Iowa, Missouri, Ohio and Tennessee are all having back-to-school sales tax holidays. Not Illinois, where state leaders saw the need during the 2022 election.
Since 2010, teachers unions have funneled nearly $20 million to current lawmakers in the Illinois General Assembly, with the Chicago Teachers Union alone spending over $1.25 million.
Chicago Public Schools has a school utilization problem. Over 34% are less than half full, 57% are underutilized, and 5% are overcrowded. Just 35% are at ideal capacity. The Chicago Teachers Union is preventing solutions.
Illinois added 8,400 jobs in June, but unemployment remained high compared to the rest of the nation. The state still hasn’t recovered the jobs it had before the pandemic.
The Illinois Supreme Court ruled ending cash bail is constitutional. What does that mean for Illinois? It means ready or not, the system changes Sept. 18.
Repealing the state grocery tax has support from 7 in 10 Illinois voters, according to an Illinois Policy Institute poll. Illinois is one of just 13 states with a grocery tax.
Just 26% of IFT’s spending in 2022 was on representing teachers. IFT’s questionable spending could be why nearly 16,500 Illinois public school employees have chosen to distance themselves from the union.
Less than 8% of NEA and IEA’s spending in 2022 was on representing teachers, according to the unions’ federal reports. That could be why nearly 203,000 public school employees – including more than 6,000 in Illinois – have left NEA since 2017.
Illinois voters polled were 3 to 1 in support of the state’s only school choice program, Invest in Kids. But unless lawmakers act, the program ends this year.
The “gift room” scandal, a botched police raid and a smokestack implosion underscore how the head of Chicago’s Law Department, also known as the corporation counsel, too often lacks independence from the mayor’s office. Chicago’s corporation counsel is appointed by the mayor and can be removed at the mayor’s discretion. Experience in other major cities...