Number of half-empty Chicago public schools doubles, yet lawmakers want to extend school closing moratorium – Wirepoints
April 19, 2024
18 Comments
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.
Don’t worry, the task force will come out with a relief plan that involves a 1-time $50 voucher on next years tax return. But to qualify you have to have less than 30k income AND a pet cat named Fluffy. That’s the kind of ‘relief’ program you can expect from these undead shysters…
On a serious note, you can’t solve high property taxes without completely reforming the way values are (arbitrarily) appraised. Otherwise, you might as well let Mike Madigan run the task force.
Here in Rockford a small group of 162 homeowners filed a petition of “detachment” from the Rockford school district and be annexed to Kinnikinnick and Hononegah school district. This is I believe detachment from paying school tax’s to RPS Dist 205 and pay to the other districts only not all the tax’s. Homes there are between 300K and 500K. Both side are lawyering up. The reason they are saying is less time on buses/smaller classes and parents being closer to the schools. There are only 14 students who use RPS out of 162 homes. The real reason is probably the… Read more »
Interesting…keep up posted on this.
First, off how does someone stupid enough to write the following get a columnist’s gig? “Paradoxically, high property taxes depress house prices while driving up the cost of home ownership.” Paradoxically? That’s like writing that bond prices and interest rates are “paradoxically” inverse. A bright fourth-grader writes better than this. What, pray tell, does Joe Cahill believe should replace property tax revenue (assuming property tax reform actually REDUCES property taxes rather than attempt to simply redistribute them?) I’m sure Wirepoints can offer a guess as to how high income taxes would have to ramp in order to offset reducing IL’s… Read more »
Hahaha, you could have answered the question of how stupid this guy Cahill is by reading his biography: “Cahill has a bachelor’s degree in political science from St. Norbert College, a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School and a law degree from Illinois Institute of Technology’s Chicago-Kent College of Law.” He’s a professional student. A masters degree in journalism from Medill? Hahah that’s rich! A poli science degree in there too? Hahahahah. The only degree of any value – the law degree from Chicago Kent – he managed to mess up. There are many law firm partners… Read more »
“He’s a professional student.”
Yikes! I’d never before considered just how vicious an insult is such a term (laughing uproariously.) You know the old saw about “those who can’t do, teach?” Well, I think it’s far more accurate to say, “those who can’t do will accumulate university degrees like children collect Pokemon cards.”
Funny how the value of college degrees is visibly shrinking before our eyes, in part because we see how pathetic are many of the so-called highly educated.
Astonished, we have now posted an article answering your question about neighboring states. https://wirepoints.org/why-property-illinois-property-taxes-wont-drop-without-major-spending-reform/
Income taxes to double, to offset.
(Head hits desk.)
I can only conclude that half this state’s population is on the take, so vast is the criminal enterprise.
For income taxes to double, the state would have to raise taxes on very modest middle income people. They are tapped out, and worse yet for the tax the rich demagogues, well, they are not rich. The state would without a doubt see an exodus of the real core taxpayers who carry the freight, those with net worth of under $10M and making from 250k to 600k – they would have way too much to lose to stay in Illinois – and the loss of 200,000 of them would crater the state’s finances to a degree not imaginable. It may… Read more »