* The House Speaker’s office just issued a bulletin which includes this…
Wednesday, August 16
9 am Approp. Elementary and Sec. Education Committee Rm. 114
11 am House will convene floor session
Wednesday, August 16th would be Governor’s Day at the Illinois State Fair.
The Senate did the same thing in 2015.
Those guys really know how to kill a party. And it’ll be even worse for the governor if they run his AV on a separate bill and it goes down in flames.
*** UPDATE *** I’m flashing back to the House floor vote on Rod Blagojevich’s Gross Receipts Tax. That one went down 107 to 0 with 7 voting “Present”…
But Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin called the scheduling “no coincidence.”
“They just didn’t pick this date out of thin air. They know it’s Republican Day. I think the whole point is to create some type of controversy for the day. And this is old school. It comes out of the old playbook. We’ll deal with it,” Durkin said. […]
Brown said the House will be addressing a potential override of Rauner’s amendatory veto of the school funding bill, as well as a House amendment which replicates Rauner’s veto. That amendment was discussed during a lengthy House hearing on Wednesday morning in Chicago.
“We’ll look at the school funding situation. We’re probably going to look at both, the override and the amendment. A lot of it is up to the sponsors of Senate bill 1. So we’ll look at the amendment, see how things develop. There have been talks along the way. I think those are continuing.”
GRT background is here.
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Hardiman selects running mate
Wednesday, Aug 9, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The State Board of Elections’ website is down (again), but the last time I checked Hardiman didn’t have an active committee.
Press release…
Democratic Candidate for Governor, Tio Hardiman has selected Patricia Avery from Central Illinois as his running mate for Lieutenant Governor. Avery will bring her governmental experience, and her ability to work with people from all walks of life to the ticket. “Power, money, and influence are drowning out the voices of everyday people. That is why Tio Hardiman and I are running the “People’s Campaign,” representing all citizens and giving voice and the power back to the people of Illinois.”- Patricia Avery
“It’s a great honor to have Avery on board because she brings a wealth of experience and her passion for public service to the ticket. The primary election is crowded but we will never under estimate or take for granted the voters of Illinois and their desire for change. Illinoisans over the past three years have witnessed a Governor whose “turn around agenda” has left Illinois in the ditch, with a six billion dollar deficit, and with no real solutions. Our citizens are hurting, and left with nothing but empty promises. Avery and I, with the people’s help aim to bring back the sunshine with our strong ticket and put Illinois back on track. This is what you call a match made in Illinois -Powered by the People.” – Tio Hardiman
We will make our announcement on at 11:00 am on Thursday, August 10, 2017 in West Side Park, near the Lincoln monument, 400 W. University, Champaign, IL 61821
* From Avery’s bio…
Patricia Avery is a transformational leader whose life’s work has been in public service, community organizing and advocacy. Her work in activism covers every student rights to a quality education, equity, and excellence, and economic, racial, social, and juvenile justice.
Patricia currently serves as the Executive Director for the non-profit Champaign Urbana Area Project, whose mission is juvenile delinquency prevention, and is also the current President and CEO of the Champaign County NAACP. As Executive Director of CUAP, Patricia began the now international Mentoring Young Sisters Program, with programs in Hawaii, Canada, and other cities in the United States. She also founded the Cuper Star Performing Arts and Enrichment Program celebrating its 10th consecutive year.
More here.
* Related…
* Tio Hardiman talks LGBT rights, gun violence
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Question of the day
Wednesday, Aug 9, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The Illinois Policy Institute’s Ted Dabrowski and Fox 32’s Mike Flannery…
* The Question: Caption?
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* Derrick Blakely at CBS 2 on why some House Republicans are retiring…
But Barb Wheeler, who’s also walking away, says those Republican defectors — like [Rep. Mike Fortner, who voted for the budget and tax hikes] — wiped out Rauner’s leverage.
“That’s why I felt that strong betrayal. We were so close to getting real compromise in a budget that was so desperately needed. And our own members had cut that conversation short,” she said. […]
Another reason Wheeler’s leaving: She’s lost hope for Rauner shaking up Springfield, saying, “I’m not optimistic towards further reforms during his tenure.”
With a lack of GOP reforms so far, Wheeler said she believes Rauner will face significant headwinds in his re-election bid. Furthermore, she said she expects, in a non-Presidential year, Republicans will face losses nationally, as well.
* The DGA sent out a press release with that CBS 2 link, without the stuff about the “defectors,” of course, and added this comment at the end…
“Governor Bruce Rauner’s failed leadership has become so obvious members of his own party can no longer defend him,” said DGA Illinois Communications Director Sam Salustro. “Under Bruce Rauner, the state is doing worse as debt soars, jobs and people flee, and the state’s education system is pushed to the brink. Illinois voters have already turned on Rauner - it was only a matter of time before his own party did too.”
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Rauner’s SB1 AV defended
Wednesday, Aug 9, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The Senate Republicans have produced a retort to the claims that Gov. Rauner’s amendatory veto of SB1 undercuts the evidence-based model…
Rauner’s AV did not impact the 27 research-based “Essential Elements” that have been present in every single proposal seen this far. In fact, Rauner’s AV left in place a poverty concentration in the classroom metric that was not in the original version and that advocates of the EBM said was not necessary because the model takes into account poverty with a Low Income element and other elements that support Low Income students.
If you look at the AV, you will see that the elements have not been changed. These are applied to individual districts based on demographics. For example, the model looks at the demographics of a school district and calculates how much it would cost to provide:
· Teachers for Full Day Kindergarten
· Smaller class sizes
· Specialist Teachers
· Instructional Facilitators
· Intervention Teachers
· Substitute Teachers
· Guidance Counselors and Nurses
· Librarians
· Principal/Assistant Principal
· School Site Staff/Supervisory Aids
Additional Funding for Diverse Learners (Low Income/EL/Special Ed):
· Intervention Teachers
· Additional Pupil Support Teachers
· Extended Day Teachers
· Summer School
· English Learner students
· Special Education Teachers, Psychologists, Aides
Funding for:
· Gifted and Talented
· Professional Development
· Instructional Materials
· Assessments
· Computer Technology and Equipment
· Maintenance & Operations
· Central Office Operations
· Employee Benefits
The AV takes into account that every school district will have its own unique Adequacy Target. Which is identical to SB 1 and every single proposal seen thus far.
In fact, I would argue that Rauner’s AV goes even farther by removing the money that has been baked into the Base Funding Minimum for ONE school district and distributes it to ALL school district’s in an EVIDENCE-BASED WAY. Run it through the Tiers of your new and improved model so that all school districts can benefit. Don’t bake dollars into the Base for one school district and reinforce, forever, the metrics of your old, tired formula. And as a result, prevent all other school districts from seeing any benefit from that money even if they are less adequately funded than that one District you are subsidizing.
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* From a press release…
Today, in a speech at the Young Achievers Academy, JB Pritzker released his five-point plan to expand early childhood education in Illinois. JB was joined by Zuli Turner, the President of the Young Achievers Academy and a leading provider of early childhood educational services on the South Side of Chicago. Read the full plan here.
JB’s proposal outlines what he will do as governor to build a comprehensive birth-to-five educational system so every child has the opportunity to achieve their full potential. The plan is an extension of JB’s lifelong passion and over twenty years of advocacy for increasing access to high-quality early education:
Ensure every child participates in kindergarten by lowering the compulsory school age from 6 to 5 years old.
Put Illinois on a path towards universal preschool for 3 and 4-year-olds, starting with the children who would benefit the most.
Increase access to the Child Care Assistance Program by raising income eligibility to 200% of the federal poverty level (FPL) and creating an exit ramp at 300% of the FPL, which will allow working parents to increase their wages without losing assistance.
Expand birth-to-three services and create a new ‘Family Engagement Portal’ that will provide every new and expecting parent with comprehensive information about child development.
Invest in adding more teachers and classrooms so we can build capacity to make a universal early childhood system a reality.
“I’ve spent my whole life fighting for early childhood education, and that won’t stop when I get to Springfield,” said JB Pritzker. “That’s why I’m so grateful to be here at Young Achievers Academy. I’m grateful to be in a room full of people I know share a common goal — we want to set our children up for success and give them the tools they need to build better lives. I am proposing this plan because I believe there is no greater investment we can make in our children and our middle-class families than early childhood education.”
All five of those points are fleshed out more on his website. So click here if this interests you.
* What’s missing, however, is a cost estimate. I asked for one and was told it’s $210 million. Here’s the breakdown…
* Lower compulsory school age: About $50 million per year to help 5,000 kindergarten-age kids who don’t currently go to kindergarten.
* Universal preschool: First year is $95 million for about 16,400 kids. But it would rise exponentially as more kids are covered.
* CCAP: $53 million, assuming the governor returns the program to 185 percent of FPL as he’s said he would do. The increase would benefit about 10,500 kids.
* Expand birth-to-three: $7 million for about 160,000 children.
* More teachers: $5 million to provide $10,000 in financial incentives for about 500 prospective teachers, which would eventually benefit about 20,000 kids per year.
There’s also a capital component, but they don’t have a cost estimate and say it wouldn’t be funded through GRF.
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* Seems like common sense…
Continuing his push for criminal justice reform, Gov. Bruce Rauner today signed Senate Bill 1413, which allows men and women to receive their birth certificate for no fee upon their release from the Department of Corrections.
“I am proud to sign this legislation that removes an unnecessary obstacle standing in the way of an offender’s second chance at life,” Gov. Rauner said. “When men and women leave a correctional facility and don’t have a birth certificate, they can’t do the most basic things. People need birth certificates to prove their identity, to find housing, to get a job and earn a decent wage. This legislation is just one more step in our effort to reduce the prison population and give people a real second chance.”
The bill, which was unanimously approved in both chambers of the General Assembly, removes a financial barrier for men and women who are trying to get back on track following release from prison. It is part of the governor’s efforts to reduce recidivism and, in turn, the prison population to give more Illinoisans a second chance. Gov. Rauner set the goal of reducing Illinois’ prison population by 25 percent by 2025. As of August 2017, the prison population is down approximately 11 percent since Gov. Rauner took office.
Specifically, SB 1413 amends The Vital Records Act, which currently provides that the State Registrar of Vital Records shall search birth records upon request for a $10 fee. The State Registrar can then issue a certified copy of the birth certificate upon request, for an additional $5 fee. This bill provides for a one-time waiving of the $10 and $5 fees for a person upon release on parole, mandatory supervised release, final discharge, or pardon from the Department of Corrections if the person presents a prescribed verification form from the Department of Corrections verifying the released person’s date of birth and social security number.
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Is CPS less “bloated” than widely believed?
Wednesday, Aug 9, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* This reaction to the announced CPS budget cuts by the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association contains some interesting information…
School staffing is the strongest measure of our investment in students. The AVERAGE Illinois school has 58 staff members for every 600 students. CHICAGO only has 38*. With this latest round of cuts and layoffs Rahm Emanuel’s CPS continues to disinvest from our students. If you believe in students, you invest in their potential. Investment is belief made visible. It’s time we show we believe. While Illinois needs to act, City Hall must generate revenue of its own and stop using our children as pawns in their chess game with the state. Inaction in Springfield is no excuse for inaction in Chicago.
*Based on ISBE School Report Card data.
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Well, there’s a full-throated defense
Wednesday, Aug 9, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* The Tribune’s Inc. column on Michael Madigan breaking former South Carolina Speaker Solomon Blatt’s record as the longest serving state House Speaker in American history…
His office didn’t mark the milestone, according to his spokesman, Steve Brown, who said any celebration of the record “didn’t come up — I haven’t discussed it with him.”
Asked whether the speaker was proud of his achievement, Brown offered only the blandest of comments. “He’s had a long career,” Brown said.
* But there’s still one more record to go…
And though he has now outlasted Blatt’s 32-1/2 years as House speaker, he still has another six years to go before he bests the 53 years Blatt spent as a member of the South Carolina House.
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*** UPDATED x1 *** Best Team in America™
Wednesday, Aug 9, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* From the Twitters…
* Check out all the grammatical errors in the governor’s school funding “petition”…
As children across Illinois prepare to return to school in the fall, lawmakers are putting politics before students by holding up the school funding reform bill.
There’s no good reason to hold up school funding. There is a simple and fair amendment that the current bill needs, that is that funding is put towards students in the classrooms not towards paying off Chicago’s pension debt.
Let’s put the politics aside and do the right thing to ensure equitable education funding regardless of zip-code. Support education to set our student up for success.
I usually let people off the hook for typos. But, as the governor might say, this is outrageous.
[Hat tip: IWT]
*** UPDATE *** They fixed the barely literate petition, but they still have some work to do…
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Senate Dems finally confirm Sunday session
Wednesday, Aug 9, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Press release…
The Illinois Senate will return to a regular session at 2 p.m., Sunday, Aug. 13 with the intention of acting on school funding legislation. The governor’s veto of Senate Bill 1, the historic overhaul of Illinois’ much-maligned school funding system, awaits Senate action. Meanwhile, there are ongoing efforts to try to reach a reasonable compromise on the issue.
Illinois Senate President John J. Cullerton issued the following statement:
“The Illinois Senate will return to session on Sunday to take action on education funding. This is a priority Senate Democrats have been working on for the better part of four years. I remain optimistic that there is a path to a reasonable compromise on a fair school funding system that improves public education across all of Illinois. That has been our goal from day one.
“One way or another, we are going to get a fair funding system that improves education in all public schools in Illinois for the long term.”
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* This Peoria Journal Star editorial has one of the better critiques of Gov. Rauner’s “hold harmless” plan for school funding…
Second, in having the “hold harmless” provision sunset in two years and then applying it on a per-student rather than per-district basis, the governor would have most Illinois school districts — about 60 percent, more than 500 total — losing under the new formula starting in 2020 because their enrollments are dropping. For Peoria schools, about $4,000 in general state aid is attached to every student. Peoria has 700 fewer students than it did five years ago. Do the math; were that provision in place, Peoria would be looking at $2.8 million less coming its way.
On the one hand, it stands to reason that state support should be tied to the number of students. On the other, this would defeat the very purpose of the reform, arguably making the rich richer, exacerbating the problem, not correcting it. And pragmatically, how can any measure that makes losers of a majority get the votes of a supermajority of legislators?
Yep. Making the rich richer.
* This defense is not so good…
Rauner said in his radio interview that leaving the permanent funding guarantee is place is “unfair.”
“Let’s say, a small district in a rural community, their families move out to find jobs in other states, which has been happening forever. Should the state continue to send the same amount of money to a school district where maybe two-thirds of the students are gone?” he asked. “Is that fair? Should that always be true, off into the future for another 10 or 20 years? Is that fair to taxpayers? And is that fair to the parents who live in areas that have more needs and have more students to educate?”
OK, how many school districts have actually lost two-thirds of their students? Even if there are some, that’s a dorm room debate.
It also completely ignores the “adequacy” aspect of school funding reform. As was explained here yesterday, if a district loses enough kids that it no longer needs as much money as before, funding will be reduced.
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* The Daily Herald’s Jake Griffin…
Taxpayers in Chicago and the collar counties paid the majority of incomes taxes collected by the state in 2015 — and that share is at its highest level in at least eight years, according to individual income tax data released this week by the Illinois Department of Revenue.
Seventy-one percent of income taxes paid by individuals in Illinois came from Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will counties, totaling $14.2 billion.
That reflects a steady rise over at least eight years, from 68.7 percent in 2009.
Local governments don’t get the same share back, however. A portion of income tax funds are sent back to local governments based on population, and the six counties contain less than 65 percent of Illinois residents.
The full report is here.
6,150,656 individual income tax returns were filed in 2015, and 2,321,850 were from Cook County, about 38 percent. Cook County residents paid $5,821,194,532 in income taxes, about 41 percent of the statewide total.
DuPage County taxpayers were 7 percent of all those who filed statewide and paid 10 percent of the total income taxes.
Sangamon County taxpayers were 1.5 percent of those who filed and paid 1.2 percent of the total.
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* Ed Tibbetts at the Quad City Times…
Some school officials say the governor’s changes to how property in tax increment finance districts figure into the formula for distributing state aid will mean less money for districts, including in the Quad-Cities.
“This would hurt us in a bad way,” said East Moline Superintendent Kristin Humphries, a supporter of SB1, the school funding proposal state lawmakers passed in May. […]
Humphries said it would cost his district about $1 million. […]
In the Quad-Cities, state Rep. Tony McCombie, R-Savanna, said Tuesday she is “extremely nervous” about the TIF provision and doesn’t know where it originated. McCombie, a former mayor, said the idea of a TIF is to help local economies.
“I’m afraid if this were to be passed this way, and I’m not sure where it came from, I’m afraid it would take away the economic tool aspect of it,” she said.
Rep. McCombie should ask the Illinois Policy Institute.
* The Peoria Journal Star editorial board eviscerated the governor’s amendatory veto of SB1 today. It’s worth reading the whole thing…
Third, it gets worse for local schools, since Rauner also removed the allowances made in the funding formula for districts subjected to tax increment financing (TIF) districts, used in many communities to try to stimulate economic development, if at the expense of local classrooms. Reportedly that would deprive Peoria schools of another $1 million annually. The governor also would punish tax cap counties, such as Tazewell.
The governor says TIF districts and tax caps permit communities to under-report their property wealth, or their local “capacity” to fund schools, and are therefore “subsidies” that should no longer be permitted. Fair enough. If it were up to us, we’d get rid of all market-distorting economic development incentives. But that’s not the fault of schools that have no say in the matter and in any event would no longer be able to make up for the revenue lost to TIFs, which already exist and have contractual obligations that can’t be undone now.
Meanwhile, Rauner repeatedly has said property taxes in Illinois are too high. With this amendment he is encouraging them to go higher here in central Illinois. It’s a huge contradiction.
* And here’s the take from the Chicago Reader’s Ben Joravsky, who has been railing against TIF districts for what seems like decades…
The amount of state aid any school system receives is partly based on the worth of the property it has to tax. The more property a wealthy town such as Winnetka can tax, the less state aid it receives. This makes sense, right? You want state aid to go to the folks who need it the most.
Not included in the formula currently is property that’s in a TIF district, which in Chicago means some of the hottest communities on the near south and west sides. So there’s a perverse incentive for Chicago to create more TIF districts—a point I’ve been wailing about for years.
Rauner’s proposing to change the law so the property in TIF districts is included in the school aid formula. That means less state aid for Chicago.
I’m torn on this issue. On the one hand, it’s about time someone took a wrecking ball to the TIF scam. On the other hand, if it means less money for CPS, then once again the people hit the hardest are the low-income children of Chicago. The poorest people get the short end of the TIF stick even when the program’s being “reformed.”
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More “damage done”
Wednesday, Aug 9, 2017 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Anyone else notice that the ILGOP has been awfully quiet this week? From the Pritzker campaign…
This week it was reported that Metro East doctors have been “pushed to the brink” by Bruce Rauner’s 736-day budget crisis, and the ones feeling it the most are treating high numbers of Medicaid patients.
To make up for extraordinarily late bills under Bruce Rauner’s failed leadership, doctors are maxing out their credit, dipping into personal savings, forgoing their salaries, and cutting staff and hours. Some patients may see their doctors run out of business and have their treatment plans disrupted.
Dr. David Norman, a Belleville doctor specializing in child abuse pediatrics, told Side Effects Public Media:
“I don’t want to turn these highest-risk patients away, because you feel like, these are the kids that you really can intervene and make a difference,” Dr. Norman says. “And they’re making it harder and harder and harder to do it.”
“While Bruce Rauner remains silent on Donald Trump’s attacks on healthcare in Illinois, Rauner’s manufactured budget crisis continues to devastate medical providers across the state,” said Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Jordan Abudayyeh. “With doctors forced to turn away patients and jeopardize treatment plans, it’s clear that Bruce Rauner’s damage is done. Illinois needs a leader like JB, who recognizes that healthcare is a right and not a privilege.”
* From the story…
Doctors across Illinois are struggling, according to Jennie Pinkwater, executive director of the state’s chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. She says the doctors who have been hit the hardest throughout the budget impasse are private practice physicians in areas with high concentrations of Medicaid patients.
Pinkwater says that she’s concerned to see so many doctors, who’ve made it their mission to serve areas with great medical need, pushed to the brink.
“We’re certainly hopeful the state will be able to step up,” she says, “and make sure that these practices will be able to stay open.” […]
But now, while she waits for the state to release the money to pay her overdue bills, [Dr. Kristin Stahl] is moving forward on a plan B. She’s nearly $100,000 in debt now–it’s been as high as $200,000 in the past two years. Next month, she’ll be opening a new practice in St. Louis. The new place will be upscale and marketed to patients with private insurance. She’s already purchased the building, which she is in the process of remodeling. Initially, Stahl plans to travel back and forth between her two practices. Once her practice in Missouri gets established, she says she’ll consider selling or closing the Illinois clinic.
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