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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Yes, Inga, that quote is from the article that I linked with, and actually read.
It was supposed to be surprising that 10% of teachers receive an F AND 13% a D. That means that 23% of teachers are failing.
23% of kids should not be screwed out of an education.
“It doesn’t surprise me that there’s a high rate of nonparticipation,” said Dr. Richard Thorp, president of the California Medical Association.
Independent insurance brokers who work with both insurance companies and doctor networks estimate that about 70 percent of California’s 104,000 licensed doctors are boycotting the exchange.
“We need some recognition that we’re doing a service to the community. But we can’t do it for free. And we can’t do it at a loss. No other business would do that,” he said.
California offers one of the lowest government reimbursement rates in the country — 30 percent lower than federal Medicare payments. And reimbursement rates for some procedures are even lower.”
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/doctors-boycotting-californias-obamacare-exchange/article/2540272
How’s that for you, Mespo? Care to deal with reality yet, or are you going to keep parroting the party line?
Hopefully everyone understands at this point that the vast majority of parents oppose tenure, and support school choice that allows charter schools.
Anyone who wants to remove school choice and charter schools does so against the wishes of parents.
And teachers work for us, the parents. They might be paid with taxpayer money in general, but they lose funding when they lose students. And WE decide where to send our kids.
So if the Union plows ahead with business as usual, we will vote with our feet.
“Parent surveys are nearly identical. Parents give 56% of the teachers in their local schools one of the two top grades, but they hand out a D to 13% and an F to 10%.”
Karen, overwhelmingly? Hardly. 56 % of parents fave their public schools top grades.
So, Karen, charter school fraud and scandals aren’t of concern to you? You’re only troubled by what goes on in the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad traditional public schools?
70% of doctors in CA opted out of Obamacare.
So, there’s that . . .
http://www.cnsnews.com/mrctv-blog/barbara-boland/over-214000-doctors-opt-out-obamacare-exchanges
I speak for the poll linked above, which shows parents overwhelmingly support ending tenure.
So, there’s that . . .
Aw…isn’t it precious…the knight in shining armor rides in to save the damsel in distress?
LOL!!!
Wade,
Maybe she doesn’t mind when they steal OUR money to run charter schools?
Well looky there! They’ve put their team captain as chief referee. Is that legal?
Karen:
“Again, that is patently false. Although I do include my personal experiences, I have also included statistics in numerous threads. The CA Medical Association posted their reasoning for why doctors boycott Obamacare.”
*********************
And I proved to you that the CA Medical Association (CMA) makes no such claim and never has. I’ll do it again since you insist on perpetuating the lie.
The “boycott” claim originated with Richard Pollock, a reporter at the conservative Washington Examiner, whose piece doesn’t appear to reflect how the California exchange actually works.
“That article was wrong,” says Molly Weedn, spokeswoman for the CMA. “We have no idea how many doctors are participating. We don’t collect that data.”
In fact, Pollock’s sourcing for the data in his original article, which appeared Dec. 6, is highly questionable, if not flat-out worthless. Pollock revised his story on Tuesday after he got called on it by the CMA. He now says there’s no organized boycott. But he’s still seems to have the story wrong.
~ La Times (12/12/2013)
Don’t you Christians know you can go to Hell for lying. And you wonder why we’re not civil to folks who lie right to our faces. Go figure.
Karen so often writes of the many ways the Democrats are stealing her money.
Why is she completely silent regarding the financial fraud taking place in so many charter schools?
Triple teamed and Karen is ahead on points. One nice, smart tough, woman.
Chicago’s UNO charter schools defrauded bondholders, SEC says
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/06/02/us-usa-education-uno-idUSKBN0ED1YW20140602
Excerpt:
(Reuters) – A Chicago charter school operator lied to holders of $37.5 million of municipal bonds about conflicts of interest and risked having to liquidate its schools, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Monday in charging the operator with defrauding investors.
The SEC said UNO Charter School Network Inc did not admit or deny the charges, but agreed to a settlement where it would improve its internal procedures, including appointing an independent monitor. The commission’s enforcement division is continuing to investigate, as well. The attorney for UNO did not respond to requests for comment.
The charges and settlement stem from a spending scandal that led the state of Illinois to suspend grants to UNO, which operates 16 charter schools. The scandal also prompted the resignation of UNO’s long-serving Chief Executive Officer Juan Rangel in December, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
According to a complaint filed in federal court in Chicago, UNO breached a conflict of interest provision in grants it received from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (IDCEO) to build three schools. It contracted with two companies owned by its chief operating officer’s brothers, with one company installing windows for $11 million and the other acting as an owner’s representative during construction. One of the brothers was a former UNO board member, as well, the SEC said.
Elaine – I never said I didn’t want you to post personal anecdotes. I said no anecdote on an excellent public school is relevant because the question is whether parents have the right to school choice if they live near a poor performing school.
Karen, you cannot and do not speak for all parents.
Not true, Elaine. I have stated numerous times that I acknowledge that some public schools are excellent, and some Charter schools have problems.
Repeatedly ascribing false statements to me does not make them true.
Parents want a choice on where to send their kids. You do not have the right to take that away from us.
Below you can look up schools and find their ranking, whether they are traditional public or public charter. Some of the top schools are public, and some are charter.
The entire point that you keep ignoring is that if you live near a low performing school, parents want the choice to send their kids to a charter, or home school. They have the right to judge which is the best option, and rankings help them do so. Is it deliberate that you keep ignoring every point I’ve made and just keep parroting how wonderful some public schools are, or point out, out of 21,000 schools just in CA alone, a couple of charters that have problems?
Parents do NOT agree with you or the unions on the question of school choice.
http://www.greatschools.org/california/
Parents favor ending tenure 2-1:
http://www.hoover.org/research/public-turns-against-teacher-tenure
Perhaps if Liberals keep pushing tenure against the public’s wishes, we can get them out of office. So, good plan.
Karen,
It appears that you’re willingly blind to some of the charter school shenanigans. You only see the bad aspects of TPS–not charter schools.
Those who can magically turn a ‘C’ into an ‘A’
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/those-who-can-magically-turn-c?lite=
Excerpt:
Last year in Indiana, a charter school called Christel House had a small problem. Students’ poor algebra test scores had dragged down the school’s overall letter grade in the state system to a “C,” which in turn put state funding in jeopardy.
At the same time, Republican politicians saw a related problem. Christel House is owned and operated by Christel DeHaan, a major Republican donor with great influence in Indiana’s GOP circles.
And that’s when things got interesting. The Associated Press reported yesterday that Tony Bennett – Indiana’s former schools chief who has since become Florida’s education commissioner – “frantically overhauled” its school grading system last fall in order to ensure the Republican donor’s charter school got an “A,” even though it earned a “C.”
Dems and Rep support Charter Schools, including, but not limited to, Obama. Only unions and the few Dem pols in VERY safe districts support the education industry that has turned public education to a 3rd world system. That is, unless you live in toney, white enclaves in Ma., Va., etc. Those kids get decent educations.