By: Mark Glennon*
It’s quite astonishing, actually. Despite placing “equity” at the center of most everything it does, a new study ranks Illinois dead last among the states on racial equality.
Many state rankings we see today we ignore because of poor methodology, but a new study by WalletHub on racial equality is simple, and certainly tells us something. The authors, who are well credentialed, looked at the differences between blacks and whites on eight basic measures of prosperity — poverty rate, homelessness rate, share of unsheltered homeless, labor-force participation rate, homeownership rate, share of executive positions, median annual household income and unemployment rate. Their methodology is here.
You might have different factors you think are important or have weighted those eight factors differently than did the authors, but that would be quibbling. For a state with policies as progressive as Illinois’ to come out last is really something. For decades the state has been ruled almost exclusively by progressives, with labor unions getting most everything they want.
Illinois appears to be a fugitive from one of the most widely recognized laws of economics, which is that there’s a tradeoff between equity and efficiency. Sacrificing some economic growth is usually regarded as the price of achieving more equity, as that rule has it. Illinois has paid that price. It has had no net job growth in 20 years. Its total tax burden is consistently ranked among the highest in the nation. Its GDP growth since 2019 is the tenth worst in the nation. And its people are fleeing.
But what did it get for paying that price?
Last place on equity.
Progressives may say this is why we need a progressive income tax. But look at the rest of the rankings, reproduced below, from the study. There’s no connection to income tax policy. Many states with steeply progressive income taxes like Minnesota, New York and Wisconsin are also among the worst ranked. Most states with flat income taxes did far better. And the states with no income tax at all – Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming – mostly ranked particularly well.
How could Illinois’ vaunted equity strategy be failing so badly? We have our answers, which we put up most every day, maybe the most important of which is government schools that are failing minorities.
But this time it’s for Illinois’ political leadership to answer.
Tell us, why have your equity policies failed so miserably?
*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.
Audio and summary 
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.
Thanks for drawing attention to the Wallethub study, which I hadn’t been aware of. However, I have a big problem with your assertion that “there’s a tradeoff between equity and efficiency.” That’s neocon talk. A fair economy, where everyone keeps the product of their labor, and privilege is taxed to meet the cost of needed public services, is efficient.
Taxpayer, the tradeoff is not something you can dismiss so easily and certainly is not “neocon.” An economist named Okun who was an LBJ advisor wrote a famous book on it and it has been textbook economics ever since. I don’t accept it entirely, however, in that it doesn’t apply where things are so unequal that lower classes don’t even have a chance to contribute their efforts meaningfully. That may be true of some of today’s “equity” beneficiaries but not most. Keep in mind that the point of the tradeoff theory is merely that GDP shrinks somewhat if you spend… Read more »
Came across a column in the WSJ that, I think, explains perfectly how guvmn’t broadly, and Illinois particularly, has encouraged our Black community to fail themselves and the rest of us. The link follows, and I’ve also posted the content for those who can’t get past the WSJ paywall. https://www.wsj.com/articles/reparations-are-no-more-than-a-dream-of-privilege-civil-rights-indentity-politics-victims-175f259a?mod=opinion_lead_pos7 If simple logic were the only measure of truth in matters of race, reparations for black Americans would make perfect sense. We have endured four centuries of an especially mean and degrading persecution. Slavery, and the regime of segregation that followed it, was dawn-to-dusk, cradle-to-grave oppression. The only argument against… Read more »
Excellent, thank you…!!!
Thank you for sharing this. Shelby Steele is a voice of reason. It’s a crime that black media ignores him.
There’s a whole catalog of independent, interesting black thinkers out there that most all the media ignore: https://freeblackthought.com/
You are right. There a lot of Black Conservatives making content on YouTube, their comment sections are full BC’s, sick and tired of the Democrat party. Trump got 20%+ of the black vote, only for them to have had their vote stolen.
Yes, great articale!! Thanks
Because like many of the whites the ones that really want to succeed leave the state.
WalletHub’s four ‘experts’ illuminate exactly why Illinois encourages our Black citizens to fail themselves spectacularly.
Not one of them takes note of how guvmn’t interventions-n-assistance – the Great Society – have turned our Black community into one of angry, hopeless, family decay and intergenerational poverty.
With the exception of the crusty old curmudgeon who posits that no reliable statistics exist, the other 3 thoroughly woke university ‘experts’ all claim that if we just do more of the stuff that’s failed, we’ll get better results.
That’ll be JB, BJ and the progressive-n-woke glitterati’s response as well.
Progressives don’t care about results or how much some social justice or welfare program might cost. Rather, we must do something! The result? Failure, no accountability, beneficiaries no better off and massive wasteful spending.
Coverage by the MSM? Except for Crain’s and Wirepoints, crickets of course.
Also, let’s not confuse equality and equity. Equality offers equal opportunities; equity demands equal outcomes. Very, very different. But if the State is not held accountable either by itself or by the MSM, no matter the ideology, we get the results you see in the table above.
Remember, the very first act Lori took as mayor was to create her “Office of Equity” with an $800k plus budget and four mopes hired. Anything at all to show for it? Four years at $800k per year? Nothing. Zero. Total waste of time and money.
At least Illinois can be number one in something!
Because the left doesn’t actually want racial equity. So Illinois is actually doing pretty good if you used the left’s standard. If there is racial equity, the left would have no platform at all.
We have 2 Democratic parties, one for white people and another for everybody else. Look at the upper leadership. Not a person of color to be found. We don’t need a white guy from New York leading the Democrats in Congress, they need a black woman.
Why have their equity policy’s failed so miserably? Because any project or policy Illinois dictates and throws money at ALWAYS fails. This is really bad BUT there will be no answers or consequences. After all, this is Illinois.
Illinois has failed miserably because equity, in and of itself, is a shell game to line the pockets of the perpetually aggrieved and race baiters.
I wonder what the black racial ‘equity’ gap would look like if you took out all the all the black guaranteed deal public sec folks? Astronomically greater one would assume?
Interesting to me that much of the bottom are Midwest states. It’s like the Big 10. I wonder if rust belt issues have contributed to this.
States with the most welfare and affirmative action ranked lowest. This is because of unintended consequences. For example welfare benefits for children is almost never given to families, it’s given mostly to single mothers. Thus, there is no incentive for welfare recipients to ever form a family. And the circle of welfare continues.
This is true, married dual income households often don’t qualify for public aid, the two most important aspects are the food stamps and the medicaid. If a man shows up and marries the single mom, they’ll make too much money, and depending on his income, the husband will need to pay for private insurance, even if some of it is subsidized by the obamacare. However, the man usually stays around anyway even if they’re not married, often ‘staying’ in the same household. I’ve heard of cases where the baby daddy and baby momma live together but the state garnishes the… Read more »
Florida, Texas, Carolinas, Tennessee all higher than New York, California, and Illinois.
That’s because they don’t allow corrupt public employee unions. Illinois public employee unions are the filthy cancer that is killing Illinois
Note progressive darling Minnesota is also near the bottom.
They have the same evil public employee problem. Illinois public employee unions are the filthy cancer that is killing Illinois.
It appears from your nearly auto-worded, way too repeated postings that you have an attitude problem, sport! If you want to live a long and healthy life you need to do something seriously different to find a better mindset or suffer the consequences.
The attitude problem is from evil public employees like you James. They should arrest every public employee. Illinois public employee unions are the filthy cancer that is killing Illinois
Okay, but you are headed nowhere good carrying around that huge chip on your shoulder. That will bring you down somewhat permanently at some point if you don’t get control of it.
I won’t be satisfied until we take your pension and have you living on the streets. You and your evil union members caused this mess. Illinois public employee unions are the filthy cancer that is killing Illinois
That may take awhile, sport. I hope you have enough life and mental stability to wait that long.
Your time will come and I’ll laugh at you when I see you homeless on the street. Illinois public employee unions are the filthy cancer that is killing Illinois
Schadenfreude is an outward manifestation of a mental problem. Look it up if you don’t want to believe me. Your thinking isn’t all that rare, but it’s outside the range of being a healthy and healthful mindset.
Telehealth psych evaluations are conducted via Zoom, but not very effective via blog posts. Giddyap, no need to get your Medicare card ready.
Indeed.
“Equity” comes by providing good public education and full-time blue-collar jobs. Affirmative action hiring, progressive politics, and “woke” rhetoric fail to adequately educate low-income POC children, or to adequately create “full-time w/benefits” private-sector blue-collar jobs attainable by low-income POC young adults. (Retail, fast food, and low-skill hospitality industry jobs are usually part-time, w/o benefits.) Illinois, at this rate, will never reach “equity” standards of higher-performing states. (Outlier Alaska has oil money distributed by state to residents.) Illinois tries to achieve “equity” by multiple welfare program payments, as “income-redistribution” to subsidize low-income households, as proxy, while it neither provides quality public… Read more »
We won’t have equity until we bust public employee unions and pay them 7.25 an hour. That’s too generous but can’t get around federal minimum wage. Illinois public employee unions are the filthy cancer that is killing Illinois
As PPF points out, IL has fewer state and municipal employees per resident compared to other states, its just that we pay the few we have extraordinary salaries with lavish lifetime pensions.
Debtsor, as a teacher I’m interested in what you think I should be paid instead of my “extraordinary salary”. An hourly wage of $7.25 like Giddyap has stated? A salary that is equal to the median salary in my district? A commission based salary based on student test scores?
You have stated very strong opinions and I’m truly interested in whether you would also prefer that teachers and state workers were paid so little they were homeless as stated above.
7.25 an hour for 30 hours a week. Remove all the paid time off in the summer, spring break, and sick days as well. So about 30 weeks of the year. That’s generous in my mind. We should demand you give up your pension and lock you up if you fight it. Public employees are vermin that deserve to be homeless.
You deserve every penny of your current salary and your pension. I think you should be paid even more. You earned your money Hubert and should hold your head high. Many people here just hate that a lowly teacher like yourself has a solid retirement and competitive wages so they lash out like a child upset about their bedtime. They will name call and complain all day long and it just infuriates them that they can’t steal your pension. It’s quite amusing the more you read their comments. Many of these commenters look down on public employees so in their… Read more »
I appreciate your sentiments PPF, but I would love know what some of the regular posters think a teacher deserves. I already figured Giddyap’s thoughts and was not disappointed in the response.
Many are quick to point out that we are overpaid (at least compared to nurses, right Susan?), but rarely will put a number on what a teacher ought to be paid.
I’m actually most interested in what the Wirepoints staff thinks a teacher deserves. Please enlighten me.
The best way to find out what teachers should be paid is the thing unions hate the most and will do anything to stop: school choice.
What are catholic school teachers paid? Or charter school teachers. That’s your salary without your corrupt unions bribing those in charge.
How about teachers in other states like WI or IN?
Nope. That’s the Catholic teachers salary level. It wasn’t mine. You only get what you demand. Don’t settle for working in a place offering less. Working without a sense of financial appreciation was never a part of my life’s plan. Was it yours?
INDIANA TEACHER
COMPENSATION REPORT
Report for the 2021-2022 School Year
https://www.in.gov/ieerb/files/2021-22-Teacher-Compensation-Report-FINAL.pdf
Base Salary
Lowest salary reported $ 35,000
Highest salary reported $ 105,000
Statewide average 1.0 FTE teacher salary $ 56,609
Average daily salary rate $ 308
Teachers below 20-21 average teacher salary ($53,991) 31,888
Teacher above 20-21 average teacher salary ($53,991) 30,932
Average total compensation $ 75,199
This seems reasonable to me. I know of a retired teacher, the mother of one of my friend’s husband’s, who is retired from a larger suburban high school district, her pension is about $135,000 a year. Been retired for over 15 years. Earns a crap ton more today than she ever did working. Huge suburban house, florida vacays three times a year, cruise, no boat I don’t think.
You, chump? Keep working to pay ‘dem teacher salaries..
I wouldn’t work that job for less than 150k pension. If it’s so lucrative you should go work that job. Also, I guess you define a “crap ton” as 13% more. A retired teacher gets 75% of an average of their last 4 years working. If that teacher retired at 60 they would get a 3% increase for 14 years. So that means they are getting 151% more than their initial pension check or 13% more than their average final 4 years. If they retired at 55 they would only have 9 years of compounding they wouldn’t yet be making… Read more »
Once again, who needs math when an argument seems so compelling otherwise? A
Math is just for nerds and LTBQ weirdos anyway. We need no damn math here. It just gets in the way of truth, after all.
LOL you’re a goof ball $135,000 pension for a school teacher is absolute insanity, and this rationale of yours makes you look completely insane, especially compared to the salaries of Indiana school teachers.
My rationale is what I would do for work compared to compensation provided. Just because I wouldn’t work for so little doesn’t make it insane. Instead, it shows that I value my time and will only trade it for compensation that matches my expectations. Just because you have lower expectations for your compensation doesn’t make it insane. It just means that I expect more money for the value that I provide. Indiana is a lower cost of living state. Comparing Chicago area teachers to Indiana compensation makes zero sense. But if you want to work for pennies, you should apply… Read more »
So why are unions frantic to keep competitors out of teaching? Because it’s a crap job that no one would take? LOL, try again.
Oh, how wonderful life would be if we all could vote on the salary of every person who ever worked on our behalf. I think my doctor and lawyer are worth maybe $30 each hour. Seems reasonable to me. Whatever you do for a living might be worth half of that. I feel so much better making such decisions for their life’s welfare. Now, aren’t we both just thrilled to have such power over those who do work in our behalf? Also, they should be grateful to have the luxuries our sense of charity grants them!
Why do you think taxpayers should support your “life’s plan”?
Because they support other people’s life plans. Duh!
I think that a public K-12 system that can’t teach more than 3 or 4 in 10 of it’s students how to read, write and add at grade level, but which is none the less 90%+ staffed by commendable/outstanding-rated teachers, who ‘graduate’ 80%+ of their students (30 or 40% + of whom have been chronically truant) is so deeply flawed as to make an informed discussion about ‘fair’ wages for teachers profitless. It’s like talking about how much to pay the stewards to move the deck chairs around on the sinking Titanic. They might scurry around with lots of energy… Read more »
What about nothing. LOL. According to the Illinois Constitution education shall be free. SECTION 1. GOAL - FREE SCHOOLS A fundamental goal of the People of the State is the educational development of all persons to the limits of their capacities. The State shall provide for an efficient system of high quality public educational institutions and services. Education in public schools through the secondary level shall be free. There may be such other free education as the General Assembly provides by law. The State has the primary responsibility for financing the system of public education. (Source: Illinois Constitution.) If education… Read more »
Are you kidding me? You might find at most a dozen people in IL willing to work week after week for maybe a semester or even a year. I can’t imagine you’d find literally even one to do it beyond that time frame without some kind of payment. Would you do it? Would anyone you know do it? Give me a break! The closest you will ever come to that is the Catholic school system where people do it for far less than public teacher wages and suffer the consequences when retiring. I have to suppose at that time in… Read more »
Not kidding at all. Did you ever look at Khan Academy? Free of charge. Here are some more free learning sites. https://www.lifewire.com/best-free-learning-websites-for-kids-4800405 How much money is spent for bloated administrations who teach nothing. What about transporting kids all over the city for hours per day to attain racial quotas due to discriminating agendas. Not enough whites on any particular side of town so they must be bussed. Maybe the bus drivers can teach? With Chat GPT and AI growing at breakneck speeds the need for teachers and many other fields will be obsolete soon. What do kids get at CPS… Read more »
Okay, now I get some logic to your point of view, but in the case of people posting lessons on the web you’re watching people who have interests beyond the immediate teaching you are watching in that they obviously also have a passion for that sort of production skills as well. My guess is that’s often their motivation for doing it—gaining both the recognition and followers who have that as their similar interest or business. It pays to be recognized as a specialist in technological productions and might lead to a future where you are both lauded and well paid.
The Covid era showed that students in general are not particularly dedicated to “learning at a distance” by computers or videos. It takes a highly motivated person and usually one of a greater age to be dedicated to that format where no adult is immediately present to be both demanding and helpful in requiring the individual student’s sincere effort attempts at making progress.
Surprise, surprise—I agree that a heavy percentage of the public’s tax money being spent for education clearly appears to be wasted if test score results are the barometer. Like you, I think there must be more effective and efficient ways ways for such expenses. Remote learning through technology likely won’t solely do it, though, because most school-age children simply tune-out after the novelty stage. There is saying going to the effect that “machine learning, machine feeling” comes into play psychologically, resulting in essentially no interest sooner than not. So, what’s the solution? My surface-level feeing is that we simply reduce… Read more »
Good Morning-Happy Fathers Day to you and everyone else if I may presume. Here is the tuitionhttps://www.immanuelknights.org/tuition/ costs from one of our local private schools. There are many areas of free education we receive each and every day. Just someone providing a link to whatever can educate us in what we were looking for at no cost. How much did you or myself learn from our fathers or mothers like a hobby/cooking/old recipies or tinkering with cars/etc. They were more than glad to teach us at no cost including our friends if they were with us. It could be as… Read more »
Sure, truly LOTS of things can be learned even somewhat by happenstance when the speaker and listeners are related in some meaningful way. That can be a family relationship, a peer relationship through shared work, a mutual hobby interest or almost anywhere two people find something of mutually compelling interest. Eons ago surely that was “schooling” presumably, and for a time little to no actual formal schooling it likely did well enough. But, we live in a greatly different, far more technologically advanced era. Learning by chance as I’ve described still happens but can’t be considered to happen with reliable… Read more »
This is an honest idea and I commend you for saying it out loud. One theory is that maybe traditional education needs to stop at the 8th grade level for many under-performing students, with some vocational or skilled training through high school. This is an objective analysis of the failures of our current system and the students involved. Unfortunately, half the country calls this RACIST! And inequitable. I told off my local school board member after they voted to remove honors classes from the high school. This virtue signaling POS said “it’s not equitable that some kids get better educations… Read more »
I can agree with much you’ve said and substantial re-thinking of our essentially hundred-year-old concept of public, tax supported education ought to be re-done so that the results are both more likely to be improved along with their associated cumulative costs. As for Honors level courses I’ve seen it work where borderline students meet the challenge because they have a good attitude, good work habits, and their class environment is a positive influence. But, maybe twice as often it happens negatively because there too many borderline students negatively influencing their better-performing classmates. One key reason there is that class and… Read more »
Those comments were disturbing. Please know that most people don’t feel that way. In my area, the teachers are paid quite well. Some high school teachers here are paid surprisingly well. I do think their pensions are too high as their contribution is much too low and I believe it’s crippling for our state. That said, my kids have had some phenomenal teachers and I think they’re worth every penny. There’s also teachers, like every profession, that can’t teach and shouldn’t be in the profession. I also have little tolerance for activist teachers – that is happening in our schools.… Read more »
They are last because of evil public employees. Illinois public employee unions are the filthy cancer that is killing Illinois
Answers: Il/Chicago has the most Corrupt, Incompetent, and Greedy (CIG) politicians in the country. Rep party has wallowed in the combine too. Passive IL (midwest nice) taxpayers. CIG politicians maintain a corrupt bargain with public unions. Public unions have linked with CIG IL/CHI politicians to lock in lavish pensions/medical, and almost negligible efficiency oversight of the public sector. No real action on political corruption (yes, Emil Jones authorized an anti-corruption bill in 2007 to help Obama get elected, but of course, it was a sham.) etc. Uninformed CHI voter base, along with a juggernaut DEM/pubic-union political machine. No money for… Read more »
Generational Black poverty is a feature — not a “bug” — of left wing Democrat policy. By keeping Blacks locked in poverty with bad schools — and policies that promote crime — and destroy Black families and businesses — Democrats can get votes by blaming it all on imaginary systematic racism.
Democrats have been enslaving blacks since the beginning of the country. Democrat racism existed from 1866 until the Civil Rights Act, passed by Republicans. Then the Democrats realized that they could enslave blacks by pandering to them and telling them “vote Democrat and we’ll make it better” when it was the Democrats that were the cause of black misery. The folks who would have been called the “House N” before the Civil War, such as Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and all the race baiters in Chicago (including the present mayor) caught on and made themselves rich by playing along.
Illinois’ new slogan should be “We’re #1 at being Dead Last”. There are to many reasons to list.
And CHI should change it’s slogan from “ the city of big shoulders “ to “ the city of small expectations “. Carjacking out of hand? Blame KIA. Smash and grabs? Tell store owners to install heavier windows. Habitual criminals terrorizing people? Let them out with an ankle bracelet.
This analysis is all in error , See a new book ” the myth of inequality ” by Phil Graham.
Ron, the point of Graham’s book (which is that some measures of income are faulty because they don’t include assistance programs and adjust for lower tax rates) would potentially apply only to one of the 8 factors used in the study — median family household income. The others would not be affected by his argument. Even for household income, we don’t know if the authors used a measure that is after-tax and includes benefits. So, it does not seem to me that Graham’s argument is likely to have a terribly large impact on the study.
The economists definition of income is almost impossible to measure, or compare . I think Graham comes closer.