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* What’s going on in your part of Illinois?…

posted by Isabel Miller
Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 7:46 am

Comments

Rain!

Comment by Henry Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 7:54 am
Getting some needed rain.

Comment by Huh? Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 8:18 am
Champaign’s Unit 4 being sued in federal court over one of the alleged retaliations by the Superintendent in the wake of the BTW elementary school shooting and criticism: https://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/courts-police-fire/ramey-files-suit-against-unit-4-in-federal-court/article_49ac4cfa-5a90-11ef-9713-97fd0e962b3a.html

This is in addition to other controversies with school board factions pro or critical of the district administration. In just this term, that has meant multiple resignations, quorum blocking, and endless and ongoing fights during (and after) school board meetings.

The drama this week has included board members feeling threatened by each other, an alleged near miss in a parking lot, and accusations of racism, white supremacy, and even accusations of critics being race traitors on the local social media.

Comment by Glock21 Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 9:03 am
Oh no, Republican fearmongering about Democrats and communism is coming true (it just took many decades). Pritzker has released his five year economic plan. Command economy. /s

Comment by Grandson of Man Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 9:29 am
People here are still lamenting the layoffs at WIU, although I have yet to hear Macomb officials discuss publicly how they will manage the effects. In reality, lots of Universities are in fact laying off faculty and making serious fiscal cuts. The solution to temporal declining enrollment (yes, population trends are temporal in the long-run) and hence declining tuition revenues. is increased state appropriations, not layoffs and program elimination.

In the long run, if high school students can afford to attend, they will. This is why the Pell Grants and Stafford Loans of the 1960s were so successful. I was able to attend Virginia Tech for $1,800 annually in the late 1970s - tuition, fees, room and board. Education became affordable, and people responded. Illinois can make education desirable, but must make it affordable at the consumer level of analysis.

Comment by H-W Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 9:33 am
Rain washes out final harness racing. Biden cutting out Rx costs washes out GOPie Day gloom talk

Comment by Annonin' Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 9:52 am
From the looks of the schedules for Gov’s Day and IlGOP Day at State Fair there is a lot less programming then in the past.

Comment by Annon3 Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 10:00 am
H-W: I agree with some of your points, but I think the state needs to prepare for a world where the public university enrollments never recover. Lots of reasons but I think potential students now see the benefits as not worthy of the costs.

I was also in college in the 70s and yes, those prices look great now. But the state and the feds need to substantially upgrade their support for today’s kids to have the same advantages we did.

Comment by Friendly Bob Adams Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 10:25 am
==but I think potential students now see the benefits as not worthy of the costs==

I think that’s exactly right. More and more students aren’t seeing a return on investment and they don’t want to go into crippling debt for a degree that may not do them any good. In my opinion there needs to be just as much or more focus on the trades as opposed to college.

Comment by Demoralized Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 10:28 am
==but I think potential students now see the benefits as not worthy of the costs==

Meanwhile the U of I in Champaign/Urbana offered existing students $2000 to move out of dorms so they could accommodate a larger than expected freshman class. The College of ACES is growing each year and has their biggest incoming class since the 90’s.

I’m a WIU grad. Love Macomb and Western. But for directionals to thrive if not survive, they have to be a strong value play. Tons of people still want to go to college. But many of them see how expensive it all is, so might as well try and level up if you can.

So draw away a few hundred kids from land grant schools and other places by making directionals the strong value play. Illinois needs a drastic reframing of higher ed, lets be among the first to do it.

Comment by Cool Papa Bell Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 10:37 am
White Sox dropping season ticket prices in 2025 by an average of 10%

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/40864100/struggling-white-sox-drop-season-ticket-prices-2025

Comment by Webster Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 12:12 pm
@Grandson:
Glad you noticed that JB and DCEO have updated their five-year plan for economic growth called “Open for Business.” I hope you get a chance to read it.

It is about creating a more positive environment for private sector companies to succeed in Illinois. It focuses on our natural strengths and current successes to encourage private companies to choose and grow in Illinois. It is surprisingly entrepreneurial in approach.

Your comment about “command economy” actual.y made me laugh out loud.

Comment by walker Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 12:45 pm
===Tons of people still want to go to college.===

Yep. And we don’t even need to pry them away from U of I. There are plenty of folks who go out of state for college who could be talked into staying or choosing a public school over private, plus we could bring in students from out-of-state. So much to be gained from strategic investments in our public universities, while also promoting our trade programs at community colleges.

Comment by thechampaignlife Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 2:59 pm
Note to GOP…move toward the light.

The public has had it’s fill of gloom and doom naysayers who don’t support democracy.

Comment by Dotnonymous x Thursday, Aug 15, 24 @ 3:16 pm