn’t this exodus out of DuPage County. Is your theory that Republicans moved out and Democrats moved in? The voters in the collar counties have left the… Read more »
But why have the voters in northern Illinois left the Republican party but the voters in other states, like OH, FL, etc are flocking towards the Republican party? What is so unique about IL?
Illinois has no republican party. Look at how they vote and act, beaten down losers. The leftists have a supermajority so the repubs are irrelevant anyway. 6 years running the state lost population. The only people coming in are welfare seeking illegals and glutton’s for punishment. 7 of my friends have left in the last two years, business owners and others with high paying jobs, taking millions out of the tax base with them. The exodus of the intelligent and tax enslaved will continue. Illinois is done thanks to 100 years of democrat and now leftist corruption and cowering to… Read more »
https://taylorvilledailynews.com/local-news/574071
“llinois Democrats in the House approved House and Senate Redistricting Maps Friday night, sending the maps–which had already been approved by the Senate–to Governor Pritzker for his signature.
Democrats hold a supermajority in both chambers, so the latest versions of the maps passed quickly over the cries by Republicans that the maps were gerry-mandered to keep Democats in power another 10 years.”
38% – now do IL congressional representation…
I’ll do that as soon as you provide the net benefit to gerrymandering at the national level. Republicans win on that front and you know it. Maybe you should support a bill that bans gerrymandering at the national level. I’m sure Democrats would support that but somehow I’m thinking Republicans might not be on board.
That is their choice, until they come with their hand out to the rest of the taxpayers in the state to bail them out of the fiscal disaster their bad choices create.
How about respecting the taxpayers and dumping the unsustainable pension scheme? 401K like taxpayers use?
Democracy is mob rule. Nothing less