Capitol Fax.com - Your Illinois News Radar

Morning shorts

Posted in:

Illinois

* NEW: Journalistic Reflections: Don’t vote for the ugly guys

* Sneed: Is the cousin of a Republican heavyweight an FBI mole involved in the federal probe of indicted real estate wheeler dealer/political fund-raiser Antoin “Tony” Rezko?

* Payday loan reform results mixed

* IDOT hikes airfare

* WHOI TV: Citizen Journalism: Who Qualifies?

* Editorial: These high grades are A failure

Hallelujah! A whopping 93 percent of Chicago Public Schools teachers are “excellent” or “superior,” according to principal evaluations. Like Lake Wobegon, “where all the children are above average,” surely this is fiction.

A study released Monday shows a mere three out of 1,000 CPS teachers received an “unsatisfactory” rating from 2003 to 2006. That says far more about empty evaluations than excellent teaching.

“The disconnect between teacher performance and student performance is striking,” deadpans the report by The New Teachers Project, which was funded by the Chicago-based Joyce Foundation.

* Carol Marin on David Axelrod

* Illinois’ US senators press for health-care funding

* Press release
: Survey Highlights Deteriorating Transit Service - Two-thirds Support a Tax Increase to Improve Transit Service

* Legislators tell smokers to take it elsewhere - State law bans smoking in public spaces

* U of I probes ties to military contractor

posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Aug 1, 07 @ 9:04 am

Comments

solution to overtime - instead of cutting off the legislators’ per diem, cut off their air conditioning. session would NEVER go past May 31.

Comment by Anonymous Wednesday, Aug 1, 07 @ 9:10 am
Rich, can you get the details on this? “The internet survey of over 800 Illinoisans comes as the General Assembly considers transit reform and new funding for PACE, Metra and the CTA.” You’re generally pretty good about not passing along surveys w/o real analysis.

Comment by crosstab Wednesday, Aug 1, 07 @ 9:30 am
Hmmm…”Internet Survey” always arouses suspicion of reliability. However, I think Cook and the collar residents would support a modest sales tax increase for transportation. The collars will demand flexibility because, other than a few select Metra routes, public transit really doesn’t solve much out there and has limited prospects for doing so.

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Wednesday, Aug 1, 07 @ 10:54 am
If only three out of 1000 teachers are rated unsatisfactory, surely in 997 classrooms the kids are getting a satisfactory education. Not.

How can the ISBE, the Legislature, the schools board and the rest close their eyes and blindly toss more money to the schools as if the teachers and the classrooms need more money.

How can the lswmakers who are supposed to be working for the future of the State of Illinois justify their actions to deny the students the school choice they need to excel?

The purpose of school funding is not to protect teacher jobs.

Comment by Truthful James Wednesday, Aug 1, 07 @ 2:40 pm
“The document, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, indicates the Police Training Institute and Blackwater will work together for five years, exchanging faculty, working with each other’s students and conducting unspecified research together.”

I can’t believe that the state is doing business with a private military contractor. What a waste of resources–why not use the National Guard?

Are private “military” forces even legal in Illinois? First we’ve got the Sea Organization, and now Blackwater; and not even Bush knows what laws govern them over in Iraq.

It seems to me that history should tell us something about allowing paramilitary forces to arise within a nation.

“It appears we need a law that says only pretty-boy politicians can hold elected office.”

Who needs a law when you got ridiculous contracts, like this one belonging to Al Gore or this one designed by the Democratic and Republican parties to stifle competition in the marketplace of ideas.

“Citizen Journalism: Who Qualifies?”

Everyone; but honestly, Rich, I would really like to get YOUR take on this issue.

Comment by Squideshi Wednesday, Aug 1, 07 @ 5:42 pm