Pennsylvania

Lawmakers just passed 2 bills making Illinois even worse for business

By Joe Tabor
06/12/2025
This legislative session members of the Illinois General Assembly passed a bill to make it easier to sue out-of-state businesses and a bill that would prevent state agencies from adopting eased workplace regulations. Illinois’ business climate is bad, but these bills could make it worse.

Beyond degrees: Empowering Illinoisans through career-first education

By Josh Bandoch, Lauren Zuar
06/03/2025
Published June 3, 2025 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The best path to empowerment and success, especially for poor people, is work. Work allows us to prosper while providing dignity, upward mobility, the means to support ourselves and create value for others. It’s how we become thriving members of our community. Central to this process is our education...

Illinois lawmakers get 26 seconds per page to read 2025 budget

By Patrick Andriesen
05/20/2025
Illinois state lawmakers must be super speed readers, because who would vote on something they hadn’t read? They were given an average of 67 seconds per page to read the past nine state budgets, but last year received only 26 seconds per page.

A way out: Bankruptcy authorization would give struggling Illinois municipalities options

By Joe Tabor
02/10/2025
Published Feb. 10, 2025 Even though federal COVID relief funds provided an unexpected windfall, that one-time jolt of cash could leave many Illinois localities even worse off than they were before. That boost in revenue allowed local governments to put off difficult budgeting decisions, and as that revenue dries up, municipalities will have to contend...

Illinois’ low social mobility: causes and cures

01/28/2025
Published Jan. 28, 2025 Illinois Policy Institute Center for Poverty Solutions, in partnership with the Archbridge Institute By Joshua Bandoch, Ph.D., head of policy, Illinois Policy Institute and Justin Callais, Ph.D., chief economist, Archbridge Institute EXECUTIVE SUMMARY A low-income person’s ability to move up in society is worse in Illinois than in any other Midwestern...
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Pathway to a Profession: How Apprenticeships Could Reshape Illinois’ Beauty Service Industry

Occupational licensing requirements present one of the steepest barriers to low-income Illinoisans starting careers in beauty services. Illinois requires anyone seeking to become a barber, cosmetologist, nail technician or hair braider to obtain a state license, essentially a permission slip to work. Unlike 45 other states, Illinois offers only one pathway to licensure for each...

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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