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Gov. Bruce Rauner Declares War on Higher Education and the Poor in Illinois

Bruce_Rauner_August_2014

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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615 thoughts on “Gov. Bruce Rauner Declares War on Higher Education and the Poor in Illinois”

  1. ProfitShip Learning
    http://www.progressive.org/news/2010/12/187929/profitship-learning

    Excerpt:
    A top rightwing think tank has devoted more than $30 million to spread the message that public education is failing. According to a report by One Wisconsin Now, the Milwaukee-based Bradley Foundation is a major underwriter of this propaganda effort. Bradley spent millions on shoddy research, media punditry, and a lobbying campaign to promote the idea that public schools have failed and to push school vouchers and other privatization schemes as the “solution”.

    Large, national charter-school chains have been major beneficiaries of the campaign to fix “failing” public schools. Among them, Rocketship––“a low-budget operation that relies on young and inexperienced teachers rather than more veteran and expensive faculty,” according to a report by economist Gordon Lafer for the Economic Policy Institute.

    Not all charter schools are bad. Some offer high-quality, alternative models classrooms that are enriching for kids. But over the last decade, the charter school movement has morphed from a small, community-based effort to foster alternative education into a vehicle for privatizing public education, pushed by free-market foundations, big education-management companies, and profit-seekers looking for a way to cash in on public-education funds.

  2. The Plot Against Public Education: How Millionaires and Billionaires Are Ruining Our Schools.
    By Bob Herbert
    http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/10/the-plot-against-public-education-111630.html#.VO6BVcY-C9Y

    Excerpt:
    … The experiments trotted out by the big-money crowd have been all over the map. But if there is one broad approach (in addition to the importance of testing) that the corporate-style reformers and privatization advocates have united around, it’s the efficacy of charter schools. Charter schools were supposed to prove beyond a doubt that poverty didn’t matter, that all you had to do was free up schools from the rigidities of the traditional public system and the kids would flourish, no matter how poor they were or how chaotic their home environments.

    Corporate leaders, hedge fund managers and foundations with fabulous sums of money at their disposal lined up in support of charter schools, and politicians were quick to follow. They argued that charters would not only boost test scores and close achievement gaps but also make headway on the vexing problem of racial isolation in schools.

    None of it was true. Charters never came close to living up to the hype. After several years of experimentation and the expenditure of billions of dollars, charter schools and their teachers proved, on the whole, to be no more effective than traditional schools. In many cases, the charters produced worse outcomes. And the levels of racial segregation and isolation in charter schools were often scandalous. While originally conceived a way for teachers to seek new ways to reach the kids who were having the most difficult time, the charter school system instead ended up leaving behind the most disadvantaged youngsters.

    1. Elaine –

      Corporate leaders, hedge fund managers and foundations with fabulous sums of money at their disposal lined up in support of charter schools, and politicians were quick to follow. They argued that charters would not only boost test scores and close achievement gaps but also make headway on the vexing problem of racial isolation in schools.

      This never happened. I call BS.

  3. Elaine – you have failed to address the valid points that I have raised, and just keep repeating the same mantra.

    What do you do if you encounter a bad attorney, doctor, or whatever? Why, you vote with your feet and go somewhere else. Teachers Unions prevent this. They would force you to keep going to that doctor who keeps doing malpractice because that doctor is entitled to job security. Your defense of them is on shaky ground.

    I have also said that poor performing Charter schools will fail, just like regular public schools SHOULD do, to make room for something else.

  4. Hopefully everyone, except possibly Inga, grasps the concept that pedophiles migrate to jobs that give them access to children. The difference between pedophile teachers in public and Charter schools is that non-tenured teachers can be fired.

    It was a slap in the face to all of CA that a school had to bribe a serial pedophile with $40,000 just to avoid the expensive process of firing him. Dozens of kids got to undergo HIV tests, and other blood borne pathogen tests, and we paid him $40,000 to go away. Shameful.

    If it was Republicans or the Koch Brothers or Mitt Romney, people would be howling in the streets. But, inexplicably, Teachers Unions get a free pass on decency standards.

  5. Wade,

    I provided links to posts I had written on the subject charter schools that were well-researched–but the people who hate public school teachers and traditional public schools (TPS) don’t care to hear about the charter schools that are failing…or the charter school companies that steal from tax payers. They only care about criticizing TPS and the educators who teach in them. Are there bad/incompetent public school teachers? Sure! Just as there are bad/incompetent doctors, lawyers, dentists, plumbers, electricians, accountants…you name it. Some people have an ax to grind about TPS and nothing any of us can say nor information that we provide about some of the negative aspects of charter schools will change their minds.

  8. YES, I KNOW tenured teachers CAN be fired. It takes years and hundreds of thousands of dollars. Why do you not understand? I JUST linked where a school had to bribe a pedophile teacher who assaulted dozens of young children $40,000 NOT to fight firing in court. Get it? Just GOOGLE firing tenured teachers to find out how much it costs. You either don’t know or are just ignoring it.

    http://nypost.com/2014/06/14/tenured-teachers-they-cheat-they-loaf-they-cant-be-fired/

    http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/06/16/teacher-tenure-los-angeles-vergara-editorials-debates/10640909/

    A CA teacher has a better chance of getting hit by lightening than of getting fired for cause. I remember having public teachers that read novels all day.

    Personally, I hold children’s education a higher priority.

  10. I guess Karen didn’t read about the charter schools that are strictly business opportunities for stealing public money and closing after two months leaving kids and teachers screwed.

  13. Yeah they sure were careful about what pedophiles they hired to teach children in charter schools, I’m so impressed.

  15. Elaine – that is super awesome that you live near a good public school.

    How does that in the least way affect the choice to send kids to charter schools? Charters can be built out to meet student demand. If a good public school gets crowded, well, too bad.

    The Teachers Union’s slogan should be “Screw Childhood Education, we just care about the money and defend pedophiles!” I mean, they should at least be honest.

  17. Karen says:

    “Any anecdote about an excellent public school is irrelevant”

    That’s odd. Karen provides almost nothing but anecdotes.

    As for ‘choice’ being the greatest issue….
    That’s interesting. So are you going to guarantee funding for at least one alternet school for every school in CA and, indeed, in the entire US?

    That should make for some interesting taxes.

  18. Again, and I can’t believe I have to keep explaining this, but the ability to fire a teacher for cause is GOOD THING.

    How many times do we hear in the public school system about predatory pedophile teachers, where allegations were ignored for YEARS? Get them out!

    If a teacher preys on kids, I don’t want them to “leave quietly”, or retire, I want them fired so fast it breaks the sound barrier. And simultaneously I want charges pressed.

    AGAIN, any anecdote about a good public school or a bad charter is irrelevant to the discussion at hand, which is that parents have the right to choose where to send their kids.

  19. Karen,

    I live in a state that has excellent public schools…and school choice. If parents don’t like the schools in their district, their children can apply to attend schools in other communities that participate in the school choice program. BTW, Massachusetts students always compare well to students in other states.

    The school district where I taught participated in the Metco Program–minority students from the inner city were bused into the district and attended school there.

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