-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
Summary and audio linked here.
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.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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Eastern is circling the drain these days. Let it die as a monument to Illinois politicians.
They’ll be coming for Lincoln next.
George Floyd Memorial Dormitory where drug use is encouraged. Fly high my fellow students.
Post-humously cancelled 160 years later for a political view that was perfectly acceptable to roughly half the country in 1858. Only to be renamed after some random nobody solely because of the color of their skin.
What is the future of EIU, and schools like it? Certainly they have more weighty problems than renaming a building. Their future would appear to lie in developing programs with solid practicality and potential for employment, but given the exodus of students (and people and jobs generally), it strikes me EIU has a significant challenge before it. Charleston is a tough draw. The school hosts the state track championships for both boys and girls every year, which should be a great showcase for the school (Illinois is a serious track and field state), but the campus all too often leaves… Read more »
https://www.dailyeasternnews.com/2021/09/07/history-of-easterns-fall-enrollment/ The future of EIU a decade or two a decade from now is a much smaller university, possible consolidation with other state schools, and maybe even closure. EIU, SIU, WIU, NIU, and the rest (UIC and UIUC excluded) are competing for the rapidly declining number of marginally qualified students who are willing to take out five figures of student loans for a degree with limited earning power from a school with a not so good reputation. I could write forever about this but basically there are major demographic changes happening limiting the number of potential future college students and… Read more »
https://www.eiu.edu/media/viewstory.php?action=1590
2021 enrollment is essentially flat; but likely only because they are giving away tuition for free to anyone with a 3.0 that lives in a county within 50 miles of the campus. Who would have known that people like free!
EIU’s enrollment has over the last two decades declined considerably, not dissimilar to other directional schools in Illinois. And the overall demographics of the college scene are obvious and looming before all non top tier universities. But it strikes me Illinois’ problems are worse than in most other states, as the student exodus from Illinois only exacerbates the challenges. I am curious as to how EIU, WIU, NIU, SIU and NE Il U compete in the labor market. In the top tier private sector arena, i think I know the answer – they don’t compete well at all. But generally,… Read more »