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* From the AP…
A state commission studying education spending says Illinois school districts can save hundreds of millions of dollars without being forced to consolidate.
The Classrooms First Commission claims districts could save up to $1 billion simply by studying each other’s budgets to find new ideas for cutting costs.
The study will be released today. I suppose one might say that if schools could save a billion dollars without consolidation, couldn’t they also save even more if several consolidated? Well, maybe not…
The commission found that mass consolidation would cost state taxpayers nearly $4 billion up front under current law. A more cost-effective approach would be to eliminate or modify state regulations that discourage districts from voluntarily consolidating. At least 40 districts were in the process of or considering such realignments in the past year, according to the report.
* From NBC5…
In 2011, the GA spent a total of 96 days in session. (And 22 were “perfunctory days,” during which little business was done.) Legislators also receive $132 a day stipend just for showing up in Springfield. That means our senators and representatives were paid $838.63 a week extra for doing their jobs. I’ve never had a part-time job that paid $838 a week.
Can somebody please help me with that math? Plus, nobody gets stipends for perfunctory days.
Also, the headline says it’s $838 a day.
* From the Tribune’s Medicaid story…
While Republicans look at the situation as a chance to finally rein in runaway costs, Democrats are looking to offset the need for some cuts through a cigarette tax hike. Lawmakers say the idea was first floated last week by Julie Hamos, Quinn’s director of the Department of Healthcare and Family Services, which administers Medicaid.
It’s estimated the $1-a-pack increase would generate about $700 million for health care when federal matching dollars are added in, said Sen. Heather Steans, of Chicago, who is leading Medicaid negotiations for the Senate Democrats. The extra money would reduce the amount that needs to be cut to around $2 billion.
Steans acknowledged that raising taxes on cigarettes would be a difficult sell during an election year in which every House and Senate seat is on the November ballot. But she said the extra money might appeal to some lawmakers as an alternative to slashing reimbursement rates for doctors and hospitals that provide services, with many already waiting up to six months to be paid by the state.
“More money means more spending,” said [Republican Sen. Dale Righter, of Mattoon], the Medicaid point person for Senate Republicans. “They’re going to use the new money to lessen the pressure to make cuts in the program and make the program more efficient.”
Righter said a higher tax on cigarettes will exacerbate a trend in which fewer cigarettes are being sold, a problem that would hurt Illinois in the long run because money to help pay Medicaid costs would come from a declining revenue source.
You could say that the Dems want to use the tax hike money to avoid making cuts, but you could also say the Dems want to use the cig tax hike cash to avoid doing real damage to the system as a whole. But an election year tax hike won’t be easy to do, to say the least.
* A mock strike vote and a real strike vote are entirely different animals, but this is quite fascinating…
Teachers at more than 200 Chicago schools overwhelmingly favor a plan to walk off the job in protest, Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis said Monday.
Lewis said a number of schools have taken “mock strike votes,” and the majority favor work stoppage.
Keep in mind that it now takes a 75 percent majority (of members, not just of those voting) to approve a Chicago school strike…
NBC Chicago has received the results from the following high schools, with the percentages indicating teachers in favor of a work stoppage:
Von Steuben: 94 percent
Steinmetz: 96 percent
Sullivan: 95 percent
Senn: 95 percent
Uplift: 89 percent
Mather: 96 percent
Northside Learning Center: 80 percent
Kelvyn Park: 86 percent
Chicago Academy: 85 percent
Northside College Prep: 96 percent
Lane: 93 percent
Juarez: 96 percent
Kelly: 94 percent
Curie: 86 percent
Yikes.
…Adding… From Crain’s…
With efforts to reach a compromise on the tax-exempt status of nonprofit hospitals at an apparent standstill, five downstate hospitals recently withdrew their administrative applications from the Illinois Department of Revenue, leaving 20 requests still pending.
The remaining applications included tax-exempt status requests for Children’s Memorial Hospital’s new Streeterville tower, NorthShore University HealthSystem’s Skokie campus, and Elmhurst Memorial Healthcare’s new hospital in Elmhurst, according to a list provided by the Revenue Department.
Gov. Pat Quinn on March 1 directed the Revenue Department to resume issuing decisions on tax-exempt applications after efforts to reach a compromise stalled. Now the battle has shifted to the General Assembly, where the Illinois Hospital Association is conducting a lobbying campaign to expand what counts as charity to prevent hospitals from having to pay property taxes.
Among those medical centers withdrawing applications is Trinity Regional Health System, which was pursuing tax-exempt status for its hospital in Moline, about 165 miles west of Chicago, along the Mississippi River.
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Apr 17, 12 @ 11:45 am
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The law requires 75% of members, not %75 of those voting. So the bar is even higher. These test results do not indicate how many eligible members voted and are therefore meaningless.
Comment by Aristotle Tuesday, Apr 17, 12 @ 11:49 am
Stipends: I’ve never had a part-time job that required me to secure lodging 200 miles from my home.
Comment by Dave Dahl Tuesday, Apr 17, 12 @ 11:55 am
If they want a strike and they are unhappy with their jobs : they should consider working somewhere else. CPS can fill their jobs with little problem because of their excellent starting pay and benefits. There is a reserve army of potential teachers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/20/nyregion/20teachers.html?pagewanted=all
Comment by Steve Bartin Tuesday, Apr 17, 12 @ 12:00 pm
“Can somebody please help me with that math?”
$67,836/96 = $706.63 + $132 = $838 per DAY.
or
(67,836 + 132*72)/96 = $805 pre day
or, if the perfuncotries don’t really count
67,836/72 + 132 = $1,074 per day.
AND:
NEVER EVER EVER forget the pesnion they voted for themselves. Or their FREE retiree health insurance.
So, as an all-in package of compensation, it’s WAY over $1,000 per “working” day, hoever you calculate it.
Comment by Chris Tuesday, Apr 17, 12 @ 12:13 pm
Well Steve, they don’t want to strike, and are generally happy with their jobs. They do want to negotiate with their employers instead of having things shoved down their throats unilaterally, which is the favored approach of your ilk.
Comment by PublicServant Tuesday, Apr 17, 12 @ 12:14 pm
RE Steve Bartin- Yeah, fire them all, replace teachers with years of experience with kids right out of college who think they can work until they are 67 (new pension rules) without going insane. By the way, when you talk about those good-paying jobs, be sure to forget about all of the unreimbursed out-of-pocket expenses.
My wife retired after 33 years of teaching partially because of health problems due to having to hold it all day, stress, and hip problems.
Teaching used to be a respected good job, but my granddaughter is being told to forget teaching; go into something with a better future.
I actually don’t know what the problem is in Chicago, but those kind of votes should tell someone that there is a problem….
Comment by downstate commissioner Tuesday, Apr 17, 12 @ 12:17 pm
===but those kind of votes should tell someone that there is a problem===
Not necessarily. It was a mock strike vote, meaning the 90+% figures reflect the votes of those who attended the meetings to talk about striking, not the entire teaching staff. Forget these percentages until they give out the actual number of votes per school.
In other words, if 10 teachers out of 100 at a school showed up for the mock strike vote, and 9 voted to strike, the numbers above would say 90% of the teachers at that school favored a strike. In fact, 90% of the teachers at that school didn’t attend the meeting as far as we can tell at this point.
Thus the title of the post.
Comment by 47th Ward Tuesday, Apr 17, 12 @ 12:24 pm
The problem in Chicago is Rahm Emanuel trying to bust up the teachers union.
Comment by Cheryl44 Tuesday, Apr 17, 12 @ 12:27 pm
I am from downstate, so every legislator I know personally are full-time legislators. Session is only part of the job. The real work happens in the district.
If you eliminated pay, per-diem, and benefits for legislators, then only the wealthy could afford to be legislators.
Comment by Old Shepherd Tuesday, Apr 17, 12 @ 12:31 pm
Gotta love the law passed last year requiring 75% of Chicago teachers needing to vote for a strike, as opposed to 50% for every other teacher in the state. Like Chicago taxpayers having to pay twice for teacher pensions–for CPS and the rest of the state–there is one set of rules for the state, and another for Chicago.
Rahm saw the end of the CBA, and got his law passed in Springfield making it tougher for Chicago teachers to strike. As if Brizard has a clue what he is doing, anyway; he was a real success in Rochester, huh?
I don’t see this ending well. And as much as I support teachers, I don’t see them getting much support for a strike in this political climate, even if they Rahm and Brizard want them to work longer hours for the same pay.
Comment by aaron singer Tuesday, Apr 17, 12 @ 12:36 pm
Buahhhhhhh….. Yeah, they only do stuff on session days. The rest of the time they don’t have committee meeting or anything else related to being a legislator going on.
Please..
Comment by OneMan Tuesday, Apr 17, 12 @ 12:41 pm
The problem with recruiting teachers it that they have to live in Chicago in order to teach in CPS. Given housing costs, that excellent pay and benefits isn’t all that great. Plus, the scale flattens out over time and it becomes uncompetitive for veteran teachers, so the gig isn’t really what you’d call career track either.
A lot of veteran teachers are retiring this year, so CPS will have to hire some of those aspiring teachers Steve mentioned.
Comment by cermak_rd Tuesday, Apr 17, 12 @ 12:45 pm
@Aristotle -
Meaningless???
I’ve had my hand in quite a few elections, and if you’ve got precincts that vote 90% plus your way, you are slobbering over yourself…because all you have to worry about is driving up turnout.
If this ever gets to a strike vote, it’ll pass overwhelmingly, and everybody will be a loser.
Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Tuesday, Apr 17, 12 @ 12:59 pm
Good point @OneMan. I had not thought of that either.
Comment by Daniel Tuesday, Apr 17, 12 @ 1:01 pm
–Righter said a higher tax on cigarettes will exacerbate a trend in which fewer cigarettes are being sold, a problem that would hurt Illinois in the long run because money to help pay Medicaid costs would come from a declining revenue source. –
Maybe we shouldn’t count on all the revenue, but ultimately won’t this help lower healthcare costs if less people are smoking? Essentially it’s a bad idea to get more money for healthcare costs and lowering the cost at the same time?
I understand your argument if you just don’t like taxes or think they are too high already or you believe it will just tax people who are addicted to something and that it’s unfair. I don’t understand Righter’s logic here.
Comment by Ahoy Tuesday, Apr 17, 12 @ 1:02 pm
Chris, there isn’t a member serving in either the House or Senate who was there when those benefits were created for them. Think about things before you post–nice demagogic post, but no fact there
Comment by steve schnorf Tuesday, Apr 17, 12 @ 1:10 pm
“Emanuel trying to bust up the teachers union”
When Scott Walk streamlines some of the union regulations and winds up hiring more teachers, he is the villain and thousands of folks call for his ouster.
When a hero of the left is ‘out to bust the union’ it’s mostly quiet. Hmmmmm
Comment by Plutocrat03 Tuesday, Apr 17, 12 @ 1:29 pm
Pluto,
You are probably the only person on earth who considers rahm a “hero of the left”. Certainly no one actually on the left does. I suppose you think that OB is a socialist and a muslim and was born in Kenya too. Get a clue.
Comment by Bill Tuesday, Apr 17, 12 @ 1:35 pm
It’s going to be interesting to watch the CPS thing play out.
On one hand, the longer school day is a good sound bite and on a basic glance makes sense (why does a kid in Chicago spend less time in class than a kid in Oswego?). Yeah, I get it, it isn’t that simple, but as everyone here knows, part of these battles is marketing, and I am sure that “longer school day” sound good to most folks.
On the other hand you have a union leader who ran on being more militant and has taken some PR hits. She is facing a tougher environment in order to call a strike. So basically if they want to have that tool in negotiations, she has to get her rank and file really, really angry to get the numbers she needs. They are going to spend months getting those folks fired up.
Lets assume it comes down to the opening of school and there is a strike looming having the teachers walk might be a net positive for the Mayor and the President.
Again you might not like it, but I am also sure standing up to teacher unions will poll well around the country. As my grandfather used to say “Everyone else is overpaid and you are underpaid”, the teachers are overpiad and over benefited may not be right, but it is going to play.
Also a cave in to the unions will make Rahm look weak, Rahm will do everything he can to avoid looking weak.
At the end of the day no one wins if there is a strike, but I would put my money on there being one and the day the teachers walk, it is full on war.
Comment by OneMan Tuesday, Apr 17, 12 @ 1:53 pm
OneMan,
You are pretty much spot on. It sure seems like rahm really wants a teachers strike. There are ways he could get what he wants but instead blusters publicly, negotiates in the press and brags privately about burying the Trotskyites. This guy is a piece of work. He may be overplaying his hand this time.
Comment by Bill Tuesday, Apr 17, 12 @ 2:08 pm
Dear Sen. Righter, if cig taxes decrease rates of consumption you will see future cuts in Medicaid spending. Cigs are bad for Medicaid, not good. Seems obvious….
Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Apr 17, 12 @ 4:07 pm
Thank you Bill.
Comment by Cheryl44 Tuesday, Apr 17, 12 @ 5:23 pm
“NBC Chicago has received the results from the following high schools, with the percentages indicating teachers in favor of a work stoppage:”
Smallest 80%; largest 96%.
But…they have JOBS, don’t they? Bet there are a lot of certified teachers who’d love to get hired & WORK.
Comment by just sayin Tuesday, Apr 17, 12 @ 5:37 pm
Teachers, we can see your salaries and the 50% drop out rates, etc. I know it is not all (or even most) of your fault. But we also work for a living and want more stuff in our compensation.
Comment by Wumpus Tuesday, Apr 17, 12 @ 5:59 pm
Great to see the old name calling Bill back in form
I can’t believe you have run out of intelligent repartee all ready
Comment by Plutocrat03 Tuesday, Apr 17, 12 @ 6:13 pm
I used to think “longer school day” would play everywhere, until I read in the Tribune that a significant amount of opposition to the extended school day came from (relatively) more affluent, high-educated parents from Chicago’s North Side. Now I’m not so sure.
My instinct in all of this is to side with the teachers. I suppose I could be persuaded that their benefits are unsustainable or over-generous, though. I really do not have a clue how to fully value the salaries (entry level and advanced) for CPS instructors, nor how to factor in exactly what are their retiree benefits, now and what the system is currently having to pay for past retirees. And I don’t think I’m the only one who find the deluge of stats and numbers thrown around on all sides of this debate intensely self-serving (and thus frustrating). Depending on who you throw into the pool as your “average teacher,” I am aware you can move the numbers around quite a bit. Federal budget? I’m all over that. Teacher compensation in Illinois? Total black hole, from where I’m sitting …
If anyone here can recommend me good, not-too-technical sources to consult to figure out what the compensation of CPS teachers are, how it compares to other professions (both in terms of salary, pay for educational status, # hours worked, and retiree benefits) I will admire you forever. (Sorry, I know that’s cheap compensation …)
Comment by ZC Tuesday, Apr 17, 12 @ 6:41 pm
School districts have no interest in cutting costs. They study each others’ budgets to find which gimmicks they can use to expand spending, hire more administrators, and develop some bond legalized money-laundering bond scheme with Chapman Cutler, and PMA Financial.
The idea that districts can save without a mass exodus of useless admin is laughable. Interestingly, one need not consolidate to do this. One only need to start cutting pay, and laying off the army of coordinators, directors, assistant (everythings) and other make work jobs designed to propagate unsustainable public employment - none of which connects a single neuron in a single child’s head.
Comment by Bruno Behrend Tuesday, Apr 17, 12 @ 7:03 pm
Great idea for the schools to study each other’s budgets to find new ideas for cutting costs, but why haven’t they been doing this all along?
Comment by Anon Tuesday, Apr 17, 12 @ 7:27 pm
==Great idea for the schools to study each other’s budgets to find new ideas for cutting costs, but why haven’t they been doing this all along? ==
The schools in my area are always looking for ways to save money. This is all puffery to make the “decision-makers” feel better about not fully funding education. Cutting the arts, cutting extra-curriculars, packing 35+ kids into a classroom, deferring maintenance. On top of that, paying for the mandates passed down from Springfield and looking at funding cuts based on not making AYP as the target moves toward 100%.
Instead of saving money, we should be looking at how to fully fund the schools, that would be a good start to putting the state back on its feet.
Comment by Pot calling kettle Tuesday, Apr 17, 12 @ 8:47 pm
Pot,
Cutting art and other electives is the canard they use to shill for more referenda, the lion’s share of which goes to payroll expansion.
Compared to other nations that do better than we do, we more than “fully fund” schools. “Fully fund” is a bit of hoot, given that the education bureaucracy is never “fully funded.”
As Mick Jagger once quoted, “Too much is never enough.”
We ought not be funding “schools” or “districts.” We ought to be funding children, and the money should follow them to a vast new array of education options.
One more dime to this awful system is a waste of money. We can’t dismantle it fast enough.
Comment by Bruno Behrend Tuesday, Apr 17, 12 @ 9:21 pm
===We ought not be funding “schools” or “districts.” We ought to be funding children, and the money should follow them to a vast new array of education options.
One more dime to this awful system is a waste of money. We can’t dismantle it fast enough.===
Bruno wants to go full voucher, and everybody knows you don’t go full voucher. You never go full voucher.
Mick Jagger also wrote, with Keith Richards, “you can’t always get what you want.” Sorry Bruno, your education utopia isn’t going to happen.
“But if you try sometime, you’ll find, you get what you need.”
Comment by 47th Ward Tuesday, Apr 17, 12 @ 10:10 pm
–The Classrooms First Commission claims districts could save up to $1 billion simply by studying each other’s budgets to find new ideas for cutting costs.–
So what’s stopping you?
Comment by wordslinger Wednesday, Apr 18, 12 @ 8:09 am