Totaling the unsustainable tax increases and windfall revenue during Pritzker Administration – Wirepoints
May 26, 2026
23 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.
Schools should not get another dime until 80% of students tests scores are at grade level. CPS and CTU need to start educating students, not indoctrinating students. Students and teachers should not be given days off to protest when students are failing.
Doctors should not be paid unless 80% of their patients live another five years. Seems right to me, but I suppose you will vehemently disagree. Prove me wrong here.
Lol James – now that is funny. Are you really comparing Doctors and healthcare to CPS and CTU public School teacher and School Districts? My goodness, that is elevating teachers and administrators to a whole new undeserved level. Medical profession including doctors and nurses, for the most part is science and caring…At CPS and CTU, they can’t even spell the word SCIENCE and come on…the majority really don’t care.
I’m simply suggesting another ludicrous political proposal to add to your list. With the likely exception of bribery or threats no person in most any job can be held responsible financially for the actions of another. You can advise others, but you can only control yourself. Teachers are in the business of giving advice. Some students take it while others ignore it. Such is life in the world advice giving. I wish it were otherwise as do you apparently.
James – Understand your comparison, but teaching students to read, write, math, science, government has been done successfully for decades. While there will always be some students who couldn’t care less about school and some parents are uninvolved, the current results stink. Only 30% of students can read and do math at grade level, so that would mean that a huge percentage (70%) of students and parents couldn’t care less about school and learning? So it’s their fault that scores stink? I guess I just don’t buy that explanation. Is it a lack of focus for the teachers to be… Read more »
Whew, a hint of intelligence finally appears!
Prove you wrong? Pretty simple. Doctors are curing diseases now that killed everyone 100 years ago. No one knew how to cure cancer then, and while doctors now can’t cure everyone, they’ve come a long way.
Civilization has known how to teach kids to read and do basic arithmetic for centuries. The current crop of schools seems to find it a great mystery.
Stop comparing yourselves to doctors. It’s ludicrous.
Doctors were something of a random choice and not meant as meaning the jobs were anything close to the same. You fixated on thinking otherwise, and that’s on you rather than me. I’m simply trying to convey that—like many other jobs—a teacher works with worthy goals in mind, but that’s no guarantee that the client will take the “medicine” nor do whatever else is required to be successful. Why the modern era doesn’t meet your satisfaction with regard to scholastic success may have multiple ill-formed roots at play. Then, maybe your version of yore is something of a fantasy as… Read more »
We can talk about all your good intentions and all of the impediments to learning once schools achieve the lofty goal of getting 80% of 3rd graders to grade level proficiency in reading and arithmetic. Schools can’t even achieve that, so of course it’s downhill from there.
3rd grade reading and arithmetic James. Then you can spin all the lovely theories and analogies you want. You can even compare yourselves to doctors who can’t cure cancer.
Are you brain dead or what? Did you not read my response above saying my use of the word doctor(s) was a random choice of an occupation rather than a suggestion that teachers were of an equal stature in knowledge or societal esteem? Still, if I had chosen a different occupation I suppose you would have the same general first-glance take on it since your response was based upon your life’s set of more important matters rather than the lesser one I had innocently presumed you’d make. You’re looking for an argument here based on societal job status measurement whereas… Read more »
I’m not interested in comparative job status. I’m interested in schools and teachers taking responsibility for their failure to teach children the basic tools for learning anything else. I’m looking for schools and teachers to put their focus on admitting the problem and doing something about it, instead of talking about their good intentions and blaming parents or society for the problem.
3rd grade. Reading. Arithmetic. That’s my focus. Why isn’t it yours?
Why do you assume it isn’t? You don’t even know me. What’s not obvious to you and is to me is that you speak audaciously as if you had some real knowledge about why today’s educators are not meeting your expectations, yet I’d have to think you’ve never been there and done that. You’re howling at the political winds without the training and experience to do so. What would you think if an outsider without such qualifications “ripped you a new one” about your job skills? I think your umbrage and response would be unprintable. Here’s one major thing I’ve… Read more »
And we come full circle. People have been teaching kids to read successfully for centuries, no matter how much you want to paint it as an insurmountable task that I couldn’t possibly understand.
I agree with your first clause, but there MUST be other factors at play that play havoc in the process. You want to think teachers are essentially “worthless human beings” as some say. Maybe, but I think that’s both far too simplistic and unreasonable as a primary reason. Just for starters, how many people have gone through the extra work required there, expense and mostly income-free life for four years while simultaneously thinking all they really want is a do-nothing job as their life’s work? That’s how many of your tribe want to portray teachers, isn’t it? Personally I think… Read more »