-- 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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When the government can’t meet a standard, they will always lower it.
What good is a “standard” if significantly more than 50% can’t meet it? To many such youthful “losers “ it does at least two deleterious things: it causes a feeling of despair, and it kills motivation to think trying “harder” will bring a better result. You might argue otherwise, and I grant you some may change to a better work ethic, but that’s generally going to be a minority response. Most will think why bother. Youths and probably even most adults are more likely to be more disengaged by despair than motivated by it.
Maybe the next time you drive your car, or eat at a restaurant, or take a medication, you can reflect on why standards might be good and necessary.
Standards matter more realistically when anyone starts seeing a need for having relevant credentials and employment references. On the other hand standards matter hardly at all when a child in school or an adult prisoner is required to be present, has little to no motivation to succeed while there and whose immediate and near-term future is reasonably secure regardless. That clearly applies to young people who are cared for by their parents regardless of such youthful disinterests. Most adults realize having a secure future requires continuing effort. That sense of planning for a better future is simply absent in the… Read more »
The problem with low reading and math scores begins in 3rd grade. We have to go pretty far back in history to find a time when 8 yr olds did not think their parents would take care of them.
Where do we propose to find the good homes needed to educate kids among the 70% of students graduated into the Information Economy with limited literacy skills?
I’d like to know the answer as well. Education starts in the home as we’ve all been told repeatedly. If parents think all schools are good for is a baby-sitting service, never participate meaningfully and continually at home for a better outcome chances are they won’t get one. Kids who simply “do time” in school with no sense of meaningful participation will not have the skills to compete except where minimally skilled labor and faithful attendance are the most obvious prerequisites for their labor.
The reason we as a society agreed to pour more and more money into education was that education was supposed to be the answer. Better education was the way to make a better society. Now we are told that we were mistaken to believe in the power of education to raise people up. On the contrary, society must produce better students, and then they can be educated. Until we get better parents, education is futile. But of course, keep putting more and more money into schools. Who knows, maybe we’ll get lucky and the kids might learn to read. But… Read more »
Having a good work ethic is a solid start to a better life, but there’s no guarantee of it. Luck has a lot to do with it as does your health and other circumstances often beyond your control or prediction. Eventually we are a combination of personal savvy mixed with the seas of uncertainty.
Nothing about the value of good education. Sorry to see a former teacher has given up on that. That says a lot.
30 years ago (when I began teaching), easily more than 50% of my students could have passed the current standards. I say “current” because Mark F is correct… over my career, I have watched as standards get “revised” (lowered) over and over, in the name of whatever the latest trend was. There was never any honest assessment of why kids weren’t meeting those standards – which of course, is a long and complicated list. But, school admins and many teachers, are like puppies.. they will chase each new, shiny thing that comes along. Good, veteran teachers recognize that their old,… Read more »
Thank you for your work as a teacher and your input here.
Your C student is now an A student. That simple
It means your student will graduate illiterate without much hope of getting any meaningful employment and go directly to the welfare/ crime as a profession pipeline. Dems just love an overwhelming number of parasites feeding off of the host body taxpayers until the whole thing collapses and the place looks like a third world country.
Instead of taking measures to improving education, IL is lowering the standards to cover up that public education has failed.
Doesn’t mean anything to my kids. We moved to Iowa
You might be interested to know that on the 2024 NAEP exam Illinois had higher scores than Iowa for 8th Math (277 to 268), 8th Reading (262 to 256), 4th Math (236 to 231), and 4th Reading (214 to 208). The benchmarks which Illinois is lowering vary from state to state, but the NAEP is standardized across the nation, it’s just not given to all students.