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On Friday we learned of another Madigan shenanigan. The Tribune’s Ray Long reported that, even as other grants from Springfield have been frozen, a $35 million grant will help build a new school in Madigan’s Chicago district. The online headline: “Money flows to Madigan district while state dollars tight.”

* From the article…

The biggest slice of the $35 million grant — $13 million — will help fund a $48 million middle school under construction in Madigan’s district to relieve overcrowding as the Hispanic population grows in his Southwest Side power base. The school will feature computer labs, music rooms, gymnasium space and athletic fields with synthetic turf, according to plans with the Chicago Public Building Commission, the project’s overseer.

An elementary school in the neighboring district of Rep. Dan Burke will get $6.5 million for roofing, masonry and other work, and $5.5 million will go to two schools in House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie’s South Side district. The remaining $10 million is slated for air conditioning — an expansion of which Mayor Rahm Emanuel is pushing — in 35 schools elsewhere in Chicago. […]

The new middle school in Madigan’s district will be for grades five through eight when it opens in 2017 at 6018 S. Karlov Ave., according to CPS. The new school will give relief to Peck and Pasteur elementary schools, long identified as two of the district’s most severely overcrowded, where students sometimes learn in a cafeteria and meet with counselors in a projection room, the school district said.

At Edwards Elementary in Burke’s district, money will go toward a new roof and masonry stabilization to go with a new annex to ease crowding. The school district said the school has held 1,452 students in a space designed for 900 — 161 percent of capacity.

In Currie’s district, Kenwood Academy High School has grown significantly. The changes would shift an academic center for seventh- and eighth-graders to the nearby, previously closed Canter Middle School and open more seats at Kenwood for freshmen through seniors.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Jul 21, 15 @ 9:31 am

Comments

Welp, glad to see that the Trib is still able to conjure up outrage about 14 months after the Speaker did this. And it’s not like it was a secret at the time.

Comment by Juice Tuesday, Jul 21, 15 @ 9:36 am
It almost feels OKAY as long as they are Public Schools and Not Charters. Then deal with the criticism from there.

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Jul 21, 15 @ 9:38 am
A middle school with turf.

Comment by Bobby Hill Tuesday, Jul 21, 15 @ 9:42 am
Dixon desperately needs work on its high school and/or a new high school altogether. The local School Board has been researching its options. It has tried to put through a sales tax hike to support it, which was defeated. I certainly understand that Illinois may have other priorities, of course. I have to wonder, though, if these expenditures in/near Madigan’s district are a demonstration of those…?

Comment by Liandro Tuesday, Jul 21, 15 @ 9:50 am
And once built, the students can take a field trip to the State Museum.

Comment by Business Unfriendly Tuesday, Jul 21, 15 @ 9:51 am
This is exactly what happened in Greece. And Detroit. And Puerto Rico. And Tatooine.

Thank you, Tribbies, for blowing the lid off the corrupt and sinister scheme to ease crowding at schools in growing neighborhoods.

Do the Pulitzers have a “Lifetime Achievement - Demented” category for editorial writing?

Comment by Wordslinger Tuesday, Jul 21, 15 @ 9:51 am
If intentional, it is a nice play by Rauner to stoke animosity between the leaders and the rank-and-file. But it will take a lot more of this before it does significant damage.

Comment by thechampaignlife Tuesday, Jul 21, 15 @ 9:52 am
This is how you never lose an election. Some Reps bring home the bacon. This one brings home the entire Pig and drops a few hams off to his grateful neighbors.

Comment by A guy Tuesday, Jul 21, 15 @ 10:02 am
What budget problem? Madigan and other political insiders are immune from the financial pain others are feeling.

Comment by Rauner is RIGHT Tuesday, Jul 21, 15 @ 10:07 am
Is it too late to trademark “shemadigans”?

Comment by nixit71 Tuesday, Jul 21, 15 @ 10:08 am
I can’t imagine this playing well in suburban Cook.

Comment by Almost the Weekend Tuesday, Jul 21, 15 @ 10:10 am
If you really want to upset the suburban counties, show them the property taxes on single family homes in this district. I live in Chicago and pay almost $10k but my friend in Lake Zurich pays over $15k. My home appraises at 2x his. Why does the State support CPS so heavily when local taxation is so low?

Comment by jeffinginchicago Tuesday, Jul 21, 15 @ 10:17 am
The real issue is using state dollars for construction projects of K-!2 schools. It is always more a matter of politics and the power of a local legislator than anything else. Some districts get it and some don’t and ‘need’ often has little to do with it. And this is true of downstate as well as Chicago. No area of the state. is virtuous on this.

Construction projects should be approved and funded by local taxpayers statewide. Of course there is the issue of federal and state governments telling schools the type of facilities they must provide but that is a whole other issue.

Comment by Federalist Tuesday, Jul 21, 15 @ 10:19 am
= I can’t imagine this playing well in suburban Cook.==

Does it matter? No one is suburban cook votes for State Representative Madigan. That’s what I don’t get about Rauner’s “attacks”. The end game is lost on me.

Comment by Centennial Tuesday, Jul 21, 15 @ 10:33 am
Uh, didn’t the governor sign the education funding portion of the budget???

Comment by Ducky LaMoore Tuesday, Jul 21, 15 @ 10:34 am
-A Guy- Very astute and spot on analysis, - and that’s the coconut Rauner is trying to bust open, on what seems like a deserted island without a machete to slice through it…

Comment by DuPage Don Tuesday, Jul 21, 15 @ 10:36 am
=
Does it matter? No one is suburban cook votes for =State Representative Madigan. That’s what I don’t get about Rauner’s “attacks”. The end game is lost on me.=
The end game is term limits. I can’t vote Madigan out of office, nor can I personally elect someone else Speaker, but if I could vote to impose term limits to force him out…….

Comment by Bogey Golfer Tuesday, Jul 21, 15 @ 10:38 am
Well, I made a valiant attempt at responding to Wordslinger, lol.

Comment by Liandro Tuesday, Jul 21, 15 @ 10:43 am
Let’s face it, whatever term limits legislation gets approved and becomes effective will likely not take effect anytime soon, especially with the current makeup of the legislature. It might prevent the next dynasty but probably not the current one…unless he wants to stay into his 80’s.

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Tuesday, Jul 21, 15 @ 10:51 am
Yawn. How nice of the Raunerites to hand this to the Tribbies who would otherwise be as clueless as they were when it happened 14 months ago.

I’m with Centennial—I cannot figure out how a strategy of personal attacks on Madigan is supposed to lead to a resolution that is to Rauner’s advantage. Sure, it keeps part of Rauner’s base happy, but eventually someone has to govern, even in Illinois.

Comment by Harry Tuesday, Jul 21, 15 @ 10:52 am
I agree with six degrees. (nice rhyme)

It is not like term limits are going to pass and the Speaker will have to immediately resign… That would have to be grandfathered in.

Bruce is really gearing up for the long Con here.

Comment by Mr. 17.5 Tuesday, Jul 21, 15 @ 10:56 am
Good to see Madigan coincidentally got his permit on Day 1 of the new budget year.

http://webapps1.cityofchicago.org/buildingpermit/search/extendedapplicationstatus.htm?permitNumber=D15036-01

Comment by nixit71 Tuesday, Jul 21, 15 @ 10:58 am
==I agree with six degrees. (nice rhyme)===

Um, except it doesn’t. lol

Comment by A guy Tuesday, Jul 21, 15 @ 11:08 am
Centennial at 10:33 AM.

I suggest you look over the 2014 Cook County suburban vote totals for Rauner and Quinn. Where the Chicago media market was blasted with negative Quinn and Madigan commercials. These people are aware of who Madigan is.

I’ve been saying this already… When Rauner accomplishes nothing in four years, and is up for re-election he will make term limits and fair maps an essential part of his campaign. These are both ideas suburban voters support,and will most likely be the biggest theme of the election cycle.

Even if term limits are unconstitutional. The governor has authority to draw new legislative districts. I can see Rauner redrawing Madigan’s district out of his current district, forcing him to move if he wants to run in 2022. In 2010 PQ let Cullerton and Madigan have free reign over the new districts, if Rauner is governor there is no way in hell that happens.

Comment by Almost the Weekend Tuesday, Jul 21, 15 @ 11:08 am
Wow, plays right into the hands of BR

Comment by Wumpus Tuesday, Jul 21, 15 @ 11:12 am
===I suggest you look over the 2014 Cook County suburban vote totals===

I suggest you get to governing.

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Jul 21, 15 @ 11:13 am
==I suggest you get to governing. ==

What is this “gov-er-ning” you speak of?
How is it done, and who does it?

Comment by Agricola Tuesday, Jul 21, 15 @ 11:24 am
I read this article and thought that it was an effective use of the budgetary process.

Comment by Huh? Tuesday, Jul 21, 15 @ 11:28 am
– The governor has authority to draw new legislative districts.–

How can you yammer on and on when you’re clueless about the fundamentals?

Comment by Wordslinger Tuesday, Jul 21, 15 @ 11:29 am
===The governor has authority to draw new legislative districts.===

You do know the map needs legislative approval, and the governor, himself is just 50% of the process… right?

Comment by Oswego Willy Tuesday, Jul 21, 15 @ 11:50 am
They still haven’t figured out that 47 is a smaller number than 71 so I don’t know why you’d think they understand the process or the fundamentals.

Comment by Chicago Cynic Tuesday, Jul 21, 15 @ 12:33 pm
==If you really want to upset the suburban counties, show them the property taxes on single family homes in this district. I live in Chicago and pay almost $10k but my friend in Lake Zurich pays over $15k. My home appraises at 2x his. Why does the State support CPS so heavily when local taxation is so low?==

To add - are there any property tax dollars going towards either of these projects? PTax bills were just delivered in my neighborhood. $12,000 for a 1600sq ft single story town home in Streamwood. People downsized to live in a more affordable neighborhood and can’t believe the taxes. Many are moving out because they cannot afford to stay.

Comment by The KQ Tuesday, Jul 21, 15 @ 12:41 pm
Wordslinger i believe Tatooine also eliminated prevailing wage and reformed its workers comp system…. Thats why they now have Sandmen…..

Comment by Ghost Tuesday, Jul 21, 15 @ 12:43 pm