Ted joined Ray Stevens to discuss the absurd layers of government that exist in Illinois, how much money the state bureaucracy eats up every year, and why it’s high time for Illinois to get its own Department of Government Efficiency.
Read more from Wirepoints:
- One big example of why Illinois badly needs a DOGE of its own
- Underreported Trump order has sweeping implications for DEI at universities and other federal grant recipients
- The next absurd bill from Illinois’ legislature: Removing student test scores from teacher evaluations
- Gov. Pritzker walks back his “no tax increase” comments…is a hike on the way?
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.
When you look at the enrollment numbers at the high schools of CPS and compare the per pupil cost against academic accomplishments it becomes clear we are paying a lot of money to keep the teachers off the streets.
The problem of having an effective Chicago or Illinois DOGE is that you would need leaders to support it. We need leaders who will step away from the taxpayer-funded trough and make painful sacrifices (for them and their minions) to significantly reduce bloat. Do these leaders exist?
Stacy Gates and the CTU is the solution. Just ask her.
Repulican states are launching “DOGE” commissions ( https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/feb/11/red-states-launch-doge-efforts-purge-wasteful-spen/). But here in the dem machine byzantine state of Illinois w crazy 7,000 units of gov will obviously fight tooth & nail to avoid any and metrics of efficiency, any DOGE. They still haven’t released ACFR? The ARPA-COVID fed spending $blow-out$ was a godsend for are uncountable $gov class hero’s$ that now spent taxpayers are expected to somehow make up for the fed $billions$. ETC, ETC……But what’s stopping Illinois Republicans from proposing a state DOGE?, even though it will go nowhere in Springfield , it will be a HUGE political winner for… Read more »
What about this??? Hard to believe. They just hired an outside firm to advise the school board. How much is CPS paying these so called experts. Remember an expert is ALWAYS someone from out of town. CPS (sorry taxpayers) must be flush with money
https://www.yahoo.com/news/outside-firm-hired-advise-school-000800972.html
The article said that it was “unclear” what the district was paying for the consulting services from Baker Tilley. Lol. What the hell? School board activities, the approval for any contracts and spending any money is always public information and done openly at board meetings. This again SMACKS of corruption and continued stupidity. There are no magic answers coming from this accounting firm, the district is broke, spends too much money and is corrupt. End of story. Gosh, I hope the new board president got his giant SUV and driver…pathetic.
“The district is in dire need of additional revenue”… no, it is not. Ask any teacher how many “administrators”, “instructional coaches”, “curriculum specialists” (ha!), “restorative justice coordinators”, etc. waddle in and out of their classrooms on a regular basis, with phrases like, “differentiation”, “targeted interventions”, “emotional disregulation”, and “scaffolded supports” spewing out of their pie-holes. Conservative estimate? Each area has about 15 bureaucrats of the sort named above (plus 2x support staff), averaging 100,000/yr in salaries and benefits = 3,000,000/yr. Across 16 networks = $48,000,000. Plus, rent and utilities on huge network offices. To point out the obvious, CPS doesn’t… Read more »
Here is some data on your comment. $48M may be on the low side. Belvidere school district has at least 4 assistant supers at $125K each. Who knows what they do? Rockford dist 205 has approx 1,700 teachers but the total workforce is about 4,700. Plus $250M or so in new schools in the last 10 years were built yet kids can barely read/write/do math at grade level.
https://www.americanexperiment.org/district-admin-growth-10x-greater-than-student-teacher-growth/
Here is an interesting article on the People Who Care lawsuit against the Rockford school board and district.
https://clearinghouse.net/case/1052/