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
“The views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not those of the blog, the host, or other bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays or art are solely their decision and responsibility.”
I’m off to slumberland. Now that it’s closing time and the bar is free of the riff raff that the 50 cent beer always brings in, the discussion has been fun.
PR
We’ve provided you with a lot of reading material. Why not go over that, see the issues we have brought up, and do some of your own research and link it for us?
Prairie Rose,
There are good charter schools and there are bad charter schools–just as there are good traditional public schools and bad traditional public schools. Most of the failing TPS are in poor and minority districts where there is usually less revenue for education…and myriad other issues. One bad thing about charter schools is that they take money away from the TPS in their districts–but the local school board has no control over them.
PR:
There are some good charter schools and we in Virginia are trying to buck the trend of downward spiraling charters. That said they are at best an ancillary solution to the big problems Elaine identified in her NY article.
Yes PR, I think they can, but we have got to have more district control over the charter schools. Seems like there is some shady business dealings in some of them.
Inga – the idea of the charter school is to NOT have district control.
Wade:
Yeah but he’s coaching like those two clowns in Tennessee who both tried to throw the girls high school basketball game because they were afraid to play the world class team. There’s a lesson there.
I’m a little behind in reading, but I tried to catch up quickly; hope I didn’t read anything too quickly.
From the back and forth article citing, it sounds like TPS are being maligned by the bad traditional public schools (think of the hand-wringing that has gone on for decades and gave us NCLB, Common Core, and other interventions), and, that bad charter schools are maligning the good charter schools.
What percentage of TPS and charter schools can actually be considered bad?
There’s a lot of bad press against charter schools, but is that because they are overall poorly run, or is it because they are new, different, or supported by Republicans 😉 ? I haven’t researched yet, but might there be a review of the data that would tease out these details?
Are bad charter schools bad in the exact same way as bad public schools? (Sure sounds like it, based on the links Elaine cited.) Can the same be said of good charter schools–being good just like good TPS?
Are good charter schools meeting the educational needs of the students who might have to attend bad public schools, or, meeting the needs of students who don’t fit in at traditional public schools?
Karen says the charter school near her is good. Both Elaine and I taught in good traditional public schools.
Can both systems co-exist and be successful?
Prairie Rose – the idea behind charter schools is that if they are not successful, they fail. And they do. I have seen some great ideas on paper that did not transfer to reality.
The Ref who is also the Coach is back!
I love the way this game is played.
Karen:
I thought you exited stage right with Steve Wilkos to get the paternity test. Well since you’re back from your hissy fit let’s talk tenure. No person on this thread wants any unqualified teacher in the classroom. To suggest otherwise, is … well a lie. That doesn’t mean you can’t also support teacher unions. They are not mutually exclusive. The right to collective bargaining is a valuable tool for fairness by labor in its dealings with management. You want to emasculate unions; just admit it.
mespo – teachers’ unions have been the bane of good education. They pit the teachers against the administration and the students. The schools I worked at meet every week to discuss the problem students, which included teachers, staff and administrators. We were all part of education the child. The person we thought who had the best relationship with the troubled student was assigned the task of talking to them.
Public backs NY teachers in fight with Gov. Cuomo, poll finds
2/24/15
http://www.syracuse.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/02/poll_ny_teachers_are_not_the_problem.html
Excerpt:
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — In the ongoing war between Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York’s teachers, the teachers are winning, according to a new poll out today from Siena College Research Institute.
Consider what voters said when asked about what hinders education in New York: Little parental involvement (37 percent), not enough money in schools (18 percent), the effects of poverty (17 percent), ineffective state oversight (12 percent), poor quality teachers (10 percent).
I think we all are quite happy.
“It shows that 82 percent of parents rate their child’s teachers as excellent or good, and just 5 percent rate them as poor. And parents were almost universal in saying that teacher quality is a central factor in determining the quality of education a child receives.”
From my linked article.
23% of teachers getting a failing grade means that 77% of teachers get a passing grade, for anyone who needs help with math.
What’s the big problem with this picture? Tenure prevents firing of Bad Teachers. Merit based pay would reward good teachers, and provide an incentive for bad teachers to improve.
But some people think it’s unfair to grade teachers, reward excellence, or get rid of low performers. Maybe they would feel differently if their kids were stuck with those 23% low performers.
23% is shockingly bad.
Let’s call Daryl l Issa. He’s slipping that he is not investigating the way Obamacare has taken away the freedom of 70% of California’s doctors
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/20/parents-rate-teachers-highly_n_3785737.html
Most parents rate their child’s teachers highly. Poll and study.
Mespo:
I have NEVER ONCE lied on this blog. Neither you, nor anyone else, can show a single instance of my lying.
You can disagree with my sources, by all means. But as a lawyer, you should understand what “lying” means.
You are apparently blissfully unaware of the scandal where insurers were listing physicians as participating without actually asking them. This caused a lot of trouble when people signed up for plans based on network, only to be told that the doctor accepted the carrier, but NOT the Obamacare plan.
Mespo:
Name ONE single time that I have lied. I don’t whine and cry into a hanky, either. I addressed your behavior and you’ve chosen to continue in your typical personal attacks.
I have many flaws, but lying is not one of them.
You asked for stats. I gave them. Now you’re pouting in your typical immature response.
Grow up. I’m done with this Springer Show.
Not “overwhelmingly” Karen.
Absolute BS that 70% of doctors opt out of Obamacare and not a peep out of the LA Times, SF or Sacramento papers.
Bircher crap all the way.
BTW …. cns news is right wing as is the Washington Examiner – founded by that head Moonie.
CHARTER SCHOOLS: A School For Scandal?
http://www.phillyrecord.com/2012/08/charter-schools-a-schhol-for-scandal/
Excerpt:
 Last week the FBI charged one of the pioneers of the charter-school movement, June Hairston Brown, and four colleagues with defrauding $6.5 million from three Philadelphia schools she had founded: Agora Cyber Charter School, Planet Abacus Charter School and Laboratory Charter School of Communication & Language – all taxpayers’ money.
In April, the School Reform Commission terminated the charters of three more city schools – Truebright Science Academy, Arise Academy and Hope Charter School – citing poor academic performance and unqualified personnel. One of them, TrueÂbright Science Academy, turned out to be a disguised unit in a national chain of charter schools run by a secretive Turkish Muslim preacher, Fethullah Gulen, whose science teachings include creationism.