* The Chicago Tribune editorializes on the Chicago Public Schools’ serious financial problems…
Meanwhile, back in Springfield: Democrats who largely set this disaster in motion with laws and policies that ruined CPS finances now hold the power to rescue the district. The cost? Reach a compromise with the state’s Republican governor. He seeks to reform governing and labor policies that have dunned taxpayers and strangled job growth in Illinois.
Gov. Bruce Rauner is ready to deal. He’s ready to help the schools. But there’s got to be some give and take, not take it or leave it, from Democratic leaders.
The strategy of House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton is to … hope that Rauner eventually caves to public pressure for a budget. But if those teachers get fired, or if the school system capsizes under debt, it won’t be a freshman governor who gets the blame. It will be Democrats, starting with those longtime leaders in Springfield and Mayor Rahm Emanuel in City Hall.
Teachers sent a loud and clear message Monday. Negotiations now should kick into higher gear. Claypool has cut central office jobs, and can — should — cut more. CPS should push to close struggling or half-empty schools. Teachers should pick up their share of pension contributions — the 7 percent that CPS can no longer afford. We understand that Springfield may contribute more to the system, but only in return for the kinds of reforms Rauner advocates.
Um, OK, when the stuff hits the fan is the governor really gonna say “I’d love to stop the city school shutdown, but I want remap reform first. And cuts to workers’ comp coverage. And a gutting of local collective bargaining rights.”
Yeah, that’ll work. You’re content with allowing the largest school system in the state to “capsize” over remap reform? Go with that.
Not saying that the governor will get all the blame here. There will definitely be an infinite amount of blame to go around. I’m just saying Rauner can’t avoid blame, except for on one floor of a certain ivory tower on Michigan Ave.
Also, notice how once again the Tribune doesn’t mention any specifics about the governor’s proposed reforms? That would destroy the narrative, of course.
* So, as a reminder, this is one of the governor’s demands which has actually been put into bill form…
Prohibited subjects of bargaining.
(a) A public employer and a labor organization may not bargain over, and no collective bargaining agreement entered into, renewed, or extended on or after the effective date of
this amendatory Act of the 99th General Assembly may include,
provisions related to the following prohibited subjects of collective bargaining:
(1) Employee pensions, including the impact or
implementation of changes to employee pensions, including
the Employee Consideration Pension Transition Program as
set forth in Section 30 of the Personnel Code.
(2) Wages, including any form of compensation including salaries, overtime compensation, vacations,
holidays, and any fringe benefits, including the impact or
implementation of changes to the same; except nothing in
this Section 7.6 will prohibit the employer from electing
to bargain collectively over employer-provided health insurance.
(3) Hours of work, including work schedules, shift
schedules, overtime hours, compensatory time, and lunch periods, including the impact or implementation of changes
to the same.
(4) Matters of employee tenure, including the impact of
employee tenure or time in service on the employer’s
exercise of authority including, but not limited to, any
consideration the employer must give to the tenure of
employees adversely affected by the employer’s exercise of management’s right to conduct a layoff.
- The Man on 6 - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 9:54 am:
==Gov. Bruce Rauner is ready to deal.==
Hahahahaha, oh stop it Trib, you’re killing me.
- Anon - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 9:55 am:
===Prohibited subjects of bargaining.===
So… under those provisions what can be bargained for?
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 9:55 am:
The Tribbies said that? Imagine my shock.
Katrina and Big Brain Bruce are just keeping their outs ready for when they cut off a limb, once again, at atrophying Trib Publishing.
With their “skill sets,” where else are they going to get jobs but in Rauner World?
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 9:56 am:
A governor, when in a crisis, will try, with the Tribune’s … hurricane style long windedness… will push this idea…
“The governor can only do so much”?
How weak does Gov. Rauner think he is, or how powerful does the Tribune think Madigan (I guess Cullerton too, I dunno) is to overrule a sitting governor’s vast powers.
Rauner isn’t a victim, Rauner is a governor.
- Soccermom - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 10:00 am:
That is just shocking. I had NO IDEA Rauner had put anything in bill form.
- Louis G Atsaves - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 10:02 am:
So Rauner and Republicans will be blamed for the CPS school strike? Not all the Democrats that have run CPS into the ground for a half century? Or a Democrat named Rahm Emmanuel? The Tribune is wrong here? Hardly.
Isn’t this the same Rauner who made sure funding for schools including CPS continued at the start of the big budget fight with two chambers of the legislature dominated by Democrats?
Sorry, the Tribune is right here.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 10:04 am:
–Also, notice how once again the Tribune doesn’t mention any specifics about the governor’s proposed reforms?–
Always hilarious, and dishonest. They’re “reforms” — what more do you need to know?
Reminds me one of the the old Bud Light radio spots, “Real Man of Genius,” about a taco salad.
“You invented a gut bomb of fried ground beef, sour cream, cheese, refried beans and salsa, and had the genius to call it a ’salad’.
“Is it good for you? Of course it is. It’s a salad.”
- Stones - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 10:08 am:
Precisely the problem. Each side is focused on winning the war rather than finding compromise.
- MasterPiece - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 10:09 am:
It has been said but it bears repeating that what remains of collective bargaining under this bill is: where do we put the water cooler.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 10:09 am:
–Isn’t this the same Rauner who made sure funding for schools including CPS continued at the start of the big budget fight with two chambers of the legislature dominated by Democrats?–
Yes, Louis, he signed the K-12 bill passed by the legislature — after he muscled every GOP legislator to vote against it — because he chickened out on his threat to hold that one core responsibility hostage for his reactionary agenda.
Get Mt. Rushmore prepped — new statesman coming.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 10:10 am:
===Isn’t this the same Rauner who made sure funding for schools including CPS continued at the start of the big budget fight with two chambers of the legislature dominated by Democrats?===
So…
Rauner is holding hostages, just not THIS hostage?
- Louis G Atsaves -
Isn’t Rauner holding a solution hostage, until the Turnaround Agenda point of decimating unions is passed?
Those are Rauner choices, no one else’s.
Rauner can NOT be a victim of his own choices… made to feel short term pain… for big long term gain.
“You hang in there CPS”
That’s right. Exactly right.
- Carhartt Representative - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 10:12 am:
=It has been said but it bears repeating that what remains of collective bargaining under this bill is: where do we put the water cooler.=
You are not allowed to bargain over what is in the cooler, however.
- Lincoln Lad - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 10:13 am:
In voter’s minds - Rahm wears the jacket for whatever happens at CPS. As he is already in the crosshairs, people will also be quick to add CPS to the list. Not saying that’s right, but that’s how voters will see it.
- RNUG - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 10:14 am:
Trib convenienty skips over where Chicago wanted local control (sometime the Gov touts) of the school and pension funding, were given it by the GA plus extra funds via the school aid formula to make up for the pension pickup by CPS, and then proceeded to NOT fund the pensions for many, many years. The whole CPS pension fund mess IS the result of local control.
- Demoralized - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 10:15 am:
==Sorry, the Tribune is right here.==
Only to a Raunerite. I would point you to what Rich said:
“Also, notice how once again the Tribune doesn’t mention any specifics about the governor’s proposed reforms? That would destroy the narrative, of course.”
Again, I wish people could be honest in these discussions. To say that the Tribune is right is just dishonest and a completely hyper-partisan thing to say. If you cannot realize that this crisis is the making of a lot of people and that that the Governor is not totally blameless then you really can’t be helped.
- Gooner - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 10:19 am:
The problem so far is that only the poor have felt any consequences of this battle.
Most people are going through their days relatively oblivious.
If it is Chicago schools, of course Democrats are going to get blame. However, if it becomes an issue early, it may be an issue in a few contested primaries. In a general, does anybody really think Chicago voters will choose Republicans?
With the current map, even with terrible conditions due to lack of a budget, there just are not many swing districts across the state.
A lot of people are going to feel pain, but not many in the House or Senate are going to lose a job.
- walker - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 10:21 am:
Mayors “own.”
- Louis G Atsaves - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 10:22 am:
Nice of Word and Willy to immediately pivot in a different direction. So again, who has been running CPS for the last half century? Republicans? It is the fault of Republicans that Democrats ran CPS into the ground, not once, not twice, not this time, but multiple times over the last half century? And now its Rauner’s fault?
Tribune is right here. Very right.
- burbanite - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 10:23 am:
Claypool is and always has been an axe-man, he is brought in to cut jobs and reduce budgets. Based on what he did at the Chicago Pk District, I have no doubt he will eliminate many more positions.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 10:23 am:
–A lot of people are going to feel pain, but not many in the House or Senate are going to lose a job.–
And in presidential years, turnout goes up about 20 percentage points, with that increase heavily skewed Democratic.
I thought even superstars knew that.
- thunderspirit - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 10:24 am:
RNUG, I have to believe the underfunding is a feature, not a bug, to the Tribbies and to Governor Rauner. Municipal bankruptcies FTW, and screw the pensioners.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 10:25 am:
- walker - is 100% On It.
Rahm said he “owned” earlier on another issue, but CPS, Rahm “owns” that too.
CTU will make it quite clear too; Rahm “owns” CPS.
- anna - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 10:30 am:
yes
- Muscular - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 10:36 am:
Bruce Rauner will cave. He is self-conscious about his public image. He refused to cut spending by billions of dollars when Democrats sent him an unbalanced budget. He refused to shut down the government until Democrats passed a tax increase. He refused to challenge a judge’s order to spend money and appeal decisions. He went along with consent decrees that spent more money agreed to by previous Democrat governors. Bruce Rauner promised change and a governmental shake up and all conservatives got was more of the same with tough words not followed by action.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 10:36 am:
–Mayors “own.”–
Generally true.
But I do recall in 1985, Harold Washington bailed for a trip to China right before CTU went on strike because he didn’t want to take the heat.
Big Jim knocked CPS and CTU heads together, tossed them in different rooms on the same floor and had Jim Reilly run shuttle diplomacy between them to cut the deal.
But, as we know, we have a “different” kind of governor now, a real shake-em-up insurgent, revolutionary.
- Sue - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 10:37 am:
“Democrats who largely set this disaster in motion with laws and policies that ruined CPS finances…..”
Excuse me, correct me if I’m wrong, but in 1995 when the governor and legislature gave the mayor control over CPS, allowing him to divert the portion of property taxes dedicated to funding teacher pensions, I believe Jim Edgar was governor and Republicans were control of both branches of the legislature.
Wasn’t the 1995 Chicago School Reform bill, you know, the one that created this mess, drafted by Republicans?
It’s one thing for editors to have a point of view, but it’s another thing for a “news”paper to revise history.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 10:37 am:
i guess it depends on what we mean by “blame”, but the only person who will see votes move against them because of CPS chaos is Rahm, and even there- how many more people can vote against Mr. 18%?
I guess that’ll hurt Rauner peripherally as the play was supposed to be to trade in on a good relationship with the mayor of Chicago, but no one’s been running their routes on that one, anyway.
- Lucky Pierre - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 10:41 am:
Chicago Teachers Union wants 1 billion more dollars for a school district that has the same high school population as it did in 2004 approx 100,000 students but has 140 high schools vs 88 in 2004.
the Teachers Union thinks a transaction tax on the Board of Trade will pay for everything they need but don’t understand that electronic markets can go anywhere and are not tethered to Chicago.
Rauner and Rahm are both trying for reform. The house has not passed Cullerton’s relief bill but still people think Rauner will get the blame.
He would get the blame if he just gave them the money without any reforms
- Carhartt Representative - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 10:42 am:
=Claypool is and always has been an axe-man, he is brought in to cut jobs and reduce budgets. Based on what he did at the Chicago Pk District, I have no doubt he will eliminate many more positions.=
I think every CPS head going back to Huberman has been brought in specifically for one reason. Though that reason is different for each one. BBB literally wrote the book on school closures and Claypool is a hatchet man. The cuts are coming.
- Mama - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 10:44 am:
Thanks Rich. Please keep reports on Rauner’s hidden agenda coming. The public needs to see the agendas often.
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 10:45 am:
- Louis G Atsaves -
Look at - Wordslinger -’s very relevant comment;
===Big Jim (Thompson) knocked CPS and CTU heads together, tossed them in different rooms on the same floor and had Jim Reilly run shuttle diplomacy between them to cut the deal.===
Hmm.
- Wordslinger -, again;
===But, as we know, we have a “different” kind of governor now, a real shake-em-up insurgent, revolutionary.===
Rauner won’t help…
“…until the Turnaround Agenda decimating unions is passed”
The Tribune itself is saying the “reforns” before “help”
That’s hostage-takin’ for an Agenda, not governing like Big Jim knew how governors should help.
So Rauner cares less about CPS, or only cares about Payton Prep, or… is Rauner just a victim, unlike Gov. Thompson?
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 10:46 am:
Geez, how do you spend millions of your own money running for the office of governor and then spend all your time dodging and worrying about “blame” and “responsibility?”
What, exactly, did you think the job was all about? Tweeting daily breakfast reviews?
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 10:54 am:
This is a problem caused by CPS’ reckless financial behavior, and a problem that Chicago has the power and authority to address fully by themselves through their taxing and home rule powers.
Typically, if you want a bailout you also have to accept some reforms to accompany the money. Just ask Greece, Spain or any number of similar entities that have recently received “bailouts”.
If Chicago Democrats want a bailout of the mess they independently made of CPS, then what reforms are they willing to accept either to CPS or to the state to accompany said bailout?
- RNUG - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 10:59 am:
-Thunderspirit-,
The underfunding game, etc. had been going on in Chicago for a long time and the Trib is mostly right about it being the D’s fault. I was pointing out the irony that it is the result of local control, something that is one of Rauner’s key talking points.
- Mama - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 11:00 am:
++- RNUG - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 10:14 am:
Trib convenienty skips over where Chicago wanted local control (sometime the Gov touts) of the school and pension funding, were given it by the GA plus extra funds via the school aid formula to make up for the pension pickup by CPS, and then proceeded to NOT fund the pensions for many, many years. The whole CPS pension fund mess IS the result of local control.++
RNUG, you are 100% right.
- ZC - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 11:16 am:
Trib also to my knowledge has never done a “mea culpa” that their Editorial Board did nothing but shower praise on Daley and Vallas while these pension diversions were taking place.
- justacitizen - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 11:39 am:
SHO - Capitol Fax Blog – Current Season, Episode 25
OW dominates Rich’s lede with 60/30, 71/36, and ‘governors own’ talking points (with a lot of typos). Louis G. Atsaves objects to OW’s comments; Word piles on Atsaves until he cries ‘uncle’; Demoralized et.al. applaude OW & Word with “nailed that one” accolades.
Drama/Comedy, 24 hours
- Formerly Known As... - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 11:43 am:
SMH. Unexpected /s
https://capitolfax.com/2014/06/18/14-months-of-revenue-for-a-12-month-budget/
==“It does allow us to avoid laying off thousands of teachers,” Vitale said. “It will lead to a serious problem a year from now, but the alternative is not very pretty==
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 11:46 am:
Louis, I’m quite certain that I did not say that Rauner was to “blame” for CPS financial situation. I’m really not into that sort of frantic avoidance game as you and the Tribbies are.
I just didn’t think that signing a bill to fund education in the state was as heroic as you made it out to be.
And I’m quite certain that Rauner is the governor now, with all the responsibilities that entail, no matter how much he tries to avoid them.
You might want to get that knee-jerk victim-reflex looked at.
- 47th Ward - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 11:53 am:
===Tribune warns Democrats will get all the blame===
In a related story, the Tribune predicts the sun will rise in the east tomorrow. Seriously, if you’ve been paying much attention for the last several years, the Tribune blames the Democrats for everything wrong in Illinois.
Regardless of whether the state comes to the rescue of CPS, Democrats will get blamed in the Tribune. Blamed for raising taxes, blamed for coddling the union, what difference does it make?
On the other hand, if the Democrats vote to support Rauner’s anti-worker agenda, the Tribune will still blame the Democrats for poor performing schools, high taxes, no accountability.
Why on earth does anyone take the Tribune seriously on these things?
- Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 12:27 pm:
- justacitizen -
Hard to sell “Dramedies” these days, good on you.
Showtime does great work, fewer subscribers, but…
- Rod - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 12:29 pm:
Thanks Rich for posting yet again the actual language the Governor wants in relationship to collective bargaining. Up to now the Governor has proposed no less extreme provisions for cost containment in relationship to public sector bargaining rights.
There are many options, none of which likely would be supported by public sector unions. None the less Democrats have before supported limits on collective bargaining rights, the case of the Chicago Teachers Union being the most prominent. But the restrictions on the CTU did not put them out of business. The Governor’s proposal would. The Speaker’s characterization of the Governor’s proposal being “extreme” is more than correct.
- Chicago 20 - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 1:04 pm:
Sure Jim Reilly was involved. Dawn Clarke Netsch was running against Jim Edgar when Reilly was Edgar’s Cheif of Staff and campaign manager. Netsch wanted a tax increase to fix the budget shortfall. Reilly had another idea. Kick the can down the road. Edgar was reelected and thought of as a financial wizard. Reilly went on to collect several public pensions by kicking that can down the road at those agencies and claims to be a private / public partnership expert.
In Reilly’s world the private partners make the profits while the taxpayers pay for the debts.
Now it’s time to pay the piper for the State budget. Soon it will be time to pay the piper on the $13.2 billion in MPEA backloaded debt.
The question is, who will the media blame for the MPEA?
- Juvenal - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 1:16 pm:
=== Gov. Bruce Rauner is ready to deal ===
Hostage takers are ALWAYS ready to deal.
That is why they take hostages.
- Demoralized - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 1:20 pm:
You really do play a good victim Louis.
- Carhartt Representative - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 2:56 pm:
They are right in one way. They will get all the blame from the Tribune regardless of what they do.
- Formerly Known As... - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 3:05 pm:
Chicago has the ability to ==fix== this problem, but they double down and try extorting the state.
CPS approved using fourteen months of $ for a twelve month budget.
Then CPS unanimously approved a budget with a $500 Mill gap that requires the state meet their demands or they will lay off teachers mid year.
This is a hostage situation, with the hostages deliberately held by CPS.
- JS Mill - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 5:20 pm:
=I just didn’t think that signing a bill to fund education in the state was as heroic as you made it out to be.=
Umm, not so fast! Rauner signed a bill to partially fund k-12 education. No doubt that is better than the deal high ed received.
Louis is right- the CPS crisis was created by or at least under Democratic control. That much is true. Rauner is simply with holding a solution, you could even call it an easing, for the crisis.
If we are going to be accurate…
- Chicago 20 - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 7:58 pm:
Some folks have flawed memories.
It wasn’t the Democrats, it was the Republicans.
From Crain’s Chicago;
Mayoral control of CPS has been a bust
By: MICHAEL KLONSKY
https://shar.es/1GumCp
“It’s hard to fathom why state political leaders thought it was a good idea to turn Chicago Public Schools into a wing of City Hall—surely one of the most disreputable institutions in the country—let alone placing power over the schools in the hands of one man, Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
Now, after two decades of destabilization, failed reforms and mismanagement, it’s time to join with every other school district in the state, and nearly all districts nationally, in electing our school board.
The failed strategy was forced on our city in 1995 when Republicans, who controlled both houses in the state Legislature and the governor’s mansion, threatened to withhold funding for CPS unless then-Mayor Richard J. Daley took over the schools, implemented austerity and weakened the teachers union.”
- Daniel Plainview - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 8:16 pm:
- You really do play a good victim Louis. -
He’s actually a pro, Rauner’s kicking in $125k to the household for his work. Such talent.
- Union Leader - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 9:42 pm:
Damn you Tribbies, now I will stop buying the paper just for the crossword and Soduku. Crap!
- Burbs - Tuesday, Dec 15, 15 @ 10:20 pm:
Clearly there are those with flawed memories and logic as to whose to really blame for CPS financial mess. The reality is that the Republicans in the mid 90’s are the deep root of this fiscal fiasco by allowing CPS to skip pension payments and kick the can down the road, not to mention handing over school control to the mayor.
After how many CEO’s within CPS, continued expansion of charter schools, failed and corrupt policies does one not realize that mayoral control has been an utter disaster for the taxpayers of Chicago. After all, if you needed brain surgery you go to a neurosurgeon right? If your car needed fixing you go to a mechanic right? So then why can’t that same logic be applied to running CPS by placing a real educator with experience in education with sound data proven best practices in education to run the school system, instead of hiring a political hack to keep guard. The belief that the mayor, the power brokers in city hall and the upper class claiming to know whats best for the city schools has proven to be a total failure with egg on all their faces.
Why should CPS educators be the only ones to forgo their pensions? What about the police, the fire department, other city employees, judges etc. Are they also giving up their pensions for the sake of the states budget? Oh that’s right the shared sacrifice is to be solely on the backs women who make up the majority of the teaching force. You got to be kidding me!
- wordslinger - Wednesday, Dec 16, 15 @ 7:46 am:
Since the Tribbie deep-thinkers so wholeheartedly support all the governor’s “structural reforms,” they’ve obviously done an objective analysis as to their ROI.
Perhaps they could do the rest of us a favor, as the superstars have been unable to:
Identify those reforms, as they understand them, and project their tangible, quantifiable benefits. Not weasel-words and slogans, but projected fiscal and economic benefits, with all the cool charts and graphs and such.
Then, juxtapose those benefits with the very real destruction and costs caused by the governor’s hostage-taking strategy, so we can judge whether or not they’re worth it.
You know, give us the rationale for the “short-term pain, for long-term gain.”
Really, is that too much to ask, after all these months?
That’s especially important now, as the Tribbies are advocating that CPS now be added to the hostage list. “The governor is ready to help the schools” but…..
The “but” better have a pretty sweet payoff if you’re advocating the chaos of 330,000 kids out of school with nothing to do all day, and parents — and the community — trying to juggle that mess.
- Arizona Bob - Wednesday, Dec 16, 15 @ 8:31 am:
Interesting arguments here from Chicagoans trying to blame Republicans for enacting legislation that empowered elected DEMOCRATIC officials to manage the CPS budget and governance.
Is it your point that Republicans should’ve KNOWN that the Dem Chicago mayors through perpetuity would be corrupt and grossly mismanage the CPS system, as well as behaving fiscally irresponsibly and creating a financial and performance crisis in the system?
Seems to me that you’re complaining that the Chicago Dem political machine asked for a lot of rope, and you’re blaming the GOP for giving it to them and letting the Dems hang themselves with it…..
- RNUG - Wednesday, Dec 16, 15 @ 8:35 am:
== and parents — and the community — trying to juggle that mess. ==
Hell hath no fury like a scorned soccer mom with a ruined schedule …
- Chicago 20 - Wednesday, Dec 16, 15 @ 9:01 am:
AZ Bob-
Sure, if you ignore the State constitution.
The State must provide the majority education funding.
The city doesn’t want rope, but they do want the constitutionally required State funding for education.