9 Comments - Annonin' - Thursday, Mar 23, 17 @ 10:05 am: Some of the educational items can be corrected if BigBrain declares a “cease fire” in his war to demolish our colleges and universities. Just a guess - Pot calling kettle - Thursday, Mar 23, 17 @ 10:16 am: To add to Annonin’s point: The net loss of over 16,000 incoming college freshmen, the loss of college & university programs, the threatened closure of universities, etc. needs to stop. If we grow our universities and rejuvenate the struggling ones with innovative tech programs, imagine how these numbers could be improved. A true “turnaround agenda” should start with growing higher ed and getting more HS grads to go to college and stay in Illinois. This takes an investment. It would mean providing funding to lower tuition and increase financial aid. Getting more students into community colleges. Increasing the transfers to four year schools. Supporting research on innovative technology. - Interim Retiree - Thursday, Mar 23, 17 @ 10:28 am: Annonin’ is correct. The Illinois Science Olympiad is slated for April 29th at U of I. It was pushed back since there were questions if there would be funding. Most regionals are hosted by colleges - by hurting the colleges you’re also hurting the best K-12 STEM kids. Only in Illinois. - Old and In the Way - Thursday, Mar 23, 17 @ 10:57 am: We can most easily do something about that internet speed issue. Uh, no. Not easily and not without some serious investments in infrastructure. Both Chicago and downstate have lacked infrastructure investment for years. There are no cheap and easy fixes, especially without a state budget or investment policies……. - A Jack - Thursday, Mar 23, 17 @ 11:09 am: Whatever happened to the Illinois Century Network that was supposed to provide high speed Internet between all the schools? Oh yeah, CMS took them over. Maybe DoIT should be doing something about high speed Internet to schools instead of throwing money away on ERP and Cyber Security? - Old and In the Way - Thursday, Mar 23, 17 @ 12:17 pm: ICN is like all the rest of the states efforts in that they have no budget. Besides ICN does not provide last mile connections to their constituents and these are the expensive parts of Internet access. Sadly, the governor has zeroed out ICN and is quickly turning the state over to the likes of AT&T and Verizon. Where ICN was once one of the better efforts of the state they are now largely inconsequential………sad. (BTW the ICN was created by Republicans with Democratic legislative support.) - Judgment Day - Thursday, Mar 23, 17 @ 12:18 pm: Take a drastically different approach. Here’s what you do. In every IL town that has a major university, there’s almost always a large industrial building that’s vacant (closed). Example: In DeKalb, there’s the old GE plant (right off Peace Road). Get the facility, install a high speed Internet pipe, provide (and pay for) the utilities, make sure heating & bathrooms are all good to go. Then you subdivide the facility into smaller units. If - Anonymous - Thursday, Mar 23, 17 @ 12:22 pm: Take a drastically different approach. Here’s what you do. In every IL town that has a major university, there’s almost always a large industrial building that’s vacant (closed). Example: In DeKalb, there’s the old GE plant (right off Peace Road). Get the facility, install a high speed Internet pipe, provide (and pay for) the utilities, make sure heating & bathrooms are all good to go. Then you subdivide the facility into smaller units. If less than 500 Sq. Ft., $100 a month. If 500 - 750 Sq. Ft., $150 a month. If 750 - 1000 Sq. Ft., $200 a month. …you get the idea. Put up a central area where people can post resumes, or help wanted. Put in an eating area with a do-it-yourself kitchen when people can talk. Provide a limited number of free office space (bare bones) to (a) the community colleges; (b) the 4 year university professors; & (c) the trades/professional types who maintain the university (Ex: Health & Safety; Facilities; etc.) Is this a ‘bare bones’ idea. You bet. It’s also a way to not only boost Main Street America, but to tap into that innovative spirit. The goal is as few rules & regs as possible. Give it 5+ years. You will be amazed as to the results. Also, regarding the property. Put the properties into a “Business Redevelopment Zone” where the total assessment for the property is $100 per year. That means effectively a $0.00 real estate tax bill. It’s vital to make sure that a primary overriding goal is that there’s as little money taken out of the pockets of the people who are running these ultra tiny operations. We want jobs/work, because that’s what gives people hope. In fact, if you have excess open land on the re-purposed facility, let people create their own gardens. Think innovative. Just a thought…… Hint: Found out I can’t use greater than / less than signs in a text. Appears to function as line terminators. - DuPage - Thursday, Mar 23, 17 @ 4:40 pm: @3:23 The ideas sound good, but would get a lot of local opposition and problems. 1. “Get the facility”. Does that mean for free, or to buy it? What money could be found with no funding? 2. Local govt. would not like the property going from tax paying to tax exempt. 3. Other private owners of vacant commercial properties (like shopping malls) would complain about unfair competition to their properties rental value. The taxes on their property would be supporting a public competitor that doesn’t even pay taxes. Usually renting space by a public entity is limited to non-profits only, with a few exceptions. 4. Remodeling an industrial building can be expensive. Heating and air conditioning can be expensive to install, repair, and operate. 5. If a university has not paid their gas or electric bills because of no state money, they might have trouble opening additional accounts. Not saying it can’t be done, just that there could be difficulties. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.