Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw) Weekend Contributor
I have to give Governor Bruce Rauner credit for not taking long to show his hand and publicly attack the Higher Education system in Illinois. It has only been a few weeks since he was inaugurated and he recently unveiled his budget. A budget plan that slashes over $200 million just from the University of Illinois alone.
At the very time Gov. Rauner announced he wants to slash the Higher Education budget for all universities in the State of Illinois by almost a third, he claimed that his budget makes education a priority!
“Higher education is set to take a major hit in Illinois.
Following similar announcements by the Republican governors of Wisconsin and Louisiana, newly-sworn in Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner released what he called a “turnaround” budget, that would slash nearly $209 million from the University of Illinois.” Think Progress
“It’s time to make education our top priority again – and that’s what this budget does,” he told lawmakers Tuesday night, touting his plan to give about $25 million more to early childhood education. “With reform, we will be able to invest more in education and give our kids world class schools.” Think Progress
While the proposed budget increases some funding for K-12 education, the University of Illinois system will lose one-third of its state financing under this budget. This very same proposed budget makes absolutely no mention of any increased revenue sources or plans. What will happen to the University system if these cuts are retained in the final budget?
One can expect the cuts to cause increased fees being charged to students as well as the loss of many educational programs. The result of these massive reductions in state financing will be to transfer the costs to students who are already paying high tuition and fee costs. The loan balances of many students already into the 6 figures and Gov. Rauner’s actions will make sure that student debt will continue to climb in Illinois.
So often the claims that all areas of the State have to share in the burden of digging out of a financial hole ends up with some of the most vulnerable bearing the brunt of that burden. If the Governor is convinced that we all have to sacrifice in this job to balance the budget, why wouldn’t new tax sources be considered along with reasonable cuts?
Will these draconian cuts make it more difficult for students from poor and middle class families to obtain a college education? In this very same budget proposal, Gov. Rauner biggest cuts are aimed directly at those who are least able to afford them.
“Yet the state would spend $400 million less on higher education, $600 million less on local governments, and $1.5 billion less on Medicaid, which handles health care costs for poor residents. University leaders and mayors said they were worried, and advocates for the poor said they feared medical needs would go unmet under deep cuts to Medicaid.” New York Times
When the cities, counties and municipalities raise their taxes to pay for basic services for their residents, who has to pay for those increases? “In many cases, Rauner’s state budget cuts could simply end up shifting costs: local governments could choose to raise property taxes, state universities could raise tuition and the CTA could increase fares.” Chicago Tribune
For a man who spent at least $37 million of his own money to get elected governor, he sure has no problem making the middle class and poor pay more for a college education and for health care and local taxes and transportation costs.
Rauner seems to be following the economic model that worked so “well” for Gov. Brownback in Kansas and Gov. Walker in Wisconsin.
Just how has that austerity approach worked out for Kansas and Wisconsin?
Additional Sources: Examiner.com; Crains Chicago Business
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What’s changed?
There wasn’t an email list back then.
Her articles were appropriate and helpful to the discussion Paul. For what purpose was your comment?
Inga – the thread is higher ed, not secondary or elementary. So, my comments are as appropriate as hers.
Paul,
Teachers in my school system were let go after a year if they didn’t make the grade. They were not given tenure. That didn’t happen often because of the way prospective teachers were screened…and interviewed in my system–by a panel of teachers, parents, and an administrator. If charter schools are having to fire new teachers after a few weeks in the classroom, I’d say that there may be something wrong with their screening process. I’d also have to wonder why there aren’t experienced teachers and administrators around to help new teachers. We mentored first year teachers. They knew they could to to those of us who had been in the system for a while for help and advice. Grade levels teachers worked together on curriculum and shared materials with one another.
Tenure is not the problem. Teachers on tenure can be fired. One has to provide just cause for doing so. My daughter had one horrendous teacher in high. My daughter did not want me to lodge a complaint about her. After my daughter graduated, I spoke with the high school principal…so did a number of other parents. That teacher was gone the following year.
Elaine – charter schools have more of a problem finding good faculty because of the student base they are teaching. In my case, at risk. It was hard to find teachers with the guts to teach at risk and then be good at it.
Spinelli is tired of reading – links especially seem to disturb him. He has declared the subject closed. It is a glorious thing to know that we can defer to our own polymath and no longer have to think for ourselves.
Sign up for his email list. Then you, too, will no longer have to think for yourself or put yourself in a position where you might be exposed to other ideas or reports that might answer a question you had.
Paul C. Schulte
Elaine – the capital gains tax is available to everyone. If you are not using it, it is not my fault. It is the patriotic duty of all Americans to pay as little tax as possible.
*****
Did I say the capital gains tax wasn’t available to everyone?
on 1, February 25, 2015 at 8:41 amPaul C. Schulte
Inga – you need to understand the history of Jews in the United States to understand their allegiance to the Democrats and liberalism.
******************
Elaine maybe Webster is referring to this comment?
Webster,
I made no mention of Jewish people.
Karen’s 1:26 comment brings up the issue. Not I, nor Mespo.
This does seem like old times w/ the same links we have seen over and over and over again about teachers unions and charter schools. The debate is over, as global warming people like to say. The unions have been shown for what they are, about bureaucrats, not kids. Some here seem like those random Japanese soldiers fighting WW2 on small Pacific Islands, years after the war was over.
DBQ, I was going to email you but thought this would be quicker. Do not dignify the remarks w/ any comments. We have seen this all before, haven’t we!! I have not responded. I have emailed others asking them not to respond. It is not worthy of one syllable. I truly appreciate your support. Ignoring is the only way. That’s what I have done.
DBQ,
Things have been deleted, it’s beyond tedious to have to keep repeating this, now I suggest YOU and Karen DROP the issue, unless you want to resurrect that sad pathetic fight, which I think Professor Turley would like to avoid.
Karen
Read this:
A recent spate of charter-school closings illustrates weaknesses in state law: virtually anyone can open or run a charter school and spend public education money with near impunity, a Sun Sentinel investigation found.
Florida requires local school districts to oversee charter schools but gives them limited power to intervene when cash is mismanaged or students are deprived of basic supplies — even classrooms.
Once schools close, the newspaper found, districts struggle to retrieve public money not spent on students.
Among the cases the newspaper reviewed:
• An Oakland Park man received $450,000 in tax dollars to open two new charter schools just months after his first collapsed. The schools shuttled students among more than four locations in Broward County, including a park, an event hall and two churches. The schools closed in seven weeks.
• A Boca Raton woman convicted of taking kickbacks when she ran a federal meal program was hired to manage a start-up charter school in Lauderdale Lakes.
• A Coral Springs man with a history of foreclosures, court-ordered payments, and bankruptcy received $100,000 to start a charter school in Margate. It closed in two months.
• A Hollywood company that founded three short-lived charters in Palm Beach and Collier counties will open a new school this fall. The two Palm Beach County schools did not return nearly $200,000 they owe the district
http://interactive.sun-sentinel.com/charter-schools-unsupervised/investigation.html
Please post the exact words where someone’s child has been insulted. I’ve read most of this thread…..even the deleted posts before they were deleted and have not seen anywhere where someone’s child was insulted.
This is beyond tedious.
And Karen you could’ve avoided bringing it up, but I think perhaps you wanted to resurrect it for some purpose of your own. Try having your child insulted, then tell me how disgusted you are.
I get to defend myself Karen. I never ever attack anyone, however I will fight back.
Karen, YOU brought it up. no one else was discussing it today until you brought it up.
Karen
Read this.
he most recognized name in for-profit education in Ohio is White Hat Management. The Akron-based company runs 45 schools in five states, but most of them are in Ohio.
White Hat has been sued by some of its own schools, and critics keep pointing to the poor grades most of the schools get on annual report cards.
White Hat’s president Tom Barrett says people need to stop picking on for-profit operators.
“We’re not greedy money-hungry people,” Barrett says. “We’re in this for the students; we’re in this certainly for the community, and we’re in this for our employees as well.”
White Hat is a privately held company. It does not have to publicly disclose profits, losses or revenue. Barrett won’t reveal any details, but he says White Hat does not make much, nor are profits its top priority.
White Hat-managed schools received more than 84-million dollars from the state last year. But ten of those schools suing say even they can’t figure out where the money is going.
According to the lawsuit, White Hat gets at least 95 percent of the schools’ funding. It also owns everything from computers to student files.
White Hat hires, fires, buys textbooks and supplies.
School board members say they can’t even track what they are paying White Hat in management fees.
Kurt Minson is the board chairman for two White Hat schools in the Akron area that are involved in the lawsuit. He says taxpayers have a vested interest in this case, “because [the schools] were slated and structured as private organizations. Once the money goes into the black box, there was no scrutiny from the outside even though these were public dollars.”
You have been told often enough that personal attacks are detrimental to the blog.
Yet, here you are, trying to wrench the thread to your obsession with another poster. Again. This personal focus is unhealthy. I want to read about the issues on the blog, not how much you dislike a poster. We all know. What would make you happy, a list of what you said and did and what he said? Because you won’t come out looking innocent.
You and Mespo appear to be defending it when you do it, but don’t like it when people fight back. And you apparently think it’s OK for you to demand respect, but not OK when I ask Mespo to please tone it down, such as when he insults my intelligence on the unlucky occasions when he addresses me.
I personally do not enjoy Jerry Springer on a blog.
Moving on in disgust . . .
Lower capital gains taxes benefit the entire economy by increasing the velocity of money. http://www.investopedia.com/terms/v/velocity.asp
When investors see that by selling an asset that has appreciated in value that they will be taxed at 20 to 33% they will not liquidate the asset unless they absolutely have to or until they have made other tax sheltering moves. California has a combined state and federal tax rate on capital gains of 33 percent, which is the second highest in the world
When the money is sequestered in deferred gains, that is money that is not being circulated in the economy. Money that is not being spent on goods or services. A low cap gains rate discourages “lock -in” http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/key-elements/capital-gains/lower-rate.cfm
A lower cap gains rate not only encourages investments, it encourages the selling of appreciated investments so that money can be re-invested or spent. When the money is spent it benefits all of society as the velocity speeds up.
Economics 101
It is a myth that only the wealthy experience the benefit of capital gains. Many people who purchased homes, especially in California, in the 1960’s have seen huge capital gains events. Very many ordinary middle class people have been hit with this tax. Keeping it low is a benefit to everyone.
Karen
If the rules are that the books are off limits there is no accountability. And that is often the rule.
Your ‘of course’ is insufficient to change my judgement on hidden financials.