By: Mark Glennon*
The buck stops with state government when one of its instrumentalities is failing. Chicago, like any Illinois town or city, is an instrumentality of the state and most everything can be changed by state legislation.
Even if Chicago hadn’t elected radically left Brandon Johnson as mayor, state legislation to address the existential threats to the city would have been required. Johnson’s election makes state intervention all the more essential.
To date, the state has turned a blind eye toward the city’s problems, and there’s no indication so far that will change. But here, for the record, are four critically needed actions the State of Illinois would be taking if it were not derelict in its responsibility:
First, the state should entirely reconstitute Chicago’s school district – start it over from scratch and strip the Chicago Teachers Union of its absurd level of power. It’s surprising nobody noticed that Paul Vallas supported that. In our November 2021 podcast, he said he agrees with the idea of entirely reconstituting the district, which we had written about.
Despite a stunning $2.9 billion for Chicago’s school district in recent “pandemic relief” from the federal government, enabling it to spend nearly $30,000 per student annually, Chicago’s school district is an abysmal failure for students. Only 11 percent of black students and 17 percent of Hispanic children in the entire district could read at grade level in 2021. Math performance is still worse.
And the district is already facing an annual deficit of $628 million by 2025. Reconstituting the district is the surest way to reduce cost, eliminate the deficit and, most importantly, properly educate Chicago’s next generation.
Michigan reconstituted Detroit’s failed school district. The concept is to transfer all assets and certain, reduced liabilities over to a newly created district, abandon unneeded assets, reform or reject unfavorable contracts and rehire only the teachers and personnel who are good. A new, sensible retirement system could also be part of reconstitution the district. The district’s own pension system today is just 45% funded with $13.8 billion in growing, unfunded liabilities.
School choice should be another feature of a new system, focused primarily on the poor in the worst schools. It’s unconscionable that they are deprived of educational choices, which the wealthy have.
School choice should be on the table irrespective of anything else done with Chicago schools, and it’s one reform that just might be politically viable. That’s because the public overwhelmingly supports it, regardless of political party or race. The most recent survey by Schoen Cooperman Research found a stunning 87% of Chicago parents supporting school choice, with support highest among Blacks.
Second, the state should enact legislation bypassing Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx on criminal law enforcement. Her refusal to prosecute is widely known to be a primary cause of Chicago’s crime epidemic. Putting more cops on the street will do nothing if criminals aren’t prosecuted. Since Foxx won’t have her office do the job, another office can, and should be, authorized to do it.
That reassignment of responsibility could be done in a number of ways. One way is illustrated by the recently passed “organized retail crime” law, which placed prosecutorial power in the Illinois attorney general’s office for a narrow category of major looting events to ensure an end run around of Foxx.
However, ideally, new legislation for other criminal laws not being enforced would not go to there since the current attorney general, Kwame Raoul, fully supports Foxx and would not likely do the job, either.
Good prosecutors now in Kim Foxx’s office who want to prosecute, under such a plan, would be relocated to another office, or a newly-created one, separate from the attorney general and not under Cook County’s control. Today, Foxx’s office is part of county government run by Toni Preckwinkle, who is also a major Foxx supporter. Foxx, Preckwinkle are a criminal’s dream team, and they must be circumvented.
Third, the state should fix or entirely abandon the SAFE-T Act, which would eliminate cash bail statewide and includes other provisions hostile to enforcement. Despite over 300 pages of amendments making changes that the act’s supporters initially denied a need for, the law is still badly flawed. Its constitutionality is being challenged in court by over half of the state’s elected county prosecutors and the matter is now before the Illinois Supreme Court.
Finally, pension reform is essential to breaking Chicago’s pension death spiral. About 80% of the city’s property taxes goes toward its four pensions, yet they remain grossly underfunded – among the nation’s worst being only 24% funded and with $34 billion in unfunded liabilities – making the pension system “unsustainable in its current form,” as Mayor Lori Lightfoot said.
Once federal bailout money runs out Chicago will return to the simple reality it faced before the pandemic: The city is simply not generating the revenue, jobs and growth needed to pay for obligations incurred plus current expenses.
State legislation is needed for any real pension reform in Chicago like anywhere in Illinois, but the state has chosen to ignore the problem. Gov. JB Pritzker dishonestly claims that pension reform is a “fantasy” for legal reasons.
A day will come when Chicago’s collapse will be so extreme that the public will demand the needed reforms from the state. Unfortunately, we’re apparently not anywhere close to that, so expect nothing.
*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.
Update 4/9/23: The Missouri legislature is now considering a law to override local prosecutors who fail to prosecute, as reported by City Journal. HB 301 would let the governor appoint a “special prosecutor” to oversee especially serious charges if an elected attorney fails to uphold his duties. “Other states should take note,” says the City Journal.
This column was updated to correct the amount of pandemic relief funds allocated to Chicago to $2.9 billion.
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.
Did any progressive outlets like WCPT offer Vallas an outlet to discuss some of his proposals or ideas prior to this election cycle? Invite him on a panel? What were his outlets? Did Block Club do a glowing profile? Let’s be frank: Vallas was a Democrat with no traditional Democratic outlets. He wasn’t a current insider, wasn’t flashy, just an old white guy with some ideas. The only outlets that offered him a platform were conservative outlets because there is no middle outlet, it’s either left or right. So you’re Paul, looking to get your name out there, where do… Read more »
100 percent correct. While I think Vallas should have foreseen the trouble he’d get in if he talked to conservative media outlets before running, especially co-hosting Proft’s show, he didn’t deserve the disgusting vitriol he was greeted with. Chicago media is now a collection of extremely progressive outlets (especially in the corporate, woke era post-Floyd/2020) that feel guilty reporting on black-on-black crime and spent the entire runoff slamming Vallas. If you want to see the worst example of this, check out The TRiiBE’s blatantly racist coverage of Vallas because he had the temerity to run as a white man. At… Read more »
The Triibe was nothing more than Brandon’s marketing arm disguised as non-profit journalism. Did they report anything critical of Johnson? If you research their funding, it’s all equity-based grants, which is why their “reporting” on this election was completely biased.
Wirepoints hopium? Only a governor like DeSantis could navigate the needed reforms mentioned here. Pritzker is the antithesis of DeSantis. Sadly don’t see this happening for Illinois this generation.
I thought I covered that in the headline and elsewhere, but I guess I need to be far clearer.
These are all excellent points and things which are doable if Republicans can gain enough seats to not be in the super minority. Without a seat at the table, these items will never be a point of discussion because they go against the interest of the Democrat donor class – Unions, Teachers Union, and Social Justice Warriors.
Districts are gerrymandered to the extreme, and even if we could over come this massive obstacle, we can’t get our people to show up to the polls in the first place. Turnout in mid-terms is awful for conservatives. I don’t know how we change this except for massive ballot harvesting with people going door to door to collect ballots, with a precinct captain spending his saturday afternoons in October and November going door to door. I’d sign up to be the captain, but there’s no real organization to do it. I’ll even buy a roll of 100 stamps.
Note to Mark and Wirepoints…. Charles comment shows that when Wirepoints puts forward ideas that will never realistically be implemented, it gives false hope. As long as people have hope, they may delay and miss their opportunity to leave.
Apparently I wasn’t clear enough that there is no hope of this happening.
You were clear Mark. It’s just that so many are desperately looking for reasons to stay, no matter how miniscule or farfetched.
I agree. Republicans #1 priority should be getting out of super-minority status. That won’t be easy, but find the weak prey in the herd and focus your efforts there. Stop watering down whatever limited sources you have and focus on the doable. This almost worked w/ Foxx when she underperformed Biden by 20 points. There is a decent sized contingent that can move needle.
Illinois conservatives should focus on voting out the only two remaining Democratic state representatives south of the Springfield area, Katie Stuart and Jay Hoffman. These are the vulnerable, low hanging fruit that can de defeated with a strong opposing Republican candidate. Jay Hoffman is an old school Democrat whose only ideology is the pursuit of money and power. Katie Stuart is much worse. She also cares about money and power, but is heavily motivated by woke ideology. She is the most liberal and most woke Democrat in the Illinois State House outside of metro Chicago. Stuart represents the 112th District… Read more »
Democrats will have a supermajority in Illinois for the foreseeable future due to the Chicago area dominating the Illinois General Assembly. The part of Illinois outside of metro Chicago doesn’t have a voice in the General Assembly due to Reynolds v. Sims. The U.S. Supreme Court in Reynolds v. Sims in 1964 ruled that the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause requires states to establish state legislative electoral districts roughly equal in population. Chief Justice Earl Warren held that “legislators represent people, not trees or acres. Legislators are elected by voters, not farms or cities or economic interests.” The intent of… Read more »
Nothing is going to change until teachers start teaching the truth and politicians start telling the truth.
Reminder: progressives OWN this. New talking point for moderate Democrats and sane conservatives: Just list the five people now in charge every time you see news on high crime in Chicago or a business leaving.
Pritzker: Progressive
Johnson: Progressive
Foxx: Progressive
Preckwinkle: Progressive
Evans: Progressive
Just copy and paste the above whenever you need a quick response to the progressive dopes who say things like “crime isn’t that bad!” in the next year.
Progressives: No more blaming moderate Lori. YOU OWN THIS.
They own it and they don’t see anything wrong with it. They only want to go farther. It’s a cult, a relgion, a belief system. They’re not interested in governing. They only want to push their values on you.
The State and the Chitty should file for bankruptcy. There is no hope for either one.
Cities can, states can’t. And as long as Pritzker has presidential aspirations, it won’t happen on his watch.
Democrats are going to fix major problems caused by democrats? Now that’s funny. Not one chance in a million that would ever happen. The democrats way of running things, chaos!
At some point, it’s time to give up the ghost.
Sorry Wirepoints, to quote Aerosmith, “DREAM ON”.
Isn’t it time to stop with the false hope and start every article with, “We highly recommend anyone reading this to leave the city/state asap. We now feel the decline is irreversible.”
Wasn’t the very point of the article that the state WON”T be doing things that are essential?
Don’t you think it’s time to admit that despite all the exceptional work of the Wirepoints staff, the residents of Illinois have rejected its message? There’s nothing more for it to do except document the inevitable collapse and yell at anyone that will listen to get the hell out. Why bother mentioning farfetched ideas that could improve the situation that you know will be ignored? Look, you tried. You did your best to stop the spiral knowing it was a long shot. Throwing out suggestions/ideas at this point just might confuse some residents into thinking there is still hope, causing… Read more »
NYC in the ‘70s was on its knees with little hope for recovery. And yet, it came back. Of course, it’s on yet another downward spiral, like many other uber-progressive cities. Center-left and center-right citizens will need to band together to reverse course, but if the majority of them have exited, maybe all bets are off.
I believe a nationwide poll, reported by Wirepoints a few months ago, stated conservatives are planning to relocate in much higher numbers than liberals. (I think that poll was prior to Pritzker being reelected.) At least in Illinois, nothing has happened that would cause a conservative to reconsider plans to leave.
Well, why do we need Wirepoints to yell at us to leave when you are performing that function well enough?
I assume you respect the authors of Wirepoints while I’m just another voice in the crowd.
Honest jerk, no, I disagree strongly. There are a number of reasons to do what we do here. First, we are documenting the full scope of the problems better than anybody else. Most Illinoisans are unaware, like the 2/3 of Chicago voters who stayed home on Tuesday, and countless progressives around the country who think this is a progressive paradise. Second we put up the reforms that would make sense to show how derelict the government is — that there are things that could be done that are being ignored. Third, we are hoping the rest of the country sees… Read more »
Consider root causes: voter apathy, voter ignorance and unabashed left-leaning media.
CPD is producing a new crop of left-leaning victims every year who have no compunction about killing the golden goose: those evil people/corporations who are oppressing them.
The U-Haul stock is looking better every day.
It would be interesting to see an article about the characteristics and opinions of the 70% who chose not to vote. Why are these people sitting on their hands? What would it take to get them to at least vote? Maybe they would just give the leftists a bigger majority, or maybe they are the key to bringing some reason back into our politics. Who are these people?
Yes, it’s exactly that kind of survey we need.
Mark’s 5 reasons are very important. On #1, I’d say Wirepoints is the ONLY source of data, except for places like CWB, Illinois Policy and occasionally Chicago Contrarian. #3, about the rest of the country, may be the most significant because the real ultimate fight will be when Illinois goes to the federal government for a bailout. Wirepoints’ data about how huge an outlier Illinois is may give the red state Congressmen enough spine to fight off any bailout. Any conditions for a bailout or promises to cut spending would probably be ignored or declared unconstitutional by a friendly judge.… Read more »
I live in the St. Louis Metro East region of Illinois and until recently worked in St. Louis. On my lunch breaks, I would read Wirepoints on my smartphone.
I suspect that I was likely reflected in your data as being an out of state reader while doing this, but in reality I was an Illinoisan reading your site while out of state in Missouri.
I wonder how many of your out of state readers are people like me who are actually Illinoisans who happen to read your site while out of state.
“To date, the state has turned a blind eye toward the city’s problems, and there’s no indication so far that will change. But here, for the record,” TL;DR – We didn’t get anyone into statewide office for the November election that wants to follow our game plan and the April Mayoral election voters didn’t choose a candidate that agrees with our ideas so now we will write stories for the next 4 years on what Springfield should do but we know they won’t. The voters are not buying what you’re selling. I know I know, your ideas are wildly popular… Read more »
Every good policy starts as an academic idea. For example, it is how the Left was able to get all of these crackpot CRT theories into the mainstream, and to have their extreme Left candidates talking about it like it just a matter of fact. Most of these crazy-Left ideas come from “critical theory” professors writing papers and doing “research” and then publishing them. The students grab a bullhorn and shout it out and then it becomes mainstream and whacks all of us normies on the head. Your point about getting the failure of these ideas to be implemented is… Read more »
“The point is that Wirepoints has ideas that are fundamentally sound and practical.” Then why aren’t politicians lining up to run on these ideas? If they are so wildly popular one would think it would be a perfect playbook to win elections. Bill Daley ran 4 years ago and included pension reform strategies into his platform but couldn’t get to the run off. Even when politicians support these ideas, they typically don’t make them a major part of their campaign. As Mark noted above, “It’s surprising nobody noticed that Paul Vallas supported that.” Probably because he knew that would be… Read more »
I don’t want to get philosophical or esoteric, but politicians appeal to the worst of our humanity in order to gain popularity. They subtly (but increasingly less so) appeal to our selfishness, tribal nature and “fear of missing out” by pitting us against the other guy. They fire us up. The political consultants will tell you that you have to dumb things down and that wonky politics is generally a losing proposition. Generally they are correct, unfortunately. That doesn’t mean that I think people are generally stupid, I just think that their reasoning is overwhelmed by these base human nature… Read more »
There’s a guy sitting next to me at the bar here in Goodgulfland. His name’s Oddball. Oddball wants to know why you can’t say something righteous and hopeful for a change.
I told him I’d ask……
PPF, wait, what? You are forever saying to raise taxes to pay for pensions. Now you say running on that is horrible? And the reason our policies aren’t popular is thanks to the prevailing narrative of dems, the media and folks like you who think raising taxes to fully pay pensions is the answer.
Sorry I wasn’t clear Mark. I don’t think raising taxes through a progressive tax scheme (JB) or raising taxes on business (Johnson) is the answer. More taxes will be needed it’s just not honest that the “other guy” is going to pay. Democratic tax increases are wrong not because they aren’t needed but because they aren’t honest that taxes on the “other guy” ultimately hit everyone. Now as far as giving me credit about the prevailing narrative, I think you’ve vastly over-estimated my comments. lol. Your policies aren’t popular because of the narrative of dems and the media? Isn’t that… Read more »
PPF, name three policies we advocate that are not popular.
Actually, I don’t ever recall reading a WP column wherein the author(s) suggested that only “retires should cover the costs” of Illinois’ disastrously indebted pension funds. Lots of articles that do suggest solutions based on retirees in some way getting less than what they’ve been promised, along with lots more taxpayer dollars. To which you inevitably respond by reminding all of us – correctly – of the Illinois Constitutions public-employee pension guaranty. What I think is that collecting enough taxes to fix the pension crises, without help from diminished benefits, will never work either. Not possible for Illinois guvmn’t to… Read more »
“Let them pay more more taxes.” Is the new “let them eat cake.” Illinois will eat cake and participate all the way to the zero sum that is the goal. There already is nothing left yet the two sides keep bickering over it. “Oh yes lots more taxes to be milked” says ppf. Meanwhile illinoisians with brain cells left are leaving for right to work red states. It is clear to anyone capable of critical thinking that a pension debt the size of 44 other states total debt cannot be overcome. One thing is for sure, until the Supreme Court… Read more »
All correct. I also appreciate how WP does such a good job providing links to lots of other Illinois news-n-opinion articles. I like to at least try and be well-informed, and WP reliably includes what passes for news and opinion from sources like the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Sun Times, Trib, Crains, CNN, NPR, What’s his name with the Fax machine – everyone pretty much who thinks what I think is wrong. I feel better informed when I can find out what stakeholders that I disagree with are saying directly from them, rather than trusting someone I… Read more »
“What can be done differently to win future elections?”
Exactly correct. What do you think?
When there are more people voting for a living than working for a living, then these policies will always win. The voting public knows they will reap the rewards of more social spending and not bear the brunt of higher taxes. The problem is the paying public is diminishing and as more and more businesses and sports teams decide to pull up stakes and move out of the city, taking the taxpaying public with them, it will continue to descend to a point of no return. I left Austin years ago and found an excellent life with a top rated… Read more »
When a left-leaning candidate comes on a conservative-leaning outlet, it should be viewed as a good thing: taking your message to a new audience and addressing the criticism and challenges first-hand. The problem is the left labels anyone who does that a traitor.
Vallas was having honest, provocative conversations on conservative outlets and was branded a traitor. If liberal outlets aren’t interested in those conversations, where are the Vallas-types supposed to go? It’s this extreme polarization that’s killing us.
Yep. Easier to fan flames and sell advertising than it is to inform compromise and consensus.
It’s a combination of things. Take Martire’s CTBA for instance. He had a 10-15 year head start on Wirepoints and was already well ensconced in the political scene before Mark started this site. Second, Martire is selling a message the political establishment is all to willing to buy: gimme more. Ever wonder why Martire is so popular among school superintendents? His school funding message is basically “state bad, local school good”. That message allows him to have an audience in every school district. Who can resist blaming the faceless villain downstate? Think of all the wonderful things our schools could… Read more »
” I know I know, your ideas are wildly popular when you run individual polls but yet for some reason those candidates can’t win state-wide. So why is that?”
Stop playing dumb, you as well as I know why….it’s da Chicago way
While your article is correct, it’s more of a mental exercise than anything in reality. The Democrat super majority in Springfield are just as radical as BLM BJ and the rest of the Cook County criminal coddlers. There’s no such thing as a moderate Democrat anymore, if there really ever was one. The destruction must be completed before rebuilding can occur, assuming there’s anyone left that cares about rebuilding.
Springfield not only certainly won’t do any of these things, but won’t even consider them. Which begs the question – Just how bad must the consequences of Illinois pestilential bankruptcy of finances and governance get before the voters who have reliably voted for what we’re doing election after election start voting for something else. So bad, perhaps, they can’t be fixed. Pritzker sees it coming – but speaks to it in a horribly political, tribal and partizan way. Witness his comments in response to the CTU’s election victory – claiming that everyone was focused on the “boring stuff”, while pensions… Read more »
Like the name. Bored of the rings yet?
Had a set of dog tags stamped with that name at the 82nd Airborne Division’s Replacement Detachment in 1972. Selected ‘Cynic’ for Religious Preference.
My platoon sergeant told me that I was going to take a mortar base-plate and the reserve M-60 ammo on my next jump, without a parachute, if he ever saw them again…..
Deadbeat Brandy will not do anything. He will help the gangbangers, not pay his bills and
We can help Chicago by boycotting it.
It will not hurt greasing the skids.
Titanic goes down by the bow, wave bye bye
Folks, this reminds me of Detroit which essentially became a ward of the State of Michigan.
As you can imagine suburban collar counties and outstate regions were reluctant to pick up the tab for Detroit’s fiscal malfeasance. The political battles were legendary and have only recently quieted down.
I attribute the apparent tranquility to the fact that relatively few people live in the city limits of Detroit relative to the 1972 arrival of their Brandon Johnson.
Oops 1974 arrival….
Detroit Mayor Coleman Young.
That will come up — Brandon will say the answer is more money from the state and Chicago Dems will agree. Please note, however, that I was certainly not supporting that.
Spot on Mark. What’s old is new again. More precisely, those that refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. It’s Chicago’s turn in the barrel.