Chicago Daily Observer

In protest of Chicago’s failing school system, Sen. James Meeks (D-Chicago) is staging a field trip of sorts. He’s urging kids from his legislative district to skip the first day of school, board buses, travel to Winnetka, and attempt to enroll in New Trier High School.

One can understand why Meeks would want better educational options for Chicago kids. But on his way to Winnetka, the senator might want to take a look out the window where there are already many Chicago public schools—charter schools—that are performing on par with top-notch suburban and downstate schools. One such school, Chicago International Charter School, graduates its students 86 percent of the time—comparing quite favorably with public schools Downstate and suburban Chicago, which have an average graduation rate of 84 percent. Overall, charter public schools in Chicago graduate 77 percent of their students, compared with a citywide average of 51 percent.

Why aren’t ... Read More...

The cost of gas is putting a pinch on household budgets, but Congress refuses to support measures that would reduce the cost of gas by increasing supplies, and making domestic production less expensive.

Join Americans for Prosperity’s 70-foot-tall hot air balloon at Peoria’s RiverFront Festival Park on Friday, August 15, at 5:00 PM for a discussion on American energy policy. Learn about the danger reactionary climate change legislation poses to our economy, local businesses, even your personal budget.

This will be a fun event and completed free with tethered hot air balloon rides (weather and wind permitting), music, and food. Be among the first 50 to pre-register online and get a free t-shirt.

Bring friends from work, family, your college, homeschool group, political group, other community associations! Click here for a printable flyer!

Joined by leaders from the immigrant community, Aldermen George Cardenas of the 12th Ward and Manny Flores of the 1st Ward today introduced a resolution for the Chicago City Council that condemns the increasingly venomous tone of the national immigration debate and reaffirms the City’s support for sensible solution for the immigration issue.

“Throughout our history, Chicago has welcomed immigrants from around the world, including my own family,” said Alderman Cardenas at a City Hall press conference announcing the resolution. “Our city was built by immigrants, and has respected the contributions that immigrants have made and will continue to make. Unfortunately, the overall climate surrounding the immigration issue has turned more and more ugly, fed in particular by cable news. It’s time that our city took a stand against the hateful rhetoric.”

Age typically is associated with maturity, with maturity being associated with taking on adult responsibilities like providing for one’s self and one’s family. Yet in his Chicago Daily Observer column, Don Rose demands that as our population ages, our politicians should take the expedient 10–15 year time frame, rather than acting as stewards for lasting financial security. Whatever his reason, it’s clear he doesn’t want to address the underlying actuarial problems of Social Security.

This is the equivalent of US retirees throwing a big party and then flying out of town at the end of the party, leaving friends and family to clean up the mess. Or, really, just the younger friends and family.

If you know anything about mathematics, you know that Social Security is a demographic time bomb. It will begin to run a deficit at some ... Read More...

General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall! – Ronald Reagan at the Brandenburg Gate, West Berlin, Germany on June 12, 1987. [Full speech text here.]

I realize it’s become cliché for Republicans to talk about how much they miss Ronald Reagan. But nowhere is some of the Gipper’s spine needed more than in the Illinois GOP right now.

Reagan stood up to an Evil Empire and won the Cold War – without firing a shot. Once they faced a determined leader like Reagan, the communists realized they could never prevail.

The stakes are considerably lower in Illinois these days. That should argue for accomplishing more because the tasks at hand are much easier for Illinois Republicans compared to ... Read More...

With oil topping $130 a barrel, pump prices over $4.00 a gallon a nd the media promoting—er, reporting on—the slowing economy, oil companies aren’t the only ones taking abuse from pundits, policymakers and politicians. Businesses all over America are really taking it on the chin.
This must stop. Vilifying business is a terrible trend in American cultural and political discourse. And while I have come to expect it from the Democrats, the Republicans aren’t immune either, including the putative presidential nominee.

I often ask my liberal friends to name one good social program that is not paid for by a business. The conversations are usually quite amusing. First, they often enthusiastically name a variety of programs such as social security, welfare and food stamps. Once it is pointed out that every single one of those programs is funded by tax dollars that are generated from business—either directly, or from ... Read More...

Back in 1979, before GDP growth had turned negative, Alfred Kahn, President Carter’s Chief Economist made a professional faux pas. He uttered the “R” word within earshot of the national press. Higher-ups in the White House quickly put the hammer to Dr. Kahn, suggesting that he never use the “R” word again.
To his credit, Alfred Kahn did not back down. He announced that from then on he would refer to the recession as a “banana.” He then began to say things like, “I think we are in for a serious banana.” He was funny, and he was right.
Twenty-one years later, in December 2000, Vice President-Elect Richard Cheney, told Tim Russert on Meet the Press that the US was probably on the “front edge of a recession.” At the time, GDP growth was still positive and most economists felt a recession was highly unlikely.
... Read More...

For 53 years the Detroit Branch NAACP has sponsored one of the nation’s signature events. Thanks to hundreds of volunteers, dedicated staff and many business, corporate, community, faith-
based and labor organizations we can record a history of success in what has become the nation’s largest sit down dinner. This year shall be no different.

It is therefore our unique pleasure to announce that the speaker for the 53rd Annual Fight for Freedom Fund Dinner will be the Honorable Reverend Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, pastor emeritus of the Trinity United
Church of Christ, Chicago, Illinois. Reverend Wright has challenged the nation, challenged our comfort zone and stimulated nation-wide discussion on the issues of how we must move forward together as both a nation and a people. We look forward to his participation here in the city of Detroit.

Exemplifying a reform opportunity that applies across the nation, Illinois legislators will be presented this year with yet another chance to reconfigure the political balance of power in their state and reestablish their electoral relevance.

Against the backdrop of Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s (D) State of the State Address in February, House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) allowed Senate Bill 2288 to begin slithering its way through the General Assembly once again.

SB 2288 (formerly House Bill 750) has been the legislative Rasputin of Illinois politicians, Republicans and Democrats alike, dating back to Gov. Jim Edgar® in the mid-1990s. The thrust of the bill is to increase the state income tax permanently from 3 percent to 5 percent in exchange for temporary property tax relief.

Where would the net increase in state revenue go? Say it with me: To fund education. Herein lies the political opportunity.

How much wasteful spending goes on each year in Illinois? Yesterday, the Illinois Policy Institute released its 2008 Piglet Book, which details more than $686 million in wasteful spending alone. Highlights (or, rather, lowlights) include:

· $4 million for a Ford Technical Training Center in Chicago
Heights
· $1 million for the Illinois film office in Chicago
· $920,000 for the Chicago Aerospace Education Initiative
· $550,000 for the conservation of pheasants
· $500,000 to administer the tanning facility permit act
· $156,000 to Southern Illinois University to refurnish cabins at
the “Touch of Nature Environmental Center” at Southern
Illinois University – Carbondale
· $40,000 for the Springfield Figure Skating Club
· $35,000 for the Prairie Aviation Museum for a display gallery
in Bloomington

There’s a lot more where that came from, including protections for “fur-bearing mammals” ... Read More...

If an incarcerated person was up for parole, would you want their fate determined by a board set up to keep the public safe or would you prefer a panel of other inmates to determine who should be set free? Sure, the question is ridiculous; no way would a sane person want Jeffrey Dahmer, John Wayne Gacy and Ted Bundy deciding if Jack the Ripper should be a free man. However the same common sense does not apply when it comes to the asylum known as the government of Illinois and the inmates who are the elected officials.

In state of Illinois, the legislators are deciding if a constitutional amendment should be on the November ballot, which would permit the recall of elected officials. Please allow me to rephrase that sentence. Politicians are deciding if their constituents have the right to have them fired if they are doing a lousy ... Read More...

Leslie Boudreau was billed $4,619 by the Illinois tollway, with only two weeks to pay up before charges would inflate to $15,739.

Two taxi drivers were billed $80,571 last year for unpaid tolls dating back to 2003.

And Carla Meier-a resident of downstate Illinois who doesn’t use the tollway-recently received a $62 tollway fine while incapable of driving due to a broken foot.

Sadly, with the tollway’s modern I-Pass system, these situations are not unique. The top 50 toll violators have $2.2 million in outstanding fines, and although present information isn’t available, violators owed $78 million at the end of 2005.

But how do these monstrous fines accumulate?

Well, electronic tolling is both a blessing and curse. While I-Pass reduces traffic congestion (you can pay a toll without stopping at a booth), it also streamlines the taxing process. First, you put down a deposit for a transmitter that attaches to ... Read More...

When the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority (ISTHA) was established in 1941, Austin Wyman (the initial head of the organization) said the tolls would be eliminated by 1984 when outstanding bonds were paid off.

Instead, the Authority has done just the opposite, maturing into a self-perpetuating bureaucracy without any end in sight. It’s an excellent case study on the instinctive nature of bureaucracy; a testimony of self-preservation, growth, and government waste.

In November 2008, Illinois voters will decide whether to have a constitutional convention. A “yes” vote for a convention will allow us to get to the work of cleaning up Illinois government, constitutionally limiting spending, and making it tougher for government to raise your taxes. The changes we have to make to accomplish these goals require amendments to the Illinois Constitution.

The only way to get those amendments now is to go through the legislature. But the legislature is the main obstacle to getting meaningful amendments to the ballot. It never will vote for the kinds of amendments that will get us there because doing so will limit legislative power. And let’s face it: the legislature never will allow the people to vote on any question that might limit legislative power.

The legislature has a sympathetic judiciary to do the heavy, and controversial, lifting. That’s what happened nearly 20 years ... Read More...

Sometimes the difference between a good think tank and a successful think tank comes down to taking action. Over the past month, the Illinois Policy Institute has been heavily engaged in fighting a Chicago Transit Authority bailout that included a sales tax increase in six Chicago suburban communities.

As a non-profit think tank, our job is to educate activists, policymakers, the press and the general public. Over the course of this tax fight, we did just that:

• The Institute targeted state representatives who were being pressured to vote for the tax increase and called more than 30,000 voters in their districts to urge them to contact their legislators.
  * We spread the word to leaders of Americans for Tax Reform, who contacted key members of the Transportation Committee to oppose the tax hike.
  * We also notified our friends at the National Taxpayers Union, who subsequently ... Read More...

As soon as today, the House of Representatives will vote to override President Bush’s veto of State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-SCHIP) expansion bill. The bill passed earlier this year with help from moderate Republicans – most notably Senator’s Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) in the US Senate.

The concept of the SCHIP was originally to fund health insurance for children in families that earned too much to be Medicaid eligible but were to poor to pay for insurance in the individual market, or they worked in a low-wage position in which employee health benefits were not provided.

The program has been somewhat successful in the expanding health insurance coverage to these groups of people. However, about half of those joining the program were dropping their private coverage in favor of “free government insurance.” In addition, states, Illinois being a chief culprit, were expanding the program ... Read More...

Imagine you are a contestant on Jeopardy, and the category is “Sea Battles of the Late 16th Century.” Two choices remain: 1588 or 1571. Recent graduates of our public schools may not recognize either, but if you went to high school decades ago, you would know that 1588 was the year of the Spanish Armada.
In fact, the victory of Francis Drake and the rest of Queen Elizabeth’s pirates on that tragic day in August 1588 is the reason 1571 is unknown to most Americans. The defeat of the Armada heralded a new era during which Britannia, not Hispania, ruled the waves. As result, America ended up an English Protestant country, and in school we all learned English Protestant history.
Nonetheless, on October 7, 1571 a far more important battle raged at the mouth of the Gulf of Patras, which divided mainland Greece from Corinth. It was ... Read More...

Tracy Jan’s exposé on minority teachers failing certification exams, even in their designated fields, should be more than an eye-opener for those who continue to believe the blind can lead the blind.

The usual protectors of the dignity of non-performing minority teachers are quick to reassure us that the validity of the test is to be questioned due to potential for “cultural biases.” As education school deans ask for the Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure to be redesigned, they also lament that we should determine “whether the quality of education that minority teaching applicants receive is good enough.”

We want the whole world to see in 2016 that we are a world-class city, an Olympic host city. To prove this, however, we need a world-class transit system. To build such a system, our rail and bus transit agencies are demanding new Chicago and suburban taxes. The biggest demand comes from the CTA.

It’s time we compare ourselves with London, the 2012 Olympic host city. How does Chicago transit compare with London transit? Chicago’s transit covers 3 million residents and London’s transit covers 7 million. The CTA has 2,000 buses and London has 8,000. The CTA has 1,200 train cars and London has 4,000. Chicago wants world-class Chicago Transit Authority ; London has world-class mass Transport for London.

The CTA is a 43-year-old monopoly. It maintains the kind of ingrown Old-Boy management and rigid unionized workforce that have driven GM, Ford and Chrysler to the ... Read More...

Some people you can really count on. Some you can’t count on at all.

Both statements pretty much sum up Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. As in “you can count on not being able to count on him.”

Blagojevich recently signed a pay raise for legislators, after promising during his campaign that he would definitely not sign any such pay raise. Oops.

As one legislator of the governor’s own party put it: “He’ll say anything and do the exact opposite. For him to do a complete flip-flop, I would say, it’s the only consistent thing he does.”

Why did the governor go back on his word? Well, you know, he wanted to bribe legislators and, now I’m just guessing, he really didn’t want to use his own money. So Blagojevich gave legislators a nearly 10 percent pay raise using taxpayers’ money.

The Governor explained his flip-flop: “I want to say this ... Read More...

The two Americas

Could Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards actually be right about something? Not where to go to get a haircut, mind you, I mean about there being two Americas.

There is the vibrant America . . . and the stagnant one.

There is the America of ever-increasing wealth, innovation, creativity, of a dynamic economy, new jobs, new products and services. Choices galore. Information overload. The abundant work product of freedom.

And there is the politician’s America: The regulated America, the subsidized America, the earmarked America. The failing America.

In one America it is what you produce that gets you ahead. In the other it’s who you know.

In one America, to earmark some money means setting aside funds (into savings) for a purchase — a car, house, college.

In the other America, to earmark is to grab from taxpayers to give to cronies. It is the highest rite ... Read More...

Gov. Blagojevich first sought office on a promise to end business as usual. And he does seem to have developed some new practices. In the past, state contracts were, on occasion, granted to companies known to support the patron’s campaign fund. Now, today’s press reports suggest, contractors are showing support for their patron in new ways.
United Services of Chicago apparently paid for busses to send people to the State Fair on Democrats’ Day, some of whom wore Blagojevich t-shirts and who boo’d Blagojevich’s chief rival in Springfield, House Speaker Michael Madigan. Some even told reporters that they were working for the Blagojevich campaign.
United Services has many financial ties to the Governor. Contracts with the group grew from $1M in FY04 to $1.9M in FY07, and the group appears to be in line for $2.3M in state money in FY08. Press coverage has focused ... Read More...

In the recent movie “Rescue Dawn,” a US fighter pilot struggles to survive after being shot down on a mission over Laos during the Vietnam War. In present-day Chicago, Ben Joravsky, a columnist for the Chicago Reader, jokes that his experience is similar-only instead of battling in the jungles of Laos, Joravsky is fighting to save apathetic Chicago citizens from a wildly corrupt Chicago city government.

Nevertheless, both are war zones.

Joravsky specializes in writing about TIFs, or tax-increment-financing districts. If you’re unfamiliar with TIFs, you’re not alone: many citizens find the process confusing, but worse yet, many just don’t care. However, the time for understanding is now-because in the city of Chicago alone, there are 153 TIFs currently open, which collect more than $400 million per year in property taxes (roughly 10 percent of your annual tax bill)-and a new one is proposed every month.

“At the pace they’re ... Read More...

Top 100 Administrator Salaries
2006 search results.

Click ‘Name’ or ‘Salary’ or ‘District Name’ to re-sort data by that field.
Name Salary District Name
Catalani Gary T $380,227 CUSD 200
Cordts – Barke Ginnell A $368,000 BELLWOOD SD 88
Bangser Henry S $356,500 NEW TRIER TWP HSD 203
Kunesh Karen T $356,258 BERKELEY SD 87
Curley Mary M $321,149 HINSDALE CCSD 181
Kelly Dennis G $317,226 LYONS TWP HSD 204
Marks Linda R $316,874 GOLF ESD 67
Griffith Harry D $301,537 LAKE FOREST SD 67
Kanold Timothy D $292,938 ADLAI E STEVENSON HSD 125
Codell Neil C $286,208 NILES TWP CHSD 219
Bultinck Howard ... Read More...

Commissioner Mike Quigley (D-10) Releases Major Research Report Questioning Effectiveness and Accountability of Tax Increment Financing (TIF)

(Chicago, Illinois – June 14, 2007) On Wednesday, June 13 an Arizona Superior Court judge ruled the state’s 2006 special-needs and foster-care voucher programs constitutional. The statement below is from Robert Holland, senior fellow for education policy at The Heartland Institute.

Cook County Board President Todd Stroger ?will be out on medical leave? for the next three weeks due to a ?routine medical procedure,? a spokeswoman for Stroger said this morning.