Bedford Park fails to post traffic stats online for more than 3 years, pulls an ‘Animal House’ on red-light camera language
Bedford Park fails to post traffic stats online for more than 3 years, pulls an ‘Animal House’ on red-light camera language
by Andrew Wyatt The village of Bedford Park has had some trouble managing its red-light camera program and posting traffic safety statistics online in the past several years. In a rush to implement its red-light camera program, village officials pulled an “Animal House” and mistakenly used boilerplate language on the village’s website: “The purpose of this...
Chicago Public Schools: the layoffs begin
Chicago Public Schools: the layoffs begin
This afternoon Chicago Public Schools officials announced layoffs of teachers and other staff. Overall 855 school district employees will be let go: 663 employees from 49 schools that are slated for closure and another 192 staff from schools that are slated for “turnaround.” CPS currently employs 41,500 staff, including more than 23,000 teachers. While the immediate cause...
By Paul Kersey
SIU audit reveals missing computers, disturbing compliance failures
SIU audit reveals missing computers, disturbing compliance failures
Earlier this year we looked at the Illinois Auditor General’s findings on Southern Illinois University and the entire state university system. Overall, we found a disturbing lack of compliance with state and federal law. But SIU was one of the lone bright spots, tying Illinois State University for the fewest amount of compliance violations with six...
By Brian Costin
Quinn eyes bad pension legislation for special session
Quinn eyes bad pension legislation for special session
by Ben VanMetre Political leadership in Illinois punted on pension reform during the recent spring legislative session — a move that resulted in back-to-back credit rating downgrades. The General Assembly’s inaction and the resulting credit blows caused Gov. Pat Quinn to call lawmakers back to session. The purpose of the June 19 special session is...
By Chris Andriesen
State Universities Retirement System option provides model for Illinois pension reform
State Universities Retirement System option provides model for Illinois pension reform
The Illinois General Assembly is gearing up for a special session to discuss pensions next week because of lawmakers’ reform inaction during the recent spring session, which resulted in back-to-back credit rating downgrades. The debate during session will likely be over which of two plans will solve Illinois’ crisis – House Speaker Mike Madigan’s proposal or the one...
By Benjamin VanMetre
Tapped out taxpayers shoulder more and more of the costs of teacher pensions
Tapped out taxpayers shoulder more and more of the costs of teacher pensions
Teacher contributions to the Teachers’ Retirement System, or TRS, have gone up by 100 percent since 1998. But taxpayer contributions to teacher retirements have gone up by 400 percent since then. In 2012 alone, Illinois taxpayers contributed $1.6 billion more to TRS than teachers did. And the disparity between taxpayers and employee contributions is projected...
By John Klingner
Shedd Aquarium and digital badging: Reducing barriers to teachers’ professional development
Shedd Aquarium and digital badging: Reducing barriers to teachers’ professional development
by Daniel Anthony Chicago has the potential to become a nationally recognized center of ed-tech excellence. Many organizations, such as New Schools for Chicago, 1871 and Shedd Aquarium, are helping make this happen. Shedd Aquarium’s digital learning efforts are helping reduce the barriers to teachers’ professional development through its innovative Teacher Badging Program. The Illinois Policy Institute is excited...
School choice changes lives
School choice changes lives
Families and students in Illinois would benefit most from a total voucher system in which parents are empowered to choose an educational provider that works best for their unique needs.
By Adam Schuster
Park Ridge mayor’s transparency agenda
Park Ridge mayor’s transparency agenda
by Brian Costin Park Ridge Mayor Dave Schmidt wants to improve online transparency and is using the Illinois Policy Institute’s 10-Point Transparency Checklist as a best practice benchmark for his city in northern Cook County. As mentioned in the Park Ridge Journal: Schmidt has four items on his list including the city meeting the transparency checklist created...
Illinois’ supersized pension problem
Illinois’ supersized pension problem
Illinois’ pension problem dwarfs the retirement problems in all other states. Officially, the underfunding of the five state-run pension systems total $100 billion. But when more realistic assumptions are used, the shortfall exceeds $200 billion. Without real pension reform, every Illinois household is on the hook for more than $40,000 in additional taxes just to cover...
By Ted Dabrowski
Illinois committee will reconvene to discuss pensions June 18
Illinois committee will reconvene to discuss pensions June 18
Though Illinois taxpayers should be disappointed that pension reform was not enacted during the scheduled spring legislative session, they should also be relieved that fake reform was not enacted. The competing proposals offered by House Speaker Mike Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton did not offer solutions commensurate to the severity of Illinois’ pension problem (Senate Bill 1and Senate Bill...
By Jane McEnaney
The ‘temporary’ income tax hike was a lie
The ‘temporary’ income tax hike was a lie
When lawmakers passed the record 2011 tax hike they went on record making promises to taxpayers about the purpose and temporary nature of the tax hike. Now it’s clear that those promises were actually lies. When passing the tax hike, Gov. Pat Quinn said: “We have some temporary tax increases that are designed to pay our...
By Benjamin VanMetre
Chicago has highest gas prices in the country
Chicago has highest gas prices in the country
In the fight for the highest gas prices in America, Chicago now reigns supreme. Customers purchasing fuel in the city are now paying an average of $4.59 per gallon. That’s $0.13 more per gallon than when we last reported on Illinois’ high gas prices at the end of May. Many have chalked up Chicago’s consistently high gas prices to...
By Hilary Gowins
Will Illinois embrace education innovation?
Will Illinois embrace education innovation?
Illinois legislators have a major decision to make: should the state adopt policies that will enable it to become a future hub of education innovation or should it institute laws that needlessly delay the policies necessary to create a school system that embraces technology? Thus far, Illinois has chosen the latter path. In fact, Gov. Pat...