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Chicago Public Schools are in a cash crunch. Hundreds of teaching jobs could be cut, meaning class sizes would rise. Some special programs are also in jeopardy. Public school officials put next year’s budget deficit at $175 million. Consequently, some Chicago Public Schools teachers are cutting class Wednesday and heading for Springfield to ask legislators for more money. […]

Illinois ranks 49th out of 50 states when it comes to funding education. Teachers are organizing a huge lobbying campaign to convince state lawmakers that more money is needed now. If not, Chicago Public Schools says huge cuts at all schools are necessary.

Go here for an explanation of the title of this post. (Emphasis mine.)

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Apr 12, 05 @ 5:25 pm

Comments

Is it the “big lie” technique again being used to hype tax increases?

Rich, “Illinois ranks 49th out of 50 states when it comes to funding education,” may or may not be correct if you consider only state aid to education.

It is certainly a falsehood concerning where Illinois ranks among the state when taxes–both state and local–paid by Illinois residents are taken into account.

Your web site is the third time I have seen or heard this sales pitch today. WGN-TV made the same mistake at noon and ABC’s Channel 7 so at 6.

Is this a liberal media conspriacy or just poor reporting?

Comment by Cal Skinner Tuesday, Apr 12, 05 @ 6:27 pm
Cal, did you bother to follow the explanatory link at the bottom? I thought not.

Do you have a right-wing bias or are you just a poor reader?

Take a deep breath and think before you post again here. Your knee-jerk reactions get old after awhile.

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Apr 12, 05 @ 6:37 pm
Pwn3d!

Comment by IlliniPundit Tuesday, Apr 12, 05 @ 6:44 pm
Notice to blog posse: I’ve got to leave for several hours, so please watch this post. Skinner’s past could bring out the worst in people.

Notice to commenters: Stay within the lines on this one please.

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Apr 12, 05 @ 6:46 pm
CTA….needs money
Cook County Hospital….needs money
Schools…need money
Parks…need money
Cook County Jail…needs money
Tollways…need money

Did I forget any?

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Apr 12, 05 @ 6:47 pm
pwn3d

1: Losing badly at something

2: l337 (online) slang for ‘owned’

3: The mis-spelling of ‘owned’

4: Getting showed up/embarressed in a public event by someone/something
Example for 1:
Ryan loses to Brian
Brian: “Hahaha, you got PWN3D!”

Example for 2:
“omfg d00d i pwn3d him cuz i r r0xx0rzz”

Example for 3:
“And then I pwn3d him at Halo”
“Whoops, I mean owned”

Example for 4:
Person A: “I spent a long time writing the entire script to Harry Potter”
Person B: “Yeah, I downloaded it off the internet too”
Person C: “PWN3D!”

Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, Apr 12, 05 @ 6:49 pm
Rod was for School Choice “vouchers” when he was a state rep

I think it makes a lot of sense especially with a lot of the Catholic and other private school closings

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Apr 12, 05 @ 6:53 pm
The CPS can be just like all the other school districts in IL & push for more state funding, but if tax increases are in going to be in play to make it occur, it’s really, really unlikely to happen.

This last (April, 2005) election for local units of government has really shaken a number of people who will be up for election in 2006. The number of incumbents who got tossed out of office across the state is just amazing (across party lines, also).

The number of local referendums put on the ballot & the percentage that ended up passing was just pitiful.

Talking to a number of local election officials (County Clerks, who btw are up in 2006) has told me that many of the folks up for election in 2006 are extremely worried that this “toss out the incumbents” approach that we saw in April, 2005 is just the starting swell of what they feel could become a tsunami for the 2006 elections.

If that’s the case, all these interest groups wanting more state funding can start scheduling all the protests & rallies down in Springpatch that they want, and it will make no difference. NOBODY will be willing to stick their neck out on higher taxes.

Note: There’s one consideration that needs to be taken into account. Turnout tended to be low (high 30’s to low 40’s was the best I heard, with most running in upper 20’s to mid 30’s), and the same results might not happen with higher turnout. But THAT’S going to be a serious sell job to the Senators & Rep’s who get to vote on any tax increases.

Just my .02

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Apr 12, 05 @ 7:50 pm
It’s not just the CTU that’s coing to town tomorrow, folks, it’s the whole gang…this clip from the IEA website:

..coalition of unions and institutions will converge on the Illinois State Capitol on April 13, 2005, to lobby for increased state funding to Illinois higher education and preservation of the SURS pension plan. Please join IEA faculty and staff from throughout the state and IFT, AFSCME, AFL-CIO, UPI, SEIU, IBHE, ICCB and others on Lobby Day.

Hmmm….guess they’re not worried about their own money and pensions.

Comment by NumbersGuy Tuesday, Apr 12, 05 @ 8:25 pm
2: l337 (online) slang for ‘owned’

I thought ‘1337′ was slang for ‘’leet’ — from ‘elite.’

Comment by Anonymous Wednesday, Apr 13, 05 @ 12:07 pm
Rich- I saw the show. I heard what WLS said. It was your repeating and emphasizing it without any qualification that bothered me.

You did not indicate that you were quoting Channel 7’story. I certainly thought you were asserting it was a fact. Was that your intent?

The Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, State University of New York, says that Illinois ranks 42nd as far as State (only) Government Total Elementary and Education Expenditures in FY 2000 go.

We ranked 13th in FY 2000 for “State and Local Total Elementary and Education Expenditures.”

That certainly does not seem to indicate that Illinois taxpayers are as poorly financing local schools as the ranks 49th reference.

Comment by Cal Skinner Wednesday, Apr 13, 05 @ 12:56 pm
Cal–I think this is an important point–though i’m not vouching for a particular number. The issue to me is how do you reduce the disparity between really well off districts and innner ring suburbs and rural areas that are underfunded. The difference between total and just state level funding identifies the basic problem.

The politics problem then is how do you reduce the disparity and bring a fair level of funding to those rural and inner ring suburban communities? Most see the solution as a tax swap, and a hold harmless for those wealthier districts that results in a general increase in state spending.

I’m all for making wealthy districts pay more of their own share if their local citizens prefer it, but I don’t know how else to pass a bill to reduce disparity and leave them behind.

Comment by ArchPundit Wednesday, Apr 13, 05 @ 5:38 pm
Disparity is a completely different question.

The General Assembly passed legislation in 1973 to acheive this goal. That resource equalizer forumla said each school district would get the same amount of money to spend for each student. I voted for the bill. (I wonder how my constituents would have reacted, if they had known what the bill was supposed to do.)

Dual districts–like where I live–were supposed to cut their property tax rates, but, guess what?

They didn’t.

The educational establishment was not satisfied with the bill and kept putting in hold harmless legislation that prevented equalization.

That history makes me fairly pessimistic that equalization will ever occur.

For the goal of equalization to be achieved, it seems to me that money will have to be taken from the better off districts and given to those less well off. That probably would mean no state aid to eduction to lots of suburban districts, even if a regional cost of living adjustment were included.

If taken to the equality extreme that I thought would occur with the 1973 law, Illinois would probably have to follow the example of states (like Texas?) in which the better off districts get nothing in state aid and the state takes part of the local property tax and redistributes it to the poorer districts.

Somehow, I doubt that can be sold legislatively with Democrats representing so many well to do suburbs.

Comment by Cal Skinner Wednesday, Apr 13, 05 @ 9:36 pm
Rod has no real plan and has done nothing.
All flash signifying nothing.

Comment by Anonymous Friday, Apr 15, 05 @ 12:40 am