March 19, 2017
Belleville News-Democrat
Hoping we get someone in Springfield to turn around
The programming out of Springfield feels a lot like a television singing contest: Just when you think you are about to see something happen… they take a commercial break.
You sit there feeling fooled again.
Pieces of the Grand Bargain are actually being voted on and Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner stops the music over too many taxes with too little reform. Progress is apparent and Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza try to halt state workers’ paychecks to force a deal or make Rauner look bad.
So now the state pension reform has been split from the Grand Bargain and combined with $215 million for Chicago teacher pensions. Rauner is pushing it as a way to fix a retirement system that is $130 billion short of the promises made to state workers and to save taxpayers billions. He calls it a foundation upon which lawmakers can work together enough to finally, finally maybe pass a state budget.
Lawmakers have been on Rauner’s appointees for offering no proposals for cutting their budgets. Rauner has been on lawmakers for not offering proposed cuts and refusing to give him the authority to make them. Call the 12 reform measures the Dirty Dozen, because a small minority of the 4,700 witnesses at the bill hearings had anything nice to say about them.
So we stand there, singing our hearts out and hoping John or Christine or Mike or Jim pushes the button to make something happen. But first a word from our sponsor, likely trying to sell us a cure for one ailment followed by great discomfort and unpleasant side effects every April 15th for years to come.
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March 17, 2017
Chicago Sun-Times
How to close dark money loophole in Illinois political campaigns
The “dark money” pouring into Illinois political races needs a lot of sunlight.
Certain political nonprofits that have set themselves up as 501(c)(4)s, 501(c)(5)s or 501(c)(6)s - special categories that were intended for charities - can donate unlimited sums of so-called “dark money” to campaigns without disclosing where they get their cash. They also don’t have to disclose how they spend their money. That allows any person or organization with deep pockets to sway government policy without any public scrutiny.
This kind of dark money didn’t used to be a problem in Illinois political races, but as campaign laws have been rewritten, particularly after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United v. FEC decision, the floodgates have opened. But we can do something about it.
A bill introduced by state Sen. Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, with state Sen. Sam McCann, R-Plainview, as chief co-sponsor, would effectively require full disclosure of the source of such money. The bill cleared the Senate’s Executive Committee last week by a vote of 11-3, and the full Legislature should pass it. The measure is backed by the Better Government Association, the League of Women Voters, the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform and Illinois PIRG. Significantly, it is opposed by two groups that in the past have channeled dark money into elections.
Both Republicans and Democrats benefit from bundles of dark money, which now amount to millions of dollars in an election cycle. Dark money was used against state Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia, D-Aurora, and one of her opponents when Chapa LaVia ran in a four-way race for Aurora mayor on Feb. 28. Dark money from a Democratic group, the Fight Back Fund, provided about a third of the funding for the Safe Roads Amendment, a successful union-backed measure on the ballot last November. Last year, the Illinois Opportunity Project used dark money to back former state Rep. Ken Dunkin, an ally of Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, and Jason Gonzales, who challenged Rauner foe Michael Madigan in the 22nd Legislative District.
When campaign donations are secret, voters don’t know if elected officials are putting the electorate first or simply paying back big donors. That’s not healthy for democracy.
A ban on dark money wouldn’t limit the flow of ideas in campaigns. Even people who argue campaign donations are a form of free speech should agree those donations should be transparent. If people or organizations want to contribute a large amount of money to influence an election, as is their constitutional right in this post-Citizens United era, at least their names should be disclosed.
It’s always good to know who’s pulling somebody’s strings.
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March 17, 2017
The (Champaign) News-Gazette
Plugging away on prisons
State officials are taking a series of baby steps aimed at ensuring that only those people who need to be in prison are in prison.
Shortly after Gov. Bruce Rauner took office in January 2015, he made it clear that there are too many people in Illinois prisons.
The governor established a goal of reducing the state’s prison population by 25 percent by 2025, and appointed a commission made up of legislators, law officers and representatives of the judicial system to study the issues and make recommendations for change.
Last week, Rauner signed another in a series of bills aimed at implementing the commission’s recommendations.
This bill - SB 2872 - is aimed at helping to rehabilitate those already behinds bars by offering them expanded opportunities to participate in prison programs.
The most significant aspect of the legislation is that it expands the “good time” credit that inmates can receive on their sentences if they participate in programs aimed at helping them become successful after they are released.
Prison, too often, is a revolving door of inmates who are sentenced, serve their time and then are released and then resentenced to prison after they commit new crimes. This is a difficult cycle to break, particularly for those individuals who have come from impoverished backgrounds or have little education.
Further, offenders of a certain age are likely to continue to commit new crimes until they grow out of their criminal propensity.
This measure is aimed at assisting inmates who have participated in prison programming to the point that they are ineligible to earn additional good time off their sentences.
Not all inmates will be eligible - just those who are considered likely to benefit from additional opportunities.
The governor, as he has done on other issues, has embraced an aggressive approach on this issue.
He insists that too many people are in prison, and he may well be correct about that. But the difficulty for prosecutors and judges is determining which defendants need to be locked up to ensure public safety and which would be best served by a probation sentence that carries strict conditions.
The legislation also goes beyond criminal defendants to address the victims of criminal behavior.
The legislation requires the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority, a research agency, to provide planning and technical assistance to high-crime communities in which those victimized by the criminal element experience trauma.
Identifying changes that result in fewer people in prison is particularly difficult. While there will always be a criminal element, the best means of ensuring law-abiding behavior is to maintain a strong, vibrant economy that produces jobs and proper education and training that allow individuals to exercise their potential and see meaningful opportunities of a better life.
Illinois is sadly lacking a jobs-generating economy and good training and educational opportunities for all. If legislators really want to do something to address prison issues, they might try cooperating on education and jobs issues like they did on this prison measure.
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March 17, 2017
The (Lake County) News-Sun
Low pay fuels county shortage of teaching subs
Illinois classrooms are facing a shortage of substitute teachers, according to the National Education Association. Perhaps school districts across the state should address the main cause: salaries.
An estimated 9,380 substitutes take over for classroom teachers in the six-county area each school year, earning on average $32,380. Subs take the places of teachers for a day, a week or a school year for little more than what some fast-food restaurant workers or big box department store employees make.
With all due respect to door greeters — even the most enthusiastic among you — we think it’s fair to expect people teaching our children to get paid substantially more. With hourly rates that in some cases come out to between $11 and $13.75 per hour, it’s no surprise that some schools are having trouble finding substitute teachers.
Substitute teachers today aren’t your grandparents’ subs, stepping into the classroom when a regular teacher has an occasion to take a day off. They no longer are merely classroom baby sitters, showing movies and film strips to students or turning their classes into leisurely study halls.
Good subs are ready to pick up the lesson plans of their absent counterparts, perform daily educational tasks and be tech savvy. They also take over for playground, bus and lunch duties, along with keeping discipline in the classroom. That’s in addition to teaching if the missing teacher has left behind class assignments.
A new state law backed by the Illinois Principals Association and signed into law by Gov. Bruce Rauner in January aims to address the substitute shortage by reducing substitute teaching license fees to $50 from $100, giving retired teachers with lapsed licenses a year to bring them back into good standing without fines or coursework, and dropping a basic skills test for the five-year renewal of a substitute teacher license. A substitute teaching license in Illinois requires a minimum of a bachelor’s degree and a background check, but not a teaching license.
It’s not like substitute teachers don’t have an opportunity to be needed in the classroom. A survey last fall of nearly 400 school districts conducted by the Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools found schools statewide could not find substitute teachers to fill 18 percent of absences, leaving about 600 classrooms a day without a traditional sub.
Yet, county school districts are finding low salaries and a shrinking labor market are discouraging potentially excellent fill-in candidates from jumping into the substitute teacher pool. Our kids deserve qualified subs who are used to the classroom when their regular teachers are absent from school.
The easiest way to increase the number of veteran substitute teachers is to raise subs’ pay. We can and should do better. It’s only fair for the kids and the subs.
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