National Public Radio’s Debacle and the ‘Vibe Shift’ – Wirepoints
April 18, 2024
21 Comments
Hopefully, all media will get the message, in Illinois, too.
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Estimated cost to follow, but you can bet it will be expensive. The agreement also includes new job protections for substitute teachers who going forward may only be removed after conferring with the union about “performance deficiencies.” Chicago Public Schools will become a “sanctuary district,” meaning school officials won’t be allowed to cooperate with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement without a court order. Employees will also be allowed 10 unpaid days for personal immigration matters.
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Growing property tax burdens make this state unlivable for too many Illinoisans – Wirepoints joins Tom Miller of WJPF Carbondale
April 18, 2024
9 Comments
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.
Illinois education officials keep trying to hide their failures behind excuse of “higher test standards” – Wirepoints
April 17, 2024
8 Comments
Illinois’ dismal education numbers – especially for minority students – are embarrassing to politicians and officials. But rather than admit there’s a problem with Illinois’ education system, they attack the state’s own standards for being “too high,” instead.
Wilmette protects government speech…but not free speech. – Wirepoints on AM 560 Chicago’s Morning Answer
April 17, 2024
4 Comments
Ted joined Dan and Amy to talk about the free speech controversy brewing in Wilmette due to the city’s refusal to fly a religious freedom flag, the city’s left-wing excesses and the growing culture war, the latest money spent on the illegal immigrant crisis, and more.
Chicago Weekly Crime Tracker – Wirepoints
April 17, 2024
77 Comments
Weekly crime statistics from the Chicago Police Department: Report through 4/14/2024.
Love the part about teacher evaluations no longer being based on students academic improvements. “So instead of student performance, teachers will probably be rated on more subjective measures, perhaps congeniality in the lunchroom.”
According to this wbez from a couple days ago– ‘The city delayed releasing its latest round of ratings and other data, such as 2019-20 enrollment, during the teachers strike.’ Why would cps & lightweight do that?? When data’s realeazed how many less students will cps show? What a joke!! WBEZ: More Illinois Schools Score Top State Ratings — A Closer Look Shows Why.
https://www.wbez.org/shows/wbez-news/more-illinois-schools-score-top-state-ratings-a-closer-look-shows-why/f2b6569e-e939-4b56-8631-7c2ddf7818a1
Who’s gonna be the first person to FOIA CPS to see how many teachers called in sick today?
So in case there was any doubt, Chicago voters with a brain now know what kind of Mayor has been elected: A financially incompetent coward. Chicago is on the path to financial ruin but this Mayor clearly loves the public sector union members more than the hardworking taxpayers of Chicago. So much for reform.
Bankruptcy now!!
The sanctuary issue is huge for the Union because the only ‘growth’ in student population has been Hispanics, most of whom are likely illegal (or anchor babies). Every other demographic of student in CPS has precipitously declined over the past two decades and student population has plummeted. New hispanics to the district have replaced some, but not all of the losses of other ethnicities, and by 2010, hispanics outnumbered african-americans. Today, hispanics are 47% of CPS student demographics to African American’s 37%. So yeah, the union just threw its black, asian and white students under the bus to divert much… Read more »
Interesting read here on what the CTU wanted, as indicated in the left column the first few pages are priority issues. https://news.wttw.com/sites/default/files/article/file-attachments/Bargaining-Summary-2019-10-29.pdf
Huge loss on pensions here: “CPS is willing to lift the cap on the CTU bank of days
from 40 to 244. These days are eligible for use and for pension credit, but not payout upon resignation or retirement.”
So there’s an alleged teacher shortage, but you’ll allow teachers to retire a year early? Oh well, maybe there is no shortage.
Yup. This contract is disastrous. Lightfoot gave away the ranch on her initial offer and it only got worse. She’s done for.
Hi Mark – Chicago was already struggling to close the 2020 budget gap without a property tax increase. When the dust settles, and issues get clarity (like- does Chicago get help from Springfield) could you estimate what the next few budget years are going to look like for Chicago? Thanks.
Chicago may get some health from Springfield, but that’s just a shell game passing the buck around, which doesn’t change the consolidated mess we are in. The actual financials (as opposed to the cash based budgets) of Chicago and the state will continue to plummet. Remember that Chicago’s now supposedly balanced budget does not include soaring unfunded pension liabilities, which will continue even if the city somehow is able to pay it’s up-ramp in scheduled pension contributions. When does that balance sheet insolvency become a cash flow insolvency? That’s always hard to predict, but our view is that things have… Read more »
I understand that state approval would be required for a Chicago bankruptcy. To get approval before a Chapter 9 filing would giver everyone advance notice and time to maneuver, protest, lie, cheat and steal. Do you think it would be lawful for the City and/or School District to file for Chapter 9 “subject to state approval required by law” and get all the facts out on the table? Practically speaking, if the council and mayor(or the school board) had to approve the filing secrecy would be difficult to maintain. Still, I remember in the Detroit situation that the actual filing… Read more »
Hold on. If the incumbents did that in secret who would be the victims of that lying and cheating? Remember that, for bankruptcy to work, the key would be separate legislation for the emergency manager of financial control board who would run the proceeding on behalf of Chicago. If that’s done wrong it would be a disaster — the incumbents would loot what’s left of the city through the bankruptcy. For that reason, I would say bankruptcy should be considered as an option only if done right. I’d take Detroit’s emergency manager, Kevin Orr, in a heartbeat.
A “bankruptcy done right” would require state approval. Not happening. Could creditors [bondholders and/or pension trustees] petition for a receivership? I believe that happened in Puerto Rico with a utility. Chicago got a receivership for the City of Harvey to oversee water assets. Cook County Circuit Court (Chancery Div.) All the better if a federal court could be petitioned but we might trip over the abstention doctrine. I defer to your bankruptcy wisdom and no need to respond and consume column inches if I’m (again) tilting @ windmills.
Good question about scope receivership. I suspect it can’t be used for a whole municipality, but I don’t know.
Cass, and it’s not wasting space on these questions. They are key to how this will unfold and to what we should be advocating. Our view is that no serious reforms will happen until things really blow up and the there’s widespread, public convulsion about the incumbents. At that point, it wouldn’t be tilting at windmills to hope for the right outcome, be that bankruptcy-done-right or something else. Thinking through an article about all of this now. Lots of people we talk to are thinking in the same terms and gaming out the longer term scenarios like that, though they… Read more »
Perhaps you are aware that substantial authority holds that “constitutional rights” (e.g. “contract rights”) may be waived in a municipal pension context. See below. To me, this opens the door to techniques like “cash-outs” or, say, a State guaranty of municipal pensions. Rather than just have the State take over municipal pension liability perhaps the State could take over pensions up to some capped amount. There might be a short window period to make that decision. This would be voluntary with the participant and he/she would waive his right to at least that portion (and perhaps more) of the municipal… Read more »
Very interesting thought.
The whole teacher shortage was never proven, ctu is great at the manufacured crisis game with the help of desperate /partizan press, like karp @ wbez. And astoundingly cps and lightweight put up no counter arguement. All the city would have had to do is release the # of employees at cps in each job category. And could easly do for all other departments as well as # of days worked vrs absent days. Wouldnt that fit in w progressive government transparency?
True. When then Gov Jan Brewer from Arizona in 2010 cracked down on illegal immigration and implemented Arizona SB 1070 by not giving illegals benefits that caused an outmigration from AZ to Illinois. Illinois pols are so generous with taxpayers money it is hard to fathom sometimes. I believe that was the beginning of the sanctuary city movement ultimately costing Illinois taxpayers $4 Billion+ in free everything according to the Tribune.
Speaking of Hispanics Madigan’s district is predominantly populated by Hispanics that seems rather funny for an Irish politician Chicago style. However with the patronage job system and the usual pork he keeps his seat meaning a group of Hispanics now controls the State of Illinois while the Black, Aisian and Caucasian citizens ride in the back of the bus if not under it. . Like it or not, that is how it is.