QUOTE OF THE DAY
Daily Herald: Quinn vetoes legislation limiting access to records
Gov. Pat Quinn has vetoed legislation that would’ve made it more difficult for members of the public to obtain large numbers of records under the Freedom of Information Act.
Quinn vetoed the measure Friday. It was sponsored by House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, a Chicago Democrat, and passed the legislature in May. The legislation would have allowed public bodies to charge fees for providing electronic data if FOIA requests involved large amounts of information. It also would have given public entities exemptions from having to make copies of records on their websites.
Bill supporters said the measure eliminated “undue burdens.” It was opposed by numerous press associations.
Insurance News: Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund Receives Full 2014 Payment from CPS
The Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund(CTPF) received more than $585 millionearlier today, completing the $612.5 million required contribution from the Chicago Board of Education (BOE) for the 2014 fiscal year.
“This is an important step. This payment marks the first time since 2010 that the BOE has made a full payment of its pension obligation,” said Jay C. Rehak, CTPF president of the board of trustees and interim executive director. “Our members pay their pension obligations in full with every paycheck – every month, every year – and have never missed a payment. We appreciate the employer doing the same.”
“CTPF is a well-managed plan that has generated an 8.86 percent average return over the last 35 years,” said Rehak. “Our financial situation has deteriorated because our employer and the state underfunded this plan for decades. As a result, our plan’s funded ratio has fallen from 100 percent in 2002 to our current 49.5 percent.”
National Affairs: Helping School Choice Work
Conservatives have long championed school choice as a way to improve America’s education system. Ronald Reagan called for vouchers in his first term as president, and many other Republican leaders have taken up the mantle since then, with choice — both of private and charter schools — becoming a key plank of the party’s education platform. Speaker of the House John Boehner has argued, “When parents have the ability to select the best learning environment for their kids, they thrive and so do their communities.” Senator Ted Cruz has even gone so far as to describe school choice as “the civil rights issue of the 21st century.”
These calls for greater school choice have not gone unheeded. Since 2000, the total enrollment in voucher, tuition-tax-credit, and education-savings-account programs has grown from just under 30,000 students (with a large proportion clustered in Milwaukee and Cleveland) to over 300,000 students all across the country today. In 2013, there were 49 total private school-choice programs in 24 states, up from only 12 programs in 2001. In just the last half-decade, several states have taken great steps to encourage school choice. Led by then-Governor Mitch Daniels, Indiana created a statewide voucher program in 2011 that today enrolls almost 20,000 students. In Louisiana, Governor Bobby Jindal has overseen the creation of two separate voucher programs (over objections from the Obama administration) which now enroll about 7,000 students. And in Wisconsin, Governor Scott Walker has made expanding his state’s existing voucher program a priority, leading to the program’s enrollment rising by almost 30%, from just under 21,000 students to over 27,000 students during his time in office.
These school-choice policies promise to give students access to the education that best fits their needs. Primary and secondary education in America has traditionally been monopolized by the government. If parents did not have the means to send their children to a private school, their children had no choice but to attend their local public school, even if the school offered a poor education or did not meet their specific needs. This system led to massive variation in quality across the country and left many students trapped in failing schools. School-choice programs offer these students a way out by giving them money to attend another school, often a private one, that they can choose for themselves. Policies promoting school choice seek to create an education marketplace that has the potential, as Milton Friedman put it, to “change the character of education.”
Forbes: The Future Of Healthcare Is Less Privacy
A crucial problem in healthcare is lack of information and lack of incentives. As I’ve argued before, I believe the trend of constant monitoring, data capture, and analysis is likely to change this in a very important ways. A new story from Bloomberg shows us how this is already beginning:
You may soon get a call from your doctor if you’ve let your gym membership lapse, made a habit of picking up candy bars at the check-out counter or begin shopping at plus-sized stores.
That’s because some hospitals are starting to use detailed consumer data to create profiles on current and potential patients to identify those most likely to get sick, so the hospitals can intervene before they do.
Crain’s: What Karen Lewis should think about before running for mayor
So Karen Lewis, the hard-nosed leader of Chicago’s teachers union, now admits she’s interested in running for mayor, backing off earlier declarations of “no way” andtelling the Sun-Times that she’s “seriously looking” at jumping in.
If she is serious — and even Mr. Emanuel finally has learned to take what Ms. Lewis says very seriously — I have some equally serious advice back to her: Be really, really careful, both for the city and for yourself. As Harold Washington would have said, this ain’t beanbag.
I have no particular love or allegiance for Mr. Emanuel. He’s handled a lot of things well but stumbled badly on others. Like all government leaders and, frankly all of us, he does best when he has to look over his back occasionally at snapping competitors. And to the extent you believe the polls, a lot of Chicagoans want to see some competition for him in the Feb. 25 election. His numbers are soft, especially among African-Americans, for whom Mr. Emanuel’s former job as chief of staff to President Barack Obama is more and more irrelevant.
CARTOON OF THE DAY
