-- 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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One of the best things about No Child Left Behind was that it lended hard data, to facts of life we all already knew. Namely, education of the mother and income are the greatest predictors of students’ success. You need high parent buy in to counter that, and it’s an extremely heavy lift, even with dedicated teachers. Without parent buy in, there’s little order, without order, there’s little rigor, and without rigor, we have what we have now; students who graduate, but have few marketable academic and social skills. Successful outliers like certain private or schools, or selective enrollment schools… Read more »
And even with a seemingly manageable ratio of CPS staff/ students, the majority of students leave school without any skills to compete in an increasingly competitive world. But hey, 90% of them graduate!
Why would you need skills if you never intend to be employed?