Less than a quarter of West Aurora School District 129 students are considered proficient in English language arts and math based on their scores on last spring’s PARCC assessment exam, according to state data made public Monday.

More West Aurora students were considered proficient in English language arts than in math, the data shows. But in each subject, as well as on the overall exam, the proportion of West Aurora students considered proficient was lower than that of students statewide.

On the exam as a whole, 23.1 percent of West Aurora students are considered proficient. Statewide, 33.4 percent of students are judged to have met that mark.

Bad news for Chicago aldermen already kvetching about getting their face-value Cubs World Series tickets taken away because of a recent ethics ruling: You can scratch relatively cheap “Hamilton” seats off the list too.

City Inspector General Joseph Ferguson said the city ban on gifts worth more than $50 that put the kibosh on the Cubs’ offer to aldermen also applies to other tickets, including the hit Broadway musical that has now set up shop in Chicago.

The Illinois teachers’ pension fund is owed $71.4 billion, and the state will be expected to increase its contribution by 14.5 percent in fiscal year 2018.

Gov. Bruce Rauner has pushed off an impending and potentially budget-busting day of reckoning to resolve a toxic 2003 state bond deal — to the day after the fall 2018 election in which the Republican is expected to seek a second term.

The governor had been facing a Nov. 27 deadline to renew letters of credit that back the safety of investing in the $600 million bond issue, a procedure fraught with unusual difficulty because of the state’s prolonged budget standoff and fiscal crisis. Expiration of the letters threatened to trigger a termination of bank agreements and require an accelerated repayment of the bonds that could cost as much as $1 billion.

In Illinois, the lone ballot measure before voters statewide this November has nothing to do with the state’s dismal economic climate. It has nothing to do with the massive pension costs crowding out an ever-larger share of essential state services. It does nothing to address the nation’s highest property taxes, which are forcing families from their homes. And two of the most popular political ideas in the state, term limits and redistricting reform, are nowhere to be found.

Nope, Illinoisans get the “lockbox amendment.” And nothing else — save for the names of politicians running for office.

When Illinois voters go to the polls on Nov. 8, most of them will also go to work that day.

State employees will not.

Illinois remains one of a comparative handful of states where General Election Day is a paid state holiday for workers. But why? Definitive answers are elusive.