The Policy Shop

A weekly podcast tackling Illinois' most important issues.

The Policy Shop: Illinois’ people problem is a money problem

This edition of The Policy Shop is by Bryce Hill, director of fiscal and economic research. When you treat people like piggy banks, some of them will get fed up and move. It is most likely the folks with the most money will be the ones to go. Illinois politicians seem to be ignoring those...

The Policy Shop: How the Chicago Teachers Union lobbies for failure

This edition of The Policy Shop is by policy analyst Hannah Schmid. If you were given $68,000 per student and two staffers for every three students, what do you think the result would be? National Honor Society graduates with Ivy League schools clamoring for their presence? Well, not if you gave that money to the Chicago Teachers...

The Policy Shop: The (bleak) future of voter choice in Illinois

This edition of The Policy Shop is by writer Patrick Andriesen  The Illinois Supreme Court is being asked to quickly decide whether to allow a mid-election attempt by state leaders to prevent challengers from getting on the Nov. 5 ballot. The issue will decide whether state lawmakers and Gov. J.B. Pritzker can win by changing...

The Policy Shop: Illinois’ 3rd graders are struggling

This episode of The Policy Shop is by policy analyst Hannah Schmid.  If you are spending part of your day reading this, it’s more than a little likely you had solid teachers in first through third grades. They taught you to read, which was essential to learning all that was to come during the rest...

The Policy Shop: Springfield’s bad budgeting

This episode of The Policy Shop is by Bryce Hill, director of fiscal and economic research. It’s all just numbers, right? $53.1 billion? Why, with 12.5 million Illinoisans, that will only cost a family of four about $17,000. A mere pittance for all the good done by the state politicians who generously spend other people’s...

The Policy Shop: In Chicago, violent crime goes up as arrests go down

This episode of The Policy Shop is by staff writer Patrick Andriesen and data scientist Jon Josko. Two recent measures of Chicago crime yielded a disturbing theme: Crimes are getting more violent; police are making fewer arrests. One of those crimes, a carjacking, left a Chicago Police officer dead. Officer Luis Huesca was shot 10...

The Policy Shop: The Illinoisans that Springfield is leaving behind

This episode of The Policy Shop is by Bryce Hill, director of fiscal and economic research Illinois’ unemployment rate for Black workers last year was No. 2 in the U.S. Black Illinoisans faced average unemployment rates of 9.6% in 2023, compared to 5.5% for Black workers nationwide. That means Black Illinoisans were 75% more likely...

The Policy Shop: Chicagoland’s red-light camera con

This episode of The Policy Shop is by staff writer Patrick Andriesen Ninety Illinois communities have decided they could use some extra revenue, so they let red-light camera companies install devices that from 2008 through last year issued $1.56 billion in tickets. At least 527 red-light cameras were in operation by 2022 after the state...