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Seeing through the haze

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Illinois

* More like this, please…

Most insulting to voters’ intelligence is the special session to address education funding. Blagojevich, ever the factual contortionist, probably plans to somehow blame the state’s education funding crisis on Madigan from a stage at the Illinois State Fair after Tuesday’s special session.

In fact, Blagojevich is the reason there have been no reforms in the disgraceful way education is funded in this state because of his refusal to consider an increase in the income taxes.

Actually, Blagojevich already did blame Madigan for the problem, even though the governor has only once offered any real ideas on rethinking how the state should fund education. And what was that? A gross receipts tax and gaming expansion.

* More from the editorial…

The sad irony of the current feud pitting Blagojevich and Jones against Madigan is that in their hearts, Madigan and Jones probably agree that a tax swap is the right solution for the state’s schools.

But Jones chooses to be Blagojevich’s chief enabler, a sad choice by a man who once seemed to want his legacy to be fixing the state’s education funding problem once and for all.

The really “sad choice” was made last year, after the governor’s reelection, when the time was ripe to wipe away decades of inaction. Instead, the governor’s massive GRT proposal - and Jones’ support for it - poisoned the waters. Jones had his shot to forever enshrine himself as the father of education funding reform and he blew it.

* Kadner weighs in…

[Blagojevich is] calling the special session primarily to embarrass his political rival, House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago), whom the governor contends is planning an income tax increase after the November election.

As for Senate President Emil Jones (D-Chicago), he’s talked a lot about the need for school funding reform but has never allowed Meeks to get his bill on the Senate floor for a vote.
State Sen. Debbie Halvorson (D-Crete) has never been an activist in the school reform movement that had its birth in the south suburbs.

Now she’s running for Congress. Will Jones, her mentor, force Halvorson to take a position on such a controversial issue when any vote will surely be used by her Republican opponent during the campaign?

Good point. Anytime a Majority Leader tries to move up the political ladder, every legislative action can be pinned right to her lapel.

* And Sen. James Meeks talks about how he was burned by Gov. Blagojevich on the Lottery sale, an education funding promise the governor used to get Meeks out of the 2006 gubernatorial race and then forgot about after the election…

“He never discussed with me why he let it drop,” Meeks said. “He never said, ‘I made this promise to you, but I can’t keep it.’ I just had to suffer embarrassment in front of all my colleagues, and I had to listen to reporters in Springfield tell me that I got the shaft.”

“Meeks should feel betrayed by his colleagues in the General Assembly” who have not OK’d any of Blagojevich’s school-funding plans, gubernatorial spokesman Lucio Guerrero said.

But it’s Blagojevich who has created the poisonous atmosphere of mistrust in which the legislature will convene in special sessions next week to consider his other, other lottery-lease idea (this time it’s to help pay for a $25 billion construction plan) and to address school-funding reform.

Exactly.

* Related…

* Tribune: In return for more money …

* Hey, New Trier: Solve this crisis

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Aug 7, 08 @ 9:11 am

Comments

This next week is going to be very interesting, between the traffic safety move, the special sessions, Pontiac prison hearings. How much lower can blago’s ratings get?

Comment by IDOT Guy Thursday, Aug 7, 08 @ 9:18 am
It is interesting seeing how much damage this is doing to the Democratic Party. It was not really noted here that once again, Blago implied that people should not vote for House Dems (his comments about a tax hike vote after November).

As an admitted Democratic, I have to say that I no longer care about Halvorsen’s race. If she loses, she had it coming. Any Democratic State Senator who carries the load for Emil has it coming. Other than my own State Senator who I continue to respect [and my former State Senator who now is some sort of rock star, or so I’ve heard), I’ve lost faith in any of the Dems in the Illinois Senate. Nice work, Emil. Let’s annoy the people who live in neighborhoods where people can write the checks. Nice strategy.

We effectively have three parties in Illinois: Madigan, Blago/Emil, and the GOP. At some point, people like Durbin and Daley and Alexi are going to have to take sides.

Comment by Skeeter Thursday, Aug 7, 08 @ 9:20 am
Skeeter-

Not to mention the Greens.

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Thursday, Aug 7, 08 @ 9:24 am
Six,

You are right. They have a better chance of winning statewide than the GOP.

The three are (in order of strength/likelihood to actually win votes):

1. Madigan;

2. Blago/Emil;

3. Greens.

4. ILGOP (a fringe party, but worthy of mention)

Comment by Skeeter Thursday, Aug 7, 08 @ 9:28 am
I’m hoping Blagojevich’s Tutu comment yesterday will backfire. Hopefully, Daley will step up and suggest (calmly) that he (Daley) isn’t clear on who’s “oppressing” whom.

It’d be a nice dig at Blagojevich’s narcissistic “clarity.”

Comment by Macbeth Thursday, Aug 7, 08 @ 9:30 am
Its nice to see a reporter note Jones probably supports a tax swap. It would be nice to see more media coverage discussing the Gov’s anti-tax increase rampage mention Jones previous support for the idea of an inc tax increase. This point still seems to get lost a lot in the mix.

There is no way the legislature shoudl ever pass a capital bill. The Gov recent proclomation that he is going to rewrite bills means the legislature can not put in any type of language designed to limit the Gov or control how he handles this huge pot, becuase the Gov will just re-write it to do wrong. Further the prospect of having this Gov 25 Bill in funds which he can hold or dispers for projects based upon support for his programs is like handing him a ginat revovler to hold at the temples of every legislative leader. Want to see money and construction in your district, then you better support my intiative X.

Comment by Ghost Thursday, Aug 7, 08 @ 9:34 am
Rich-What is your e mail? I’d like to send you a short video you may want to post.

Comment by Orland (D) Thursday, Aug 7, 08 @ 9:39 am
Why didn’t Meeks press the Governor for an answer to his question? He should have camped outside the Governor’s office until he got one. Instead he just gave up and acted the martyr.

Comment by One of the 35 Thursday, Aug 7, 08 @ 9:47 am
Skeeter-

Shouldn’t the Madigan wing be counted as ILGOP? The governor says he’s a Republican.

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Thursday, Aug 7, 08 @ 9:51 am
Why can’t we educate students at more than 7500 bucks a piece?

Could it be more than just money?

Comment by Super Anon Thursday, Aug 7, 08 @ 9:52 am
Of course it’s more than money. But something that is too often ignored by suburbanites and downstaters is you have a whole lot of kids who come from dysfunctional, violent, gang-filled neighborhoods and families. Teaching them requires more resources and imagination. Instead, they are forced to attend dysfunctional, broken-down violent schools.

Open your eyes.

Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Aug 7, 08 @ 9:59 am
McQueary’s column is rampant with envy and jealousy, and short on logic. If we all want what New Trier, or any other well-funded school district, has, then why villify them because they have it?

Plenty of school districts outside of northeastern Illinois, maybe most, do not have anywhere near the local resources to provide the kind of educational opportunity that the more well-heeled districts provide. Perhaps the issue is more apparent in the south suburbs and Chicago because of the proximity of poor vs. rich districts. Students from outside the northeastern quandrant don’t face the disparity until their sports teams arrive at state tournaments in yellow buses and the other teams arrive in Sceni-cruisers, or until they hit college with maybe 2 or 3 AP classes under their belts and their roommates have 6 or 7.

Certainly Chicago and other legislators have not demanded more from their school districts in terms of teacher quality, or responsible parental involvement, or the entrenched obstruction of the educational associations that foster the status quo. Money is not the only solution. A community that truly is involved and demanding with its school’s performance will have a better school and better students than a community that does not. You have to value education first, before you say you are not getting your money’s worth.

Comment by Captain Flume Thursday, Aug 7, 08 @ 9:59 am
“For the poor will never cease to be in the land; therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall freely open your hand to your brother, to your needy and poor in your land.” (Deuteronomy 15:11)

Yes, money is not the answer in and of itself. But how many of the abundantly blessed have ventured out beyond their comfortable environs and tried to make a difference for those who do without?

Comment by Six Degrees of Separation Thursday, Aug 7, 08 @ 10:10 am
Rich, yesterday you mentioned in the Cap Fax that Michigan now has a more (or totally) sales tax reliant system to fund their education programs. How has that worked? I for one would support a bigger sales tax increase to find education - as opposed to property or income tax increase.

The only problem with a high sales tax is the negative connotation it brings. Would people still spend the same amount when it comes to taxable, big ticket items like cars, electronics, furniture, etc.? That is one ardent argument AGAINST the national sales tax.

Comment by Team Sleep Thursday, Aug 7, 08 @ 10:13 am
Those after school programs are pretty darn impressive. I remeber jessie White discussiin how such programs can signifcatly impact in a positive way the direction kids go with their lives.

Porgrams on sculpture, theater, music not only expose kids to creativity and open up carrerr paths, they increase test scores for LSAT/SAT etc. Increased exposure like thos eprograms at the welathy schools helps broden kids geenral knowledge base and vocabulary, as-well-as teaching creative and critical thinking amd intorducing possible carreer paths. I guarnatee that if you put those same programs into the inner city schools you would see a decrease in violence and an increase in grades and test scores.

Comment by Ghost Thursday, Aug 7, 08 @ 10:13 am
TS, it hasn’t gone well. Their budget is busted.

But the beauty of state government is you can take the best parts of another state’s ideas and try to avoid their mistakes.

Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Aug 7, 08 @ 10:17 am
What is really insulting is the continuing complaint that revenue is the only problem holding back a quality education from the poorer residents of Illinois.

There is a lot of blame to go around. Daley’s unwillingness to fund education, the greed of the educational establishment….. It is convenient to blame the rich, whoever they are.

McQueary’s argument relating to a percentage of a family’s income going toward a particular expense is nothing more than a class envy argument. Middle class families spend a smaller percentage of their income on basics than the poor families. Do we condemn them as well?

If anything, the article makes the case for a voucher system. The money spent on a so called inferior education in a public school would easily pay for a parochial school tuition with money left over.

Take a look at the success of the PAVE program in Milwaukee. They have proven that a voucher system provides better educational opportunities for economically disadvantaged students than any funding increase to the public school system

Comment by Plutocrat03 Thursday, Aug 7, 08 @ 10:22 am
Meeks should take a look at the record on school funding reform. There is one chamber who did approve the tax swap once, it was the IL House under Madigan, with Edgar’s promise to sign it.

His close friend Emil Jones has never helped him pass it since he got his super majority. Jones’ friendship with the Governor has done nothing but hurt school funding. Meeks should be protesting somewhere else indeed!

Comment by Soy Milk - Formerly Known As Napoleon has left the building Thursday, Aug 7, 08 @ 10:43 am
Milwaukee’s system has not proven that. What it has done is let selective schools skim the best students so that the worst students who can’t get selected are all that is left in the neighborhood public schools. Public education in America should not be a meritocracy. It should provide equal opportunity for all. The state should adequately fund neighborhood public schools. State money should not be spent on religious schools. Parents already have that choice if their students can get in and they have the money to pay tuition.

Comment by Bill Thursday, Aug 7, 08 @ 10:44 am
He called a special session so all the Chicago based state employees can come to Springfield on the state dime and participate in Governor’s Day. He can also host a capital rally with labor to boost attendance. It is all about building a friendly crowd in a hostile environment.

Comment by Reality 1 Thursday, Aug 7, 08 @ 10:54 am
For starters, Mike Madigan is so many chess moves ahead of Blago that it’s laughable. Most reasonably intelligent people would realize by now they have been soundly whupped.

Secondly, with an approval rating of 13 percent (the last time it was taken and could perhaps be lower now), if I were Blago I’d be preparing for an exit strategy, something that could take my approval rating to oh say between 13.5 and 14 percent before leaving office in January 2010 (or before).

Comment by Little Egypt Thursday, Aug 7, 08 @ 11:02 am
I had the misfortune of listening to Rev. Meeks sermon yesterday where he lambasted white folks and said we still have Jim Crow laws ect. I know his rhetoric is to enflame the passions of his flock but he is doing it at the expense of others who struggle to make ends meet and struggle to send their children to good schools the same as the black community.

All the money in the world would not solve school problems when gangs run the neighborhoods. He can huff and puff till his head explodes and it won’t do any good. Administering a comprehensive plan that deals with the issues facing impoverished and gang controlled areas is what is necessary and that is only possible when you have good will from the entire community.

Of course, it doesn’t help that the Governor bald face lied to him about sky’s the limit funding to back him off, but the good Rev should realize that not everybody is Blago and move on. There are a lot of people of all races who don’t like to see kids suffer.

Do what you have to do Rev. but knock off the BS.

Comment by Phineas J. Whoopee Thursday, Aug 7, 08 @ 11:13 am
It’s an “UP” day when there’s not much talk about Blago’s legal problems. Nice diversion Dudley.

Comment by Little Egypt Thursday, Aug 7, 08 @ 11:21 am
Bill

I count it a win when a child from a poor family gets their tuition paid to attend a school where they can succeed. (By the way PAVE is all private donations)

How may children do you want to sacrifice at the altar of the bloated education system we have today in Illinois? If we had a voucher system, parents would be empowered to move their children to places where learning is more important than the shambles of the system we have today.

Tot Rich’s ‘open your eye’ comment

Folks all around the state are funding schools outside of their own. Look at the state contribution to Chicago schools and compare it to what the vast majority of the other districts get. The per capita contribution from the state is far higher to the City of Chicago. Furthermore, I challenge people to make contributions to institutions such as St. Martin de Porres High School in Waukegan who are making a difference in the lives of hundreds of kids.

The answer does not lie in the failed state educational system.

Comment by Plutocrat03 Thursday, Aug 7, 08 @ 11:48 am
It’s not just Chicago. Unit 4 here in Champaign has a pitiful record–so much so that people are moving to many of the surrounding small town for their school systems. We’re also operating under a federal consent decree that hasn’t helped at all. And, of course, our school board and adminsitration’s solution is more money–if more money were the solution, we’d be able to spend our way out of the educational problems that we have in this state and country, and so far, that hasn’t happened.

Comment by ChampaignDweller Thursday, Aug 7, 08 @ 11:56 am
Bill, your reparts are unsupported and come directly from the IEA playbook.

Let the public schools compete for the vouchers (funny, that is what the charter schools do and you do not complain about that.)

Anyway, BBill you have all those super teachers and fewer studends with lower class sizes and you can even pay your teachers more, because each school will get back the overage between the voucher amount and the full per pupil payment from Federal, State, and local sources.

If the PPP is calculated at $10K and the voucher is $7.5K that mean that the publics get $2.5K for every student who is vouchered out, just to keep their records.

Now that is a win win situation, it seems to me. But perhaps the union math skills is on the same level as the students.

Or, Bill, is it just because you love the union closed shop monopoly which has been failing everybody for three generations?

Comment by Truthful James Thursday, Aug 7, 08 @ 12:07 pm
Oooo. Don’t tag Bill with the “IEA.” Bad move. lol

Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Aug 7, 08 @ 12:24 pm
Plutocrat03, those fancy vouchers come with some kind of teleportation device to get the kids to school? becuase the current school bus transporatation system does not; many parents who are struggling with things like food lack their own cars or the funds to drive the kids to and from school every day (especially with gas prices as they are now) or the scheudle to do so (particuarly if your a single parent. Not to mention how will those shiny vouchers deal with late day, headstart and after school programs in the schools getting new kids and in the schools for the left behinds.

Vouchers primarily help only the middle class and detratc from finding real solutions to the problems. If a different school has what you want for your kids, public or private, then maybe the solution should be an attempt to get all schools to follow the model of the one being sought then to avoid the problems with the current schools by shifting a few kids around. Vouchers are a shell game with students not a solution to problems with schools.

Comment by Ghost Thursday, Aug 7, 08 @ 12:55 pm
There you go again, Truthful, being untruthful. Since you asked, the charter school scam is one of the most odious attempts at privatization of public services. Like most of these attempts they usually cost more and perform worse than their public counterparts. The teachers do not have to meet state certification requirements, the schools do not have to follow state curriculum. They cost more, and, more often than not, have poorer performance on standardized measurements than the public schools.
They do, however, generate campaign contributions from the companies that run them to political candidates and are a great source of jobs for usually unqualified cronies. The poor performance of most charter schools is the best agrument yet against vouchers.
The “union closed shop monopoly” is rhetoric from the far right that is meaningless in public education. The school districts, not the IEA, hire the teachers. IEA membership is not a requirement for continued employment. What the IEA does do, and not very well, in my opinion, is insure that teachers rights as defined by law are upheld and that the highly trained subject matter experts who devote themselves to educating our children are able to eke out a lower middle class existence.
By the way, I’ve never read the IEA playbook but if this is what it says, I’m glad that they finally got something right.

Comment by Bill Thursday, Aug 7, 08 @ 1:14 pm
Fundamentally, this debate is so out of touch with the reality in the world right now that I do not know where to begin. This woman I am sure is a hardworking journalist who has built a good career and has a lot of integrity, but this column is a total disservice and it only fans the flames of ignorance.

-We could do without the nonsense about rowing (that would be crew) or lax (that is lacrosse) funding, you only undermine your own credibility with potshots there.

-The real big issue right now whether you are a parent in highland park, Homewood Flossmoor or wherever is competing in the global economy and the realization that the caliber of education your child gets is a major factor into how well he or she will do in it. It is a knowledge economy, built around what you can bring.

-That and that alone has to be the central starting point. We need to look at education from a global perspective and say how we flat get our kids the best educated, the way parents in shanghai, Silicon Valley, and Seoul want as well.

-Further, for her to say that somehow things are all roses education wise in the New England part of the state shows a total lack of reporting or understanding. Paying gym teachers six figures is repulsive, when you are not blowing the rest of the state out on test scores.

-Finally I just want to say how angry and upset I am as a Republican that our party leadership has let it come to this. Andy McKenna is from the New Trier area, which even during the Democrat era of the 1950’s and early 60’s sent people like Don Rumsfeld and Charles Percy to the national stage. There is no excuse for not standing up and fighting right now. I am sick of watching Democrats screw up and then hear if I do, from my party leaders about random New York congressmen, or political rhetoric from the Walter Payton era.

Comment by done Thursday, Aug 7, 08 @ 2:23 pm
Bill, as a basic matter, why are there inequities in the collegiate systems then? Shouldn’t they then be on equal footing and receive the same increase in terms of percentage as elementary and secondary schools?

Colleges and universities educate our best and brightest and have been absolutely picked apart during budget negotiations and cuts. Shouldn’t elementary and secondary schools receive the same scrutiny and abuse?

At some point, the upper half in the educational system gets weeded out from the rest. That’s not unfair; it’s life.

Continual blind increases and giving into the requests of the IEA, IFT and public school administrators and their school boards is not the best way to reform the system. If vouchers are at least an idea, we should try it. We’ve tried other avenues that haven’t worked. Why not that?

Comment by Team Sleep Thursday, Aug 7, 08 @ 2:37 pm
Senator Meeks must have been the only person in the state who believed Blago would keep his word.

Comment by Loyal Whig Thursday, Aug 7, 08 @ 2:53 pm
Bill, Bill, Bill,

The biggest scam of all re: education is the monopoly quality and the monopoly pricing of “Government schools.”

Someday, I hope you, Meeks, Martire, DJW, Zorn, or some other defender of the expensive and counter-productive status quo takes me up on my offer to debate either of you in a public forum in Illinois.

The system you defend is indefensible.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this YouTube tidbit.

Comment by Bruno Behrend Thursday, Aug 7, 08 @ 3:06 pm
[…] This is especially appropriate for the discussion taking place over at Capitol Fax at the moment. Of course, you WILL be tested on the subject matter. […]

Pingback by The argument for school choice | Extreme Wisdom Thursday, Aug 7, 08 @ 3:08 pm
I had hoped that one of the participants might have read

“Obtaining an Efficient System for Educational Development in Ilinois”

posted April 23rd on my blog

www.truthfuljames.blogspot.com

There are other postings as well, all in reverse date order.

The problem is three sided.

But it will never be solved if we expect equality of results from all students as the solution. We have to prepare our students for entry level jobs and inculcate in them the idea of interclass mobility. That last is the hardest, for it comes mainly from the family and its objectives for their children.

The best example is that of the Asian immigrants who came here with intact families and emphasized the familial duty to make up for the current sacrifices of the parent on behalf od their children.

At the same time we must stop the flow of illegal aliens who are taking the jobs that our entry level workers must have. Yes, they are willing to work for less and the goods and services that are produced in their absence will cost more. But that is part of the fabric of the Republic. Indeed, the public costs of undocumented aliens is a substitute drain on our resources which we are paying today.

These immigrant rights movements are a cover for illegal aliens and provide political capital to aldermen seeking reelection.

At the same time the attempts of recruiting legal workers at otherwise hard to fill jobs is laughable. Want ads in rural Iowa are no substitute for advertisements in, say, the Chicago Tribune or the Defender.

Comment by Truthful James Thursday, Aug 7, 08 @ 3:23 pm
Kristen McQueary has written a lot of fine articles; this is not one of them.

Was this ghost-written by Mary Mitchell?

Comment by Economist Friday, Aug 8, 08 @ 5:28 pm