Number of half-empty Chicago public schools doubles, yet lawmakers want to extend school closing moratorium – Wirepoints
April 19, 2024
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A set of state lawmakers want to extend CPS’ current school closing moratorium to February 1, 2027 – the same year CPS is set to transition to a fully-elected school board. That means schools like Manley High School, with capacity for more than 1,000 students but enrollment of just 78, can’t be closed for anther three years. The school spends $45,000 per student, but just 2.4% of students read at grade level.
Hopefully, all media will get the message, in Illinois, too.
Ted joined Tom Miller of WJPF to talk about Illinois’ highest-in-the-nation property taxes, why lawmakers don’t want to touch the tax’s cost drivers, just how much Illinoisans’ tax burden has grown over the decades, why Gov. Pritzker failed to meet his promise to reform property taxes, and more.
You will need it for legislative pension benefit hikes that cannot be diminished or impaired.
Mr. Harmon writes in his letter, “The Supreme Court just struck it down, ruling that once someone is hired by the state, pension BENEFITS cannot be diminished.” What Mr. Harmon does not write. Legislative pension BENEFIT hikes to underfunded pensions in the same years pension contributions are shorted is allowed by the same Constitution, resulting in hiked pensions that cannot be diminished or impaired, that must be paid by taxpayers. So in summary first a sentence was added to the State Constitution in 1970 that pension benefits cannot be diminished. But pension benefits can be HIKED. And once HIKED, they… Read more »