Collin Hitt

Pension Reform, Illinois’s Future

05/26/2011
(UPDATED: action in House pension committee. See below) by Collin Hitt A bold proposal to reform government employee pensions has been put forward, Senate Bill 512. It is the broadest and best legislation yet introduced by legislative leaders hoping to address the long term debt, and insolvency, of Illinois’s public employee pension funds. Illinois taxpayers...

Update: Performance Counts Bill (SB7) Passes

05/12/2011
by Mark Cavers Update: Today is a big day for children in schools across state. Senate Bill 7, which represents a significant step forward in the effort to give all our children an excellent education just passed the House!  By a margin of 112-1-1 the Illinois House of Representatives sent a strong message that they...

Americans: Schools Are Wasting Money

04/28/2011
by Collin Hitt A new poll from Rasmussen Reports finds that most American voters think public schools are wasteful. Interestingly, Americans also understate the amount of tax money that schools receive. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 11% of voters think the taxpayers are getting a good return on that investment. Seventy-two percent...

Teacher Tenure or High Performance?

04/14/2011
by Collin Hitt We’ve reached an important moment for education reform. Teacher tenure – the impregnable job protection held by teachers good and bad – could soon be replaced by a system that protects only high performance. The threat of strikes could be diminished. And school districts could no longer be forced to bargain away...

Competitive Grant Funding: An Innovative Approach to Program and Grant Budgeting

03/09/2011
by Collin Hitt The Illinois Policy Institute released Budget Solutions 2012 on Tuesday, March 8. To date, it is the only detailed, balanced, sustainable budget plan that has been published on state government general fund spending. The plan contains several recommendations for education and Medicaid spending, but it also includes one idea that was completely new and...