-- 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.
SIGN UP HERE FOR OUR FREE WIREPOINTS DAILY NEWSLETTER
Where in the Constitution does it say that School District must provide bus transportation for enrolled students? If transportation is a hassle, then CPS parents should enroll their children in local public (or private) school, and agitate for higher goals of “better” teacher performance and student academic achievement. Ever wonder why so many CPS students are overweight? Perhaps because many of them are transported here, there, and everywhere, rather than simply walking to local CPS school every weekday, to and from. Here in Chicago, parents and CPS play the “selective enrollment” game, which usually requires accompanying “free” CPS bus service… Read more »
CPS kids are overweight because they get free school lunch. Here’s the academic study from, of all places, Northwestern University: “In this paper, I attempt to isolate the causal impact of school lunches on childhood obesity, by using two different approaches to address the identification problem, including looking at changes in obesity over time and using a regression-discontinuity approach. These approaches – which employ very different identification strategies and cover students from different parts of the income distribution – suggest that school lunch eaters gain more weight after starting school than do students who do not consume school lunch, who… Read more »
Spot on Debtsor. Old Joe brown bagged it because his folks couldn’t afford to pay for lunches for 7 kids.
The “poor” folks got a free lunch and Old Joe has had a bad attitude ever since 8th grade!
Oops, I forgot mention I was never obese while brown bagging it but did become overweight in my 50s.
I took a City bus to 8 years of grade school , all were on time , and no problems. years ago, transfers involved.
We used to walk to school when I was younger …but I digress
When they can’t even do the basics, it’s no wonder that families are dumping CPS
Yep, it stinks. Yep, its a problem created by the School Districts. Yep, it would be very nice to have the big yellow limo pull up and pick up the kids and take them to school and bring them home. Yep. But unfortunately, that’s not what is happening, so suck it up and make another plan to get your children to school – School is the most important thing here. The entitlement of transportation is really something here. Districts have become nothing more that Daycare, Food Service and transportation companies.
At the prevailing wage too!
Exactly correct. My parents solved all this by my mother not working full-time until my youngest brother and sister were in high school. We wore hand-me-down clothes from older relatives and clipped coupons and drank dehydrated milk and shopped that day-old bread store to be able to provide Mom with the opportunity to be at home and take care of us. Which didn’t include having two cars. Dad was often on the road with the car, and Mom figured out the kids-n-transportation-n-school-n-doctor stuff without one. Neighbors ‘had kids over’ from other families all the time to buff out some friction-point… Read more »
That was a different, and more difficult time, and required a stable family structure that doesn’t much exist anymore. We can all reminiscence about “the way things were” but it ain’t going to bring it back.
Spot on Debtsor. Once upon a time people actually knew a even lived with their father.
Old Joe walked to school and their little darlings can too. It’ll even help with childhood obesity!
Old Joe, it’s too dangerous for kids to walk to school in Chicago.