* Gov. Rauner speaking to reporters today in Mt. Zion about his plan to use his amendatory veto powers on SB 1 and about Speaker Madigan…
[Madigan] doesn’t want to do education funding reform. He doesn’t care about the teachers. He cares about political power. He wants to manipulate the pensions in Chicago, that’s the reason he’s doing it. And we’ve gotta stand against it and say no.
And, I tell ‘ya, I’ve talked to school superintendents around the state, principals, and they’ve said ‘Gosh, governor, maybe we’ve just gotta go along and let’s support SB 1. At least it’s a little bit more money for us.’
And you know what? You know why they say that? They’re scared. They know that Speaker Madigan is powerful and he’s ruthless and he’s cold blooded, he doesn’t care about them. He’s cut their money for years. And they’re scared. If they don’t go along and get a tiny bit more money from him, then he’ll give them nothing. That’s what they’re scared of.
We shouldn’t let a tyrant do that to our teachers. Don’t just take a little bit, get what’s fair for you in Decatur, in Springfield, in Champaign-Urbana, in Mount Zion. Don’t live on Madigan’s crumbs. He wants to just give every school district, some school districts a little bit more and then a ton more to Chicago pensions? No. Mt. Zion deserves a lot more. Decatur deserves a lot more. Springfield deserves a lot more.
And I call on our superintendents, many of whom said ‘I’m scared governor, I think I gotta go along with SB 1 because otherwise Madigan will take my money away.’
No. Don’t give in to him. Don’t give in to a tyrant. Stand up for your districts. Support my amendatory veto and you’ll get what you deserve and you’ll be treated equitably. Don’t give in to fear. Don’t give in to fear and just take a little penny because it’ll hurt your districts for years if you give in today.
Raw audio is here.
- Franklin Delano Bluth - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 1:59 pm:
Calling the school superintendents “scared” and essentially insinuating that they don’t know how to do their jobs without Madigan….
It’s a bold strategy Cotton, let’s see how it plays out
- Arsenal - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 1:59 pm:
This is better than his “Democrats tell me to stay the course!” rhetoric because at least he admits that people disagree with him. Gotta get over that “making up motives” part of it, but it’s progress.
- Ducky LaMoore - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 2:00 pm:
We’ve officially reached the Blagojevich threshold.
- Rahm's Middle FInger - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 2:01 pm:
SAD.
- Retired - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 2:01 pm:
How about naming just one of those “scared” superintendents?
- Blue Bayou - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 2:04 pm:
Just listen to his rhetoric. It’s the vocabulary of a fanatic.
“You deserve. They don’t. You should get this. They shouldn’t.”
Isn’t the Governor supposed to govern the whole state? Isn’t he/she supposed to find solutions to problems?
What is governing for?
- Anonymous - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 2:05 pm:
Were these meetings before or after attending all those black churches and receiving standing ovations?
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 2:05 pm:
===…And you know what? You know why they say that…===
Babbling, total babble.
Rauner knows he’s right in the middle of making up a whopper of a story.
If Rauner wants to hold Children’s schooling hostage, just say so.
“I don’t want schools open, unless… ”
Don’t blame Madigan.
Stand up and take the arrows.
Being a coward isn’t what governors do.
- Ducky LaMoore - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 2:05 pm:
===What is governing for?===
Reelection. And it ain’t governing.
- GOP Extremist - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 2:06 pm:
Oh no, the Governor’s hearing voices in his head, Again.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 2:07 pm:
Dividing the state won’t work too well when all schools don’t open or stay open.
A governor can’t keep schools open?
Oh boy…
- Almost The Weekend - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 2:08 pm:
When is a reporter actually going to do their job and ask the governor about how he clouted his child into a top CPS school, while not even being a Chicago resident. The earned media he receives in downstate Illinois is always positive with no hard questions. I hope this changes in the next 12 months. If these quotes are going to be publishes in the press and used for future campaign commercials there needs to be pushback from the press.
- Under Influenced... - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 2:08 pm:
Notice who was missing from Rauner’s press conference? Superintendents.
- Jocko - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 2:08 pm:
I take it Bruce has spoken with a number of superintendents who feel this way /s
- Saluki - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 2:09 pm:
He finally sounds confident.
- winners and losers - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 2:11 pm:
Just as Rich (and others) have predicted, the Battle of Illinois, the Chicago-Downstate War, the Rauner-the-Giant-killer vs. the Illinois General Assembly, and Trump Light vs. Fake News/DEMS is now in the open.
It is going to be a bumpy ride.
- Opiate of the Masses - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 2:14 pm:
bruce didn’t call me. but then again, i go to a catholic church so he wouldn’t be there on a sunday.
- a drop in - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 2:14 pm:
“Don’t give in to a tyrant”
Excellent advice. Legislatures should remember that when SB 1 is returned.
- Thinking - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 2:14 pm:
Wow. A couple observations: 1) SB 1 is the brainchild of Andy Manar, not Mike Madigan. But I guess Madigan is the better bogey man. 2) it’s sad to say but just reading the comments made by Rauner, he really sounds like he is coming unhinged. Not the unflappable business man he portrays.
Finally, mirror, mirror on the wall….
- Juvenal - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 2:14 pm:
@RadicalCandorIL -
The governor accusing Madigan of being a ruthless, cold-blooded tyrant — how is that for irony?
Let it sink in, Oswego Willy.
- Anonymous - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 2:17 pm:
Yeah this rhetoric is silly. He could get support if he went about it in a realistic and mature fashion. One thing is true, using the State’s schools as political fodder isn’t too smart.
- Linus - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 2:17 pm:
“You know what? Madigan is threatenin’ our schools by offerin’ them more money! He and his budget that I largely influenced and his tax hike whose rate I set are tryin’ to get schools’ bills paid, tryin’ to get classrooms to open on time! And you know what? We’re just not gonna stand for that, are we? You know? What?”
- Try-4-Truth - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 2:19 pm:
“cold-blooded”…. “doesn’t care” about children… wow. That’s incendiary language. What happened to the IPI’s call to “calm down” this type of rhetoric?
Geesch.
- Oswego Willy - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 2:23 pm:
===Let it sink in, Oswego Willy===
Let “what” sink in?
- Aldyth - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 2:25 pm:
Banned words.
More banned words.
Banned words, banned words, banned words.
Thank you for listening.
- Emily Miller - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 2:26 pm:
This is bizarre. I wanted to provide more thoughtful commentary, but came up short because in the end this is just weird ranting.
- S-Town - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 2:30 pm:
“Don’t just take a little bit, get what’s fair for you in Decatur, in Springfield, in Champaign-Urbana, in Mount Zion.”
That’s some AFSCME marketing gold right there.
- Jocko - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 2:31 pm:
==He’s cut their money for years.==
If you don’t count the two years I did it…while touting just the opposite.
- Disgusted Downstate - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 2:35 pm:
What a bunch of hooey. While superintendents throughout the state have been discussing evidence-based funding models for years and the two competing bills all spring, I have yet to hear a single colleague voice any sort of “fear” that “Madigan will take my money away” if SB1 isn’t signed into law. Go ahead, Governor Gaslight, and name just one superintendent who is afraid. Just one. That’s all. Just one.
- Nearly Normal - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 2:42 pm:
OK, where are the supts and principals who are saying this?? Does not sound like the ones I knew.
- Real - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 2:43 pm:
This Rauner guy has been all drama and chaos his entire term. First, it was the budget drama, then he fired his whole staff, now he wants to start a school finding crisis. It seems like this guy lives on drama. It’s always something with him.
- Anonymous - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 2:44 pm:
He (Madigan) doesn’t care about the teachers.
Yeah, right, champ and you do. You’d have them earning minimum wage/no benefits if you got your way.
Frightening.
- Robert J Hironimus-Wendt - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 2:47 pm:
I wonder if Gov. Rauner also talked with the Mt. Zion folks and their superintendent about his desire to merge Mt. Zion schools, Argenta, and the Forsyth-Maroa schools into the Decatur Public School system, so as to reduce the number of school districts in the state. Having lived there, I am sure the Mt. Zion folks would not have liked that hearing about that reform idea.
- Anon221 - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 2:47 pm:
This Mad Lib brought to you by Rauner IPI. Spinning the “truth” daily from straw.
- Huh? - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 2:48 pm:
Anybody know if 1.4% has started to rattle steel ball bearings in his hand?
- Annon3 - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 2:57 pm:
Opiate-I believe the Gov was in fact at mass last Sunday celebrating Holy Family’s 160th, it must not be your parish.
- Norseman - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 3:01 pm:
Someone remind Rauner that these are educated people. They understand 71/36.
- Anonymous - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 3:27 pm:
Rauner has some vendetta against Madigan at this point it seems. I mean superintendents should know who developed the bill and it wasn’t Madigan. Seems like he thinks using key phrases, “known enemies”, and misinformation will look good for his upcoming campaign.
- Flynn's mom - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 3:31 pm:
I know a few school superintendents and I’ve never heard them use this “logic”. I don’t think these “gosh governor” discussions have occurred.
- no name - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 3:44 pm:
@ Thinking
==1) SB 1 is the brainchild of Andy Manar, not Mike Madigan==
To be clear, SB1 is the brainchild of education advocacy groups. Manar just put his name on it. Just saying.
- walker - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 3:44 pm:
“Don’t let Madigan bully you into taking more money.”
Is any sentient being buying such an argument?
- Mama - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 3:51 pm:
Rauner has never been & will never be the ‘public’ education governor.
Rauner wants School Vouchers to send some public school students to private schools. He could care less about the students whom need Special Ed.
- JS Mill - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 3:53 pm:
=To be clear, SB1 is the brainchild of education advocacy groups. Manar just put his name on it. Just saying.=
Manar’s bill was SB 16. This is a combo of SB 16, Barickman’s bill, and the Evidence Based Model.
- G'Kar - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 3:53 pm:
If I understand correctly, SB 1 was passed by the Senate, so it is up to Cullerton to send it on to the governor. What does Madigan have to do with it at all other than “because Madigan?”
Also, if I was on a school board and my superintendent started a sentence with “Gosh . . .” I would serious consider not renewing his contract.
- Skeptic - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 4:26 pm:
“Go ahead, Governor Gaslight, and name just one superintendent who is afraid. Just one. That’s all. Just one.” Has anyone checked in with Lincolnshire? /snark
- Whatever - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 4:28 pm:
==“cold-blooded”…. “doesn’t care” about children… wow. That’s incendiary language. What happened to the IPI’s call to “calm down” this type of rhetoric? ==
The Governor hired them all onto his staff so he could silence them? Kinda like a client I had once who hired the only two big-name expert witnesses on an issue, even though it only used one of them, just so the other side had to hire a “nobody.”
- Mouthy - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 4:33 pm:
Looks like he’s all in Trump style….
- Nick Name - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 5:00 pm:
“They know that Speaker Madigan is powerful and he’s ruthless and he’s cold blooded, he doesn’t care about them.”
Michael Madigan, White Walker, marching south with his vast army of wights…
https://tinyurl.com/ycu4te9t
- Stormsw7706 - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 5:15 pm:
He does not speak for any superintendent I know. He should visit my school. We teach our 3rd graders not to whine, not to call names, to ale responsibility for their actions and to work together. Bruce must have skipped that grade. BTW does this dude ever work at governing? All I see is blame-blame-blame-ca,paint event (blame)-reboot.
- btowntruth from forgottonia - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 5:18 pm:
I listened to that.
That was just unreal.
I can’t even describe it.
- nobody special - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 6:31 pm:
Could we possibly see something of the Repub. plan besides just the numbers, HOW BOUT THE MODEL…….. SB1 Has been out there and been evaluated backward and forward…….How bout at least giving us a peak at 1124
- nobody special - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 6:32 pm:
or peek….LOL
- Sigmund - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 6:36 pm:
Carl Jung would be thrilled with all of the projection the gov demonstrates.
- Patty O'Furniture - Monday, Jul 17, 17 @ 9:30 pm:
The Decatur Public Schools sent out a robo call asking all parents to urge the Gov to sign the bill. That bill that isn’t on his desk yet. Am I correct in that understanding? I can’t imagine using public resources to encourage political advocacy, in fact I think that is illegal.