Milwaukee

Charter school waiting lists: the other side of the story

03/31/2013
WBEZ in Chicago has published one of the more incomplete stories on charter schools I’ve read in a long time. It asserts: Charter advocates and even the Chicago Tribune editorial board say 19,000 kids are on charter school waiting lists in the city.

Chicago has second highest taxes on meals in restaurants

03/29/2012
Ever notice that going out to eat seems more expensive in Chicago than other cities? One of the reasons is that on top of the very high sales tax in Chicago, there are additional taxes on meals in restaurants: 0.25 percent Chicago restaurant tax and 1.0 percent Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (MPEA) food and...

Interactive dashboard: Taxes on meals

03/29/2012
Chicago has the second highest taxes on meals of the 50 largest U.S. cities. Check out the Institute's interactive dashboard on meal taxes to see how we stack up.

Illinois is the third worst place to do business in the United States

05/09/2011
by Mark Cavers Last week a Chief Executive Magazine survey of 556 CEOs ranked Illinois as the third worst place to do business in the United States. Put another way, over 500 of the leaders who are making company’s decisions on where to invest, hire more employees, and expand or contract operations would opt to go almost anywhere in...

Who Do Vouchers Help?

04/15/2011
by Mark Cavers Today the New York Times published an article asserting that the main beneficiaries of vouchers are “church-affiliated schools.” In truth, vouchers are above all else about helping the neglected students of our worst performing schools. But by ignoring the kids and framing their opposition on this ground, opponents in the White House,...

The Wisconsin/Illinois Jobs Spat

By Chris Andriesen
11/15/2010
Illinois Governor Pat Quinn is engaged in a jobs spat with Wisconsin Governor-Elect Scott Walker. Walker had questioned the wisdom of committing Wisconsin to additional “high speed rail” boondoogle spending (read why he’s right on the policy merits); Governor Quinn responded by trying to woo a Wisconsin-based rail firm to Illinois. Beyond targeted campaigns to win over one company or another...

The Jury on School Vouchers

03/24/2010
This report, prepared by the Institute for Justice, says SB294 is constitutional under both the federal Establishment Clause and the Illinois Constitution.

Tax Credits Benefit Students…And the Budget

By Collin Hitt
03/20/2008
Many Illinois children are currently trapped in failing public schools.  Most of these children, whose futures are put at risk due simply to geography and bureaucracy, would thrive if given equal choices and greater educational opportunities. Those opportunities can come in the form of the expansion of a simple tax credit—the Illinois Education Expense Tax...

Chicago Forward 2026: A pro-growth plan to end city budget deficits

Chicago’s $1.15 billion projected budget gap is the latest in a decades-long string of structural deficits. Making Chicago’s high taxes worse is not the solution.

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Diana Graham

Process for unionizing non-state workers raises red flags

By Paul Kersey
06/19/2014

CBS Chicago: Illinois’ highest-paid superintendent receives $400K per year to oversee 1,200 students

By Ted Dabrowski
05/02/2016