64 Comments - John Reynolds - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 12:42 pm: *Cuckoo* - Mayor Richard M. Daley - Precinct Captain - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 12:42 pm: Did the governor miss Columbine and Connecticut? He’s as clueless as he is heartless. - dominionhinny - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 12:46 pm: Remind me again, who was it who said “crisis opportunity. Crisis creates leverage…” ? - Formerly Known as Frenchie M - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 12:46 pm: Good god. How much over the top can Rauner go. Crying again? Please, Bruce. You’re not crying when you walk into school. Just stop it. Cuckoo is right. - Juice - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 12:47 pm: So the Governor is now fighting against having security in schools? - Huh? - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 12:47 pm: “Tears come into my eyes.” The alligator kind of tears or the kind you get when you slice an onion? BTW - We have had enough of your tears. - Joe M - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 12:48 pm: The Governor is worried about too much money going to Chicago public schools, yet he states “no child of Illinois should have to go to school in some of those facilities” when questioned about legislation that would send more money to Chicago public schools. OK. - dominionhinny - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 12:49 pm: ooof, dang phone that should read “crisis creates opportunity. Crisis creates leverage…” http://www.chicagotribune.com/ct-bruce-rauner-statewide-tour-met-0407-20150406-story.html - Juice - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 12:51 pm: Good points by Joe M. I think the Governor has found himself trapped in an OODA Loop. Maybe one of the SuperStars(TM) can help get him out. - Formerly Known As... - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 12:54 pm: ==they’re crumbling== Asbestos. Lead. Schools with no library. I would be crying if my kids were forced to attend school in those conditions too. Billions of dollars and many years later, CPS still has not addressed these problems. - illinois manufacturer - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 12:54 pm: He may be starting to grasp that all his money won’t step him and his obedient republicans from owning the state shutdown in July and no school in August. - NIU Grad - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 12:54 pm: Fixing the problems isn’t going to be cheap…but who has faith in the Mayor to properly spend that money? - thunderspirit - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 12:55 pm: == “I think politicians sometimes, when they’re not confident in their own policy positions, just throw a lot of mud. There’s a lot of mud being thrown by the mayor and others.” == I love it when someone doesn’t recognize the irony of their own remarks. - Chicago Taxpayer - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 12:56 pm: If the governor is so moved by the conditions at CPS schools, why doesn’t he propose a capital bill? And while he’s at it, equal funding for CPS. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 12:57 pm: How was Payton Prep when Rauner clouted his denied Winnetka living daughter? Did he “cry” then? Rauner’s been to dozens so.., Was that where the $250K went after the clouting, “repairs”? - northsider (the original) - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 12:58 pm: It’s as if he can’t connect his own thoughts. I’m half believing that it’s not an act or a strategy. Frightening. - PublicServant - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 12:58 pm: Says the Big Muddy, himself… - Anonymous - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 12:59 pm: “I’m not confident in my own policy positions, so I just throw a lot of mud. There’s a lot of mud been thrown at the mayor and others.” Fixed it for you. - blue dog dem - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 1:05 pm: Old Blue taking credit for the RAUN Man for VP months ago. - Huh? - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 1:06 pm: 12:59 was me. What is with 1.4%? Did someone take away his lollipop as a baby? Did his kindergarten teacher ever send home a note telling his parents that 1.4% doesn’t play well with others? - Team Warwick - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 1:09 pm: Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illonois rrpresented in the General Assembly: Section 5. The State Designations Act is amended by adding Section 81 as follows: (section 80 is popcorn as the official State snack food). Section 81. State crisis. Cluster is designated as the official State crisis type. - AnonymousOne - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 1:11 pm: Lead and asbestos need to be fixed. Bars on the windows, metal detectors, security officers—–why is that? And why is it a function of school personnel to fix? Seems the school is trying to protect it’s students from the outside environment that threatens all of their safety. Community’s illness, nothing to do with school. Disturbing that this somehow, becomes the fault of the schools. - Sir Reel - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 1:13 pm: I can just see it. Governor Outraged walks into a crumbling Chicago school, aide sprays water in his eyes. Photo op. On to the next campaign, er governing, stop. - Formerly Known As... - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 1:15 pm: ==The Governor is worried about too much money going to Chicago public schools, yet he states “no child of Illinois should have to go to school in some of those facilities”== Sounds to me more like the Governor is worried about pouring additional money into a troubled system until there are some indications of reform and improvement. - Chris - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 1:22 pm: “Sounds to me more like the Governor is worried about pouring additional money into a troubled system until there are some indications of reform and improvement.” Then he should spell out what he’d like to see. Aside from the functional end of the CTU. - JS Mill - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 1:23 pm: Governor Collaboration at work. - Politix - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 1:24 pm: He cried….Pics or it didn’t happen. - illini97 - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 1:25 pm: So the Governor wants more money to fix schools. But no more money for the same schools. He wants more money into the school GSA formula, but doesn’t want to spend one more dime in Chicago. He wants a clean K-12 budget but won’t talk budgets without his own proposed reforms? He wants State employees to get paid for their hardwork, but they make too much. I don’t know what he wants anymore, except to win. - ReformsReforms! - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 1:29 pm: “Sounds to me more like the Governor is worried about pouring additional money into a troubled system until there are some indications of reform and improvement.” Please detail these reforms of which you speak. It’s a fun word and everyone loves throwing it around but are lacking on any details. It’s doing no one any good traveling the state shaking fists at the sky and throwing blame around. Rauner is not powerless in this situation. Lay out some details of your reforms so folks can decide for themselves. - Jocko - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 1:30 pm: Somebody needs to tell Gov. Soundbite to offer something constructive, unless he plans to round up a posse to “Get Madigan!” Could a reporter ask him what school(s) he was referring to…yesterday or today? - A Jack - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 1:32 pm: Perhaps he should be putting a program together to bus the kids to Winetka schools? - NeverPoliticallyCorrect - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 1:34 pm: I have little sympathy for CPS and the crumbling schools. The leadership has known for years about infrastructure issues and allowed this level of disrepair. The school district where I serve as a board member, and it is a relatively poor district with very little commercial or industrial property, has taken a pro-active role in keeping our buildings in good repair. What it takes is good management and a commitment by the board to do it’s job. CPS, and the mayors of Chicago have not done this. IF the rest of us are to bail them out then it’s time to take back control from the Democratic machine that destroyed CPS. The district should be broken into 4 smaller districts with elected school boards. - Because I said so.... - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 1:35 pm: “I think politicians sometimes, when they’re not confident in their own policy positions, just throw a lot of mud. There’s a lot of mud being thrown by the mayor and others.” Hello, earth to Bruce! - Triple fat - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 1:36 pm: Is it just me??? Or Is the Governor starting to sound a tad bit shrill? Winning!!! - A Jack - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 1:37 pm: Good campaign slogan: “Rauner cries, while Kennedy does.” - Formerly Known As... - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 1:38 pm: @NIU Grad - Bingo. The mayor, but also the state. Pat Quinn campaigned on a 1% tax increase for an =education surcharge= in 2010. Illinois got double, a 2% tax increase from 3% to 5%, that helped enable us to do additional things like make pension payments. Even with that extra $, and even with two out of balance budgets that spent more than the state’s revenues, those schools are still crumbling with lead and asbestos in them. CPS schools need more than $ for their school system to improve. - Union Leader - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 1:40 pm: Does anyone think his brain filters what he is saying before letting it slip out of his mouth? Good God Governor, the campaign is over, start doing your job! - cdog - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 1:42 pm: Rauner would be fired, after progressive discipline, if he worked for me. He is positively projecting his own deficiencies in that last quote, “I think politicians…when they’re not confident in their own policy positions, just throw a lot of mud.” How to fix it? Truth bombs. You can’t denigrate CPS and at the same time deny them fair funding. You can’t complain about a big tax increase that is inevitible when you don’t have the political will or authority to make the cuts to your agencies’ operations. You can’t create a multi-billion dollar crisis and claim a fantastical .014 ROI on word salad reforms. unless you are “Cuckoo.” - Amalia - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 1:49 pm: Just because Trump has invented a new outrage meter does not mean you need to dial it up to 11 on something like this, Governor. - Henry Francis - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 1:50 pm: Do I have this right? The Gov is claiming that all MJM wants to do is raise taxes. That’s it. And the Gov “won” last year by signing a clean k-12 funding bill, but not funding anything else that requires state assistance. And MJM is so mad at him for that maneuver last year, that this year MJM is insisting that other parts of state government need to be appropriated, along with k-12 funding. And the Gov is going to beat MJM again this year and refuse to do that. And the Gov is the hero in this story? - Sue - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 1:58 pm: So how is it that the Dems had 12 years of one party rule and failed to fix all of these problems they now blame Rauner for? - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 2:03 pm: Ugh. - Sue - ===So how is it that the Dems had 12 years of one party rule and failed to fix all of these problems they now blame Rauner for?=== Why? @RonSandack: I’m frustrated 2, but taking steps towards reforming IL more important than short term budget stalemate. - Ron Sandack, 9/28/15 Rauner is choosing these problems as leverage. Ron Sandack says it so too. “Questions?” - Union Leader - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 2:04 pm: Sue- get a clue, will ya. Governors own budgets. Candidate Rauner blamed Gov. Quinn and called him a failure, what does that make Rauner? An utter failure-2 years without a budget. Sorry OW for using some of your lines. - Liberty - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 2:05 pm: Verbal assaultin - Big Joe - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 2:09 pm: You took the words right out of my mouth, Henry Francis. And how is the world is ANYTHING going to get done with MJM when all Rauner does is insult and blame the very person that he needs to work with? Who would want anything to do with Rauner after all the blasting that has gone on for the last 2 years?? - cdog - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 2:09 pm: Sue, what’s your point? You condone Rauner creating chaos because you hold a grudge about the past? If that works for ya….. Bye bye ILGOP. - The Captain - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 2:12 pm: “he wants a tax hike after the general election,” Rauner said while speaking at the Bloomington Regional Alternative School. Uh, Rauner wanted a tax hike before May ended. Are we just supposed to pretend all that GRAND BARGAIN talk didn’t happen? - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 2:16 pm: - Union Leader - You’re all good. No worries. - Anon - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 2:36 pm: ==Rauner said his signing the K-12 funding bill last year “upset the Speaker,” which is why Madigan included K-12 funding in an omnibus approp bill this year.== Well Bruce, ya fooled him once, so consider yourself ahead of the game. The more upset Rauner becomes, the more you suspect that the Dems are stumbling onto a winning strategy. If the effects of the budget standoff are confined to the poor and social service providers, they’re likely to complain to Democrats, which works for Rauner. If the effects expand to the payment of state workers and the opening of schools, the pressure will be bipartisan and more likely to force an agreement. - Carhartt Representative - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 2:42 pm: Let’s say there is a CPS school falling apart with lead in the drinking water and asbestos in every classroom. How does not properly funding that school help? If you truly believe things are that big a disaster, don’t you have an obligation to spend whatever it takes so that kids aren’t exposed to that environment? I’m not saying you don’t fix an overall system if you think reforms are needed, but this is the equivalent of not treating the victim of West Nile Virus until they stop smoking. - From the 'Dale to HP - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 2:44 pm: Sounds like a man who is breaking. Sorry, breakin’. - Formerly Known As... - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 2:56 pm: CPS has lost 25,000 students since 2005 and projects enrollment shrinking by 2,592 students next year. Consider what is causing them to request so much more funding even with fewer students? More $ will not fix CPS’ mismanagement. The asbestos, lead and no libraries in some schools remain even after many years and many Billions. - Anonymous - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 3:11 pm: “CPS … should be broken into 4 smaller districts with elected school boards.” At this juncture, imo, the Mayor (ANY mayor is doing the city a disservice by hanging on to Board control. That said, having an elected school board doesn’t eliminate the ‘machine’ influence, it just creates another set of hands out looking for their piece of the clout. As far as splitting up CPS, I don’t know how one would “fairly” divvy up the city into 4 districts. With respect to both the property tax base and the student population. And I say that as a resident of what would be the “good” district, no matter how you sliced it, unless there would be absurd gerrymandering. - Chris - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 3:12 pm: “CPS … should be broken into 4 smaller districts with elected school boards.” At this juncture, imo, the Mayor (ANY mayor is doing the city a disservice by hanging on to Board control. That said, having an elected school board doesn’t eliminate the ‘machine’ influence, it just creates another set of hands out looking for their piece of the clout. As far as splitting up CPS, I don’t know how one would “fairly” divvy up the city into 4 districts. With respect to both the property tax base and the student population. And I say that as a resident of what would be the “good” district, no matter how you sliced it, unless there would be absurd gerrymandering. - Carhartt Representative - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 3:18 pm: =CPS has lost 25,000 students since 2005 and projects enrollment shrinking by 2,592 students next year. Consider what is causing them to request so much more funding even with fewer students?= The fact that in those 11 years they’ve been opening 10-20 charter schools every year with an overall annual cost of $700,000,000 to CPS. - Formerly Known As... - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 3:22 pm: ==Speaker Madigan wants school funding held up to “create a crisis to force a bailout of the Chicago Public Schools== Speaker Madigan might want that as well. But it is Sen Cullerton who said =I don’t think any schools should be funded until Chicago schools are funded fairly.= - Whatever - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 3:24 pm: “I think politicians sometimes, when they’re not confident in their own policy positions, just throw a lot of mud. There’s a lot of mud being thrown by the mayor and others.” When questioned about this statement, the Governor replied, “You want proof? Just look at all the mud they got on my hands!” - Formerly Known As... - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 3:41 pm: ==opening 10-20 charter schools every year== That includes charter school enrollment. - Chris - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 4:51 pm: =CPS has lost 25,000 students since 2005= It’s actually 34,000, since the 04-05 school year, or 28,700 since 05-06. And 60,000 fewer African American kids (even accounting for ‘multiracial’). =charter schools … with an overall annual cost of $700,000,000 to CPS= The number I see in the budget is $554m, which is less than 10% of the total budget. The charter schools have about 13.8% of the students, so that’s not terrible, even accounting for the fact that most of the SPED kids are not at the charters. Not a defense of charters, really, but wanting to have the facts straight. Charters *undoubtedly* have a negative effect on the possibility of positive change in neighborhood schools. But then the same can be said for all of the selective enrollment options. - Rod - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 4:52 pm: Never Politically Correct your idea of breaking up CPS into multiple districts was actually proposed in the 1970s, debated in the Assembly and it failed. The plan included revenue sharing from property taxes in the Loop too. The truth is the proposed districts on the north side of Chicago would have had much greater property tax revenues than those districts on the south and west sides. It was assumed by almost all intelligent people that the bill if enacted would have been found to be racially discriminatory and the entire plan rejected by the courts. This shows how old I am that I can recall bills from the 1970s, really scary. - Sue - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 5:57 pm: Didn’t Purvis offer Forest the same dollar amount for next year even though CPS has lost thousands of students. The State has less to give so holding Forest at level funding seems to be a good 12 month accommodation. Run Forest Run. You are not likely to get a better deal from Iohn Cullerton now that they need 2/3 vote tallies - burbanite - Tuesday, Jun 7, 16 @ 7:47 pm: Can the word reform be put on the banned list? - Carhartt Representative - Wednesday, Jun 8, 16 @ 8:00 am: =The number I see in the budget is $554m, which is less than 10% of the total budget. The charter schools have about 13.8% of the students, so that’s not terrible, even accounting for the fact that most of the SPED kids are not at the charters. Not a defense of charters, really, but wanting to have the facts straight. Charters *undoubtedly* have a negative effect on the possibility of positive change in neighborhood schools. But then the same can be said for all of the selective enrollment options.= The number I have is $700,000,000 straight from CPS’s budget presentation last year. The problem with the money is that you have situations like Prosser where CPS is literally paying for two half-filled schools across the street from each other, each with their own administration costs. If they were in one building they would save a bundle. Because charters are private, they build them where it’s best for the charter and not necessarily the neighborhood most needing a building. - Chris - Wednesday, Jun 8, 16 @ 1:26 pm: “If they were in one building they would save a bundle.” there are about five layers of problems with that, which I’m sure you are aware of, but I don’t disagree with the premise. $700m divided by the 50,000+ students at charters makes for about the same total spending per student as CPS overall, so that’s not surprising. The surprising part is that charters are supposed to save money, and apparently the system we get in Chicago doesn’t, and doesn’t produce statistically significant improved results (the other justification). The deadweight of the charter system in Chicago is *any* government-funded spending on new facilities for charter schools. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.