Totaling the unsustainable tax increases and windfall revenue during Pritzker Administration – Wirepoints
May 26, 2026
10 Comments
With $162 billion more from taxpayers, couldn’t you deliver a few bond upgrades, too
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A largely unasked question is becoming glaring: Is Illinois doing all it should to use artificial intelligence to make government cost less and work better? So far, the evidence says no.
It’s just a matter of self selection. Families who value education (among other positive things) have fled CPS, which now is disproportionately populated by apathetic kids and parents of low character. CPS has the leftovers, no amount of money can change their values. It’s the same for teachers, all the good ones want nothing to do with CPS, they’d rather teach good kids and make less money and enjoy their job. The situation is unfixable, it’s well past the point of no return.
Perfect example. Don’t try and solve the social problem of parent participation. Can’t be solved quickly or economically. Clearly spending more on each student does not work. Close the school, stop the financial bleeding. Move the students who want to go, into another school building that is a more efficient use of space and staff. Reduce the CPS staffing in the process. Done. Solving the social problem of parent participation, while paying this obscene cost is just stupid. Stop the financial bleeding and worry about the social issue later.
Ted, you have to point out that just a fraction of the per student money goes to pencils and paper. The majority of this money, as you guys wrote, goes to support the administration in the schools.
The best teachers can’t fix the deficiencies of home life and what parents do or don’t/can’t do for their kids. But generally speaking families sending their kids to private schools have extra skin in the game and put a priority on education. Not to say public school families don’t, but it is one aspect of why private schools can produce better results on fewer dollars. Also, they can’t treat parents like ATMs like many public districts do. General statements but true.
‘The chronic absenteeism rate for CPS teachers was also reported around 40% last year.’
Def Chronic : chronic suggests something that is persistent or endlessly recurrent and troublesome.
And there you have it – 40% of ‘teachers’ should be fired immediately, as they have no legitimate standing to be employed.
So a teacher that missed more than 10 days for maternity leave should be fired? Missing 10 days because you were battling cancer should get you fired? Get pneumonia? Fired. The employer offers the employee 15 sick days per year but if you take 10 (real definition of chronic for these purposes) you should be fired?
You have no legitimate standing to determine who should be fired from Chicago Public Schools.
Hmm, I don’t remember any nuns going on maternity leave……
Not back in the day Old Joe, Lol
Fire every one of them and no one will notice. They do not show up anyways.
jack is a tax payer paying those teachers’ salaries- he has as much “standing” as you do
He has as much standing as I do, which is none. It’s not up to Jack from Peoria to determine the contract that CPS provides to its teachers.
You are right, some among the 40% may have a valid reason for chronic absenteeism. But unless you are prepared to argue that 40% of teachers are battling serious illness, many/most among the chronic absentees deserve to be fired.
That’s up to the administrators at CPS to determine if someone’s chronic absenteeism should result in termination. Not up to you, Jack or Anna simply because you pay taxes. I don’t need to defend anything as it’s not up to me either. CPS teachers deserve 15 sick days per year as their employer agreed. Maybe they woke up and are just taking a mental health day and will go enjoy themselves at the beach. It doesn’t matter as long as they are following the rules within their contract.
I am well aware I lack any power to terminate them. I thought it was clear that I was stating my opinion.
IMO, chronic absenteeism is just one of the many reasons a substantial percentage of CPS teachers deserve to be fired.
Better?
Don’t feed the trolls.
If you didn’t feel the need to defend them, why did you lead with maybe they were battling cancer?
It’s pretty clear to most paying attention that the teacher unions are mostly mouthy nut jobs running a freak show at the taxpayers expense.
It’s “mouthy” to point out that teachers have a contract that allows 15 days per year yet you want them fired because they used their contractually allowable time? I’m not a CTU member but calling for people to be fired without any information as to their situation is moronic.
Here is a review for John Stossel’s Stupid in America.
https://chalcedon.edu/resources/articles/a-review-of-stupid-in-america-how-we-cheat-our-kids
I was pointing out the ridiculous nature of calling for people to be fired when you have no idea as to why they are missing work. They are contractually allowed to take off days for being sick, to take of their kids, to attend professional development and all kinds of other possibilities. I wasn’t defending them as they don’t need defending. I was pointing out the utter stupidity of calling for someone’s job when you have no clue. You are stating your opinion without any facts.
My first clue was the pathetic scores the public school system posts year after year. I guess as a member of the Church of Contract Worship you can safely ignore any other information.
What in the Hell is going on!?
They do not care about education, but they care about Salaries, benefits and huge pensions at a young age. Education is not even on the list.
To paraphrase a quote from “No Country for Old Men”: if this ain’t criminal, it’ll do ’til criminal gets here.
Here is an example of tuition rates at Rockford Lutheran. A far cry from Rockford public school.
https://www.rockfordlutheran.org/admissions/tuition-and-affordability.cfm