Number of half-empty Chicago public schools doubles, yet lawmakers want to extend school closing moratorium – Wirepoints
April 19, 2024
15 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.
Step 1. Add sentence to State Constitution in 1970 stating pension and “retirement system” benefits are contractual and cannot be diminished or impaired. Step 2. From 1971 on, unions lobby for and receive hiked pension and retiree healthcare benefits even though they are underfunded because funding doesn’t matter because the benefits cannot be diminished or impaired. Administrators and politicians are in pension systems also so they don’t complain. Step 3. Minimize the effects of the scheme to the public. When looking at the effect of legislative pension and retiree healthcare benefit hikes, only go back to the mid 1990’s, not… Read more »