A bit too late to respond to your post but I think it would be possible in a "only Nixon could go to China" situation by a conservative woman. See Thatcher and Ange. Dont know if that would help though
yeah, I'm a little torn on this one as I agree with all the CTU demands for additional support staff and very much support the rank-and-file teachers and other school workers. My very first job was CPS teacher, and while I was so bad at it, you definitely get a firsthand look at the lack of resources many of us probably grew up with -- libraries and librarians, art/music, social workers, playgrounds, recess, etc. however, CTU and SEIU are big supporters of Madigan et al and complicit in his bullshit
Politics ain't bean bag. Dealing with Madigan is foul business to be in, but pushing for nurses and mental health counseling should not be sacrificed over other nastiness (that should reeaaallly be delt with).
Eh, I couldn't care less about the Madigan angle, but I'm of two minds about this. CTU is absolutely right about the poor state of support services in the district. SpEd is particularly atrocious. I know multiple families who are leaving or have left the city because they knew CTU couldn't provide adequate services for their kids, including a co-worker of mine who's been extremely happy with their CPS school for the other kids. All my teacher friends have horror stories though sadly it's not only a CPS-specific problem (my mom taught in Florida and had a story about getting in-school nursing services for a kid on a vent in her school that was awful to think about). But CPS and their elected friends are completely full of shit when they claim that the city can pay for their asks on current revenue. The district was teetering on the edge of total insolvency before Rahm hiked the CPS property tax levy in 2017, and that was just to keep the district afloat in the short term. 70+% of that revenue went straight into the pension hole and the district has even more obligations coming due. "TIF Reform" is a red herring. Most of the surplus money is going to expire early next decade and the 78/LY TIFs are just infrastructure bonds that the city will make back with a profit over the next couple decades for things they'd otherwise be on the hook to spend on anyway lest they leave future revenues on the table. Even if the city said "f-ck it" and spent the up front costs for the TIF pojects for new staff they'd run out of money to pay them almost immediately. If you were a nurse would you take a job with CPS knowing that they had no plan on how they'd pay you after 2022? Not likely. The only way to give CPS what it needs right now is an increase in CPS's property tax levy, and a huge one at that. You don't see Sharkey or Davis Gates advocating for this because they know full well that it would tank their support, and the aldermen and state reps who "Support CTU" don't have the political courage to advocate for it either. I've asked Carlos Ramirez Rosa many times if he'd be willing to back an increase in the levy, and he's ducked and dodged the question every time, but that's not a huge surprise for a guy who's never made a politically courageous decision in his career. Saying "oh, we'll get a more progressive tax figured out later" sounds great in theory, but it also reeks of Daley and the choices that got us into the mess we're in today. My kids will be in CPS soon enough and I need to ensure the district is solvent then too. TLDR: If you want to support CPS, lobby your alderman/state rep for an increase in the district's property tax levy or STFU.
I understand the distinction between TIF surplus as discrete capital funds and the operating funds required for ongoing support staff wages. I also understand the mechanism by which Lincoln Yards will be getting its money, that it is not cash up front. I think the Lasalle Street transfer tax needs to be looked at seriously. That is a progressive tax and I don't know that the political will will be higher than it is now with the most progressive city council in a long time. But I also think pension reform is unavoidable. Getting a full pension for 30 years after 30 years of teaching does not feel appropriate. I am not going to act like I've sat with the numbers or thought through all the adjacent consequences. I don't want to see labor weakened in the face of massive privatization. But I also know that most of the revenue solutions on the table to fund pensions are regressive taxes and that's not good either.
I have to admit I probably couldn't give you a full rundown on the pros and cons of that one. CME are *probably* bluffing when they say they'd bail on Chicago if it happened, but I can guarantee that prop shops like the company my brother worked at for a while as a trader would move almost instantly if it affected them. Though I wouldn't be too optimistic about the progressive aldermen getting things done either way. We lost a left-leaning pragmatist in Arena and these new kids on the block seem mostly interested in grandstanding. As of this week, the DSA and CTU is feuding with Scott Waugespack too, which seems like a great way to make yourselves irrelevant.
where are the Lasalle Street trading firms gonna go? New York? and while it doesn't solve any problems, there would be some visceral satisfaction in seeing them own their greed publicly and leave
Waukegan has, in classic fashion, taken the bullshit "casino will save our town" disaster and turned it up to 11 by: putting the bid location essentially in Park City killing two birds with one stone. Those two birds are - 1)make sure we don't ever renovate the only decent thing in town, our lakefront and 2) make sure we don't improve the only other thing that attracts people to a town - the schools the cherry on this shit sundae is that they so fvcked up the normal shadiness of these bullshit casino deals (bribery, payola, real estate scamming) that they're also being sued by Potawotamie Casinos. wtf
I am watching Fox news cover the impeachment trial, do it if you want to know how 45% of the population is consuming this.
Ok, so I went to ballotpedia to see what my upcoming elections will be, shit I got like 6 of them this year. WTF? why do we have 5 primary elections? https://ballotpedia.org/Sample_Ballot_Lookup
At least I can go to the library and vote whenever I feel like it starting in a few weeks and don't have to give up my evening in an elementary school gym filled with nutty partisans, so we have that going for us.
Primaries are pretty stupid they way they are run (there should be something like 5 or 6 primary days total, set maybe a week or less apart and all in March), but the caucus idea is idiotic.
Did you click o That is not what they are asking. You are to select the date (March 17, 2020) and they provide the sample ballot. It is pretty much that simple.
'There need to be mass protests': Authoritarianism experts say time is running out for Americans to stop Trump https://www.businessinsider.com/aut...me-running-out-americans-to-stop-trump-2020-2