Bipartisan Illinois commission studies sorely needed educational reforms
Illinois education reform is needed regardless of how contentious it gets between the House Education Reform committee and the Illinois Education Association (IEA). State education laws need revision....
View ArticleFollowup to Illinois Educational Reform – Challenging teacher tenure
As a followup to the House Education Reform Committee post from December 14, concerning educational reforms, statewide school reform seems to be an issue whose time has come. The latest resolution...
View ArticleRSD205 and taxpayers penalized for not providing adequate surrogate parenting
State officials say the Rockford School District suspended or expelled a disproportionate number of black special-needs students, from 2007 through 2009, so the school district now has $1.1M in federal...
View ArticleState teachers respond to the Illinois House Education Reform Committee
State education laws have needed revision for a long time. These laws have created many of the problems in Illinois education and have resulted in increasing expenditures without a corresponding...
View ArticleRSD205 Budget Deficit – Depends on your point of view – Condensed Version
The Rockford School District’s budget process involves a series of estimated forecasts, such as property values (EAV), General State Aid (GSA), Corporate Personal Property Replacement taxes (CPPRT),...
View ArticleREA political contributions and spouse is a teacher – conflict of interest?
The largest benefactor of this year’s political contributions from the Rockford Education Association’s (REA) Political Action Committee for Education, RPACE, was Laura J. Powers, the winner of the...
View ArticleCollege Illinois! prepaid tuition – risky investments or Illinois Ponzi scheme?
All new investments for the College Illinois! prepaid tuition program have been suspended by the state agency running the program due to an increasing scrutiny concerning risky investments of the money...
View ArticlePublic pensions lucrative compared to private pensions
A Wall Street Journal article, “Why Public Pensions Are So Rich,” uses the Illinois Teacher’s Retirement System (TRS) as its example of generous “defined benefit” plans that guarantee benefits...
View ArticleTeacher pensions will soon exceed education funding
In a previous post, the Illinois Teacher’s Retirement System (TRS) was shown to be a lucrative pension compared to private pensions. A new report shows that Illinois spending on this pension for...
View ArticleHigher taxes will again prove futile in resolving state fiscal crisis
The League of Women Voters in a recent op-ed demanded passage of the proposed increase in Illinois income taxes by over $5B annually; broadening the sales tax to include services; the LWV...
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