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"Desperate" Chicago Schools Need Half Billion To Avoid Mass Layoffs, Partial Shutdown
Last month, we noted with some incredulity that Illinois is now paying lottery winners in IOUs. Long story short, the state’s inability to pass a budget means big winners will have to wait on their prize money, a ridiculous situation which prompted one Illinoisan to remind state officials that “if we owed the state money, they’d come take it and they don’t care whether we have a roof over our head; our budget wouldn’t be a factor.” State Rep. Jack Franks agreed, noting that the “government is committing fraud on the taxpayers.”
The lottery debacle is just the latest example of Illinois’ deepening fiscal crisis which was catapulted into the national spotlight in May when a state Supreme Court decision that struck down a pension reform bid prompted Moody’s to cut the city of Chicago into junk territory. Since then, the media has been awash with tales of the labyrinthine, incestuous character of the state’s various state and local governments and the deplorable condition of the state’s pension system.
The fallout from the budget crisis is far-reaching in the state with the latest example being Chicago’s public school system (the third-largest in the country), which opened this week with a budget shortfall of nearly a half billion dollars. Here’s WSJ with the story:
Chicago Public Schools—with 394,000 students and nearly 21,000 teachers—has closed more than half of a projected $1.1 billion shortfall through cuts, borrowing and other means, but is looking to the state to come up with the rest. The school board warns of deep cuts later this year if Illinois, which faces its own fiscal crisis, doesn’t deliver an additional $480 million in the coming months, representing roughly 8% of annual district spending.
“It is like the board is a desperate gambler at the end of their run,” said Jesse Sharkey, vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union, in a recent speech.
“We are really now at a point where further cuts would reach deep into the classroom,” said Forrest Claypool, who was named chief executive of the city schools in July.
Since 2011, the school board has made nearly $1 billion in cuts—including $200 million this year that involved eliminating 1,400 positions, mostly through layoffs. Enrollment declines, due to shifting demographics and Chicago’s shrinking population, have led to school closings, including nearly 50 elementary schools in 2013 alone.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel has clashed with the teachers union, which went on strike three years ago and is currently without a contract. Another strike isn’t out of the question as the two sides are wrestling over the district’s effort to get teachers to pay more of their pension costs.
A group of parents, educators and activists with the support of union leaders launched a hunger strike Aug. 17 in a push to reopen a closed high school in a historically black neighborhood on the city’s South Side. The group argues the board concentrates money in Chicago’s wealthy, predominantly white neighborhoods. Hispanic and black students make up a vast majority of enrollment in city schools, and more than 85% of students are considered economically disadvantaged.
“There is a priorities crisis,” said Jitu Brown, a community organizer and parent who is participating in the hunger strike.
Of course one problem is a sharp increase in pension costs thanks to a “holiday” the board decided to take from 2011 through 2014:
The district’s pension costs have more than doubled in recent years after the board took a partial “holiday” for three years from paying the amount needed to put the retirement system on a path to long-term solvency.
And all the classic options - raising taxes, taking on new debt to payoff the old debt, etc. - have apparently been exhausted:
At first, the board drained reserves and paid off old debt with new, but those options are running out. The district also is raising property taxes as much as it can under a state cap. At the same time, Mr. Emanuel is weighing a much larger increase to confront the city government’s own pension problems, but that wouldn’t go to the schools.
Which means asking the ineffectual state legislature for $480 million, but thanks to gridlock in Springfield, there are no assurances that aid is forthcoming and that, in turn, means that once it's all said and done, the third largest school system in the country will be forced to layoff thousands and implement what amounts to a partial shutdown.
Senate President John Cullerton, a Chicago Democrat who sponsored the legislation, said without it the schools would see the layoffs of 3,000 teachers, increased class sizes and a shortened academic year. “We have to resolve this,” he said.
Yes, this has to be resolved and because we want to help, we suggest Governor Bruce Rauner not do things like squander hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money on celebrity budget gurus like Donna Arduin, who, until she was dismissed two Fridays ago for not being very guru-ish when it came to Illinois' budget, was making $30,000 a month or, more than half of what a Chicago public school teacher makes in a year.
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and slush fund hush money.
Don't worry, their much loved mayor Ram will just jack taxes up to the moon to cover any additional graft/theft needed.
It won't be enough so wash, rinse and repeat. The taxpayers in that shithole will pay up as always.
They need to raise the taxes. My brother in law lives in Chicago. He voted for you know who. I say double or triple the taxes. Whatever it takes. And pensions should be raised 10% a year over the official inflation numbers. After all, it's what the voters want!
its fo da chidruns
culture in decline.. very politically incorrect, but way too many bastard children / broken families .. that doesn't make good economic sense.
It's no wonder USA students score lower then Estonian, Latvian and even Portuguese students on international tests. Even Macau beat us!
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/02/02/u-s-students-improving-s...
Gut the unions. Always the wrong answer first here in zero land. Until you've spent a day - just one day - teaching you'll need to stfu.
I'm gonna give you a 30 second lesson
YOU ARE INCOMPETENT.
Your Hierarchy in the school is incompetent.
Your Union leaders are fixed for life.
You are broke.
NOW TAKE THE TEST.
Who shall we steal the money from to make my paycheck not bounce this week?
Essay, less than a thousand words.
I have taught in schools. Twice. Once in a public school with 21 year old seniors. The school/daycare wanted me to teach these humans to cook. Like I was going to let them anywhere near a chef knife. That one ended rather quickly. The second school was a tech school, which was slightly better, as I was not quite as worried about getting shanked in the liver. The main problem I had there was that it was a puppy mill, in that anyone who could get a loan, or was on the G I bill, was welcome. You had to really go out of your way to not finish and get a diploma. There were a few outstanding students, who really wanted to excel, but most of the time I had to make sure that students did not get their tongues caught in a lathe.
Cuts aren't the issue. No mention of trying to educate 74% of black children born to unwed mothers. The cultural norms that accept bearing children without benefit of marriage are the true problem facing Black American education.
Are you a justice of the peace in the marriage business? Please share how a marriage certificate from the state would change the behaviors or situation? Thanks in advance for explaining how the holy state certification of marriage would alter anything.
He said children of unwed mothers. It's the children without marriage that he's assigning causality to. The problem is that in an environment of rampant unemployment, which we can't talk about because of "full employment" and "that's racist," it is difficult to establish a norm discouraging unwed parenthood because there's a deleterious lack of supply of employed potential relationship partners.
Marriage has been identified as a factor in better economic outcomes.
They are "unwed" because daddy has several other kids by different women and is in jail because he can't pay child support. (debtors prison 21Century)
Do you then conclude that if all these children had parents who had a state issued marriage certificate things would be much better for the children? What is the magical powers of the state sponsored blessing that confers such benefits?
I am not tryng to jack with you, simply trying to understand your point of view or understanding of the relationships between the state institution of marriage and child outcomes. How a $100 legal certificate has this much power over outcomes is beyond my understanding.
BTW - I support your inference that children who have employed parents (no matter what the marital status of the parents is) are much better off. No data to cite, observation only.
TY for any insight you can offer.
FFS, Pike. Quit being so obtuse. By "marriage," he is referring to children being raised by two parents -- a mother and a father -- not one. Or could you really not figure that out?
Marriage also means one set of bills for housing/utilities/insurance/property taxes. Just that can make a big difference.
If you think marriage is expensive, try divorce!
Personally, I think we are at a point in society and the "system" we have built around government controlled unions that it is no longer worth it to participate. Make your own relationships and keep them off the books.
<Marriage has been identified as a factor in better economic outcomes.>
Let me put it simple: Nobody can screw and/or change Laws of Nature. Nobody. Any two- or four legs animals must participate in raising their offsprings. It is that simple.
Turtles drop eggs and leave.
Then here's some bad news - that's no longer a uniquely black problem. Most white women seem to prefer the benefits of child support to the benefits of marriage.
Could be if it was trending on twitter.
Children are often simply a piece of financial meat fought over between dogs which dont deserve to be called parents but should be called something like pro creators or FXXKERS. Many people would be unemployed if not for the industries evolved to handle the child meat business.
They sure do, cash and prizes.
How can this be happening, Obama said everything was back to normal..............................oh, wait nervermind.
The US Government spent 1 trillion to conquer and occupy Iraq, to train Iraq's Army, and bribe off Sunni.
Am I alone in seeing the irony in all this when domestic problems are tearing apart our cities. Will anyone hold Neoconservatives in Washington DC responsible for this?
Jack,
Midly off-topic but earlier this year, or maybe last, you recommended to me The End of the Ancient World by Ferdinand Lot, which I subsequently purchased from Amazon. I just wanted to give you a mighty thanks for the guidance, as it is HANDS DOWN the BEST study of the collapse of the Roman Empire I have ever read.
Thanks so much, Jack!
And only mildly off-topic! :-)
iraq was a mistake. nobody but jeb bush is disputing that.
obama has made the fiscal situation better how? he's been president for 7 years. not 1 of them did he ever have a budget. 2 guys he tapped to put a balanced budget together (simpson-bowles), his handler (harry reid) would never allow for their bill to come to the senate floor for a vote. obama never once pushed or brought up the issue after the initial photo-op was done with him & alan simpson & ernst bowles. obama simply wanted to make it appear as tho he was interested in fixing debt. nothing could be farther from the truth.
obama is from chicago. rahm is his boy. the place is a sinking sess-pool the likes nobody wants to move to. property values are going down, taxes are going up, economic opportunity is stagnant at best. the unions have their tentacles around that place & are squeezing it tight as they possibly can. anything that pops-out is being mowed-down by drive-by shootings. a real "beacon" of opportunity the presidents "home town" (1 of several) that shithole has become.
Iraq was not a mistake, but I will give you the concession that after the battle, how the girls handled it was typical of the modern military hierarchy.
LiT/ Jack, Good read recommendation, by the way.
The only thing the incompetent, divisive, arrogant narcissitic illegal indonesian kenyan alien muslim fudgepacker cares about is its celebrity grand imperial golf lifestyle on the backs of working tax paying US citizen serfs and peasants....
No. Nobody. Just raise the taxes.
If we don't build up Iraq with good school and roads and the Army.
It won't be safe for all the Americans who like to visit there! :-)
Way back in 1970 our visionary politicians added a clause to our "new" constitution that says: these pensions cannot be impaired or diminished in any way. So, they enhanced the various pensions over the last 40 years and now all teachers, state employees and every municipal police and fire pension fund(these are single employer plans for PD and Fire) cannot be touched. These pensioners ALL receive a 3% compounded annual increase. In my community, the police pension dictates a 75% of final salary after 30 years and 50% after 20. My community made the minimum legal contribution to our police and fire pensions last year totalling almost 11 million dollars. I'm a retired union tradesman and I don't get any annual increase, let alone a compounding one. The only fully funded govt pension fund in Illinois is the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund. That pension fund is not controlled by state govt rules. Their pensioners get a 3% bonus based on the original retirement amount. We have a retired police commander(30 years of service) who got himself elected as an alderman upon retirement. His 75% pension started at 75,000 dollars. By year ten with the 3% compounding annual increase he will be grossing 100,000, his final salary. By year 24 it will double to 150,000. Again, PD and Fire pension rules are a state mandated albatross around every communities neck in our failing state.
"The only fully funded govt pension fund in Illinois is the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund. That pension fund is not controlled by state govt rules."
and I personally know the gentleman who managed to pull that off... with some of the best lobbying and rider placement I've ever seen... he saw the writing on the wall many years ago and every municipal employee in the state should be kissing his big fat toe for saving them from this current mess...
The problem in PA at the local level isn't the municipal workers' retirement benefits - it is the public safety unions (cops and firefighters).
Even in WI where Walker touts constantly how he broke the public unions he gave in part and parcel to the safety unions. Bought them off and he got them to endorse him almost universally across the board statewide.
Jack, I hold the Neoconservatives in DC resposible as well as Private industry which gets a big chunk of pie. The feeding trough will never be empty for those who own the grain.
The could hold the kids for ransome? Oh wait its Chicago,never mind.
I smell a suggestion of BokoHarem there.
Procol Harem less so.
Sounds like the kids will need to do some more car washes and cookie sales...hope it all works out..because that appears to be the only thing they have left.. hope
You suggest that the kids fund it them selves.
Car washes, candy sales, cookie sales.
Do not people realize that these, bake sales.have back time and effort that make them losers before they are organized?
Much as I like a good diminished product Savannah Smile, it is an over all loser.
Better for all you supporters jus to pay a little bit more in the first place and we wouldnt have to put the children through such a money losing operation like carwashing or guilting sweets.
Part of an education should be learning that working is better than begging or demanding.
Last year, I had to run the gauntlet at least three times while visiting big box stores around the time school started. Once it was cheerleaders in their uniforms, next it was football players in their uniforms, the other time it was some kind of youth athletic association. They were all begging (asking for donations). I declined the opportunity each time because I think it is wrong to teach kids to ask strangers for money instead of offering to wash a car or sell something.
This year there was a blurb in the local paper announcing that the drill team would be holding a car wash. I took my car over and had it "washed". There were about 30 girls out there working in an assembly line. It was obvious that not one of them knew how to wash a car. The way my car looked when they finished proved my observation. Nonetheless, I came home with a smudged up car and a smile on my face.
They aren't schools. They are zoos. I'd rather a gold fish teach my kids rather than some of the shit I've seen in those schools.
Chicago will be the next Detroit.
I'm trying to think of something that both of those cities have in common and I just can't seem to put my finger on it.
The month of Sept is not over yet. If something happens big time,well, broke is broke.
DOD GIVES LAST-MINUTE NOTICE TO FAA BEFORE GOING DARK
BY SHEPARD AMBELLAS
WASHINGTON, DC (INTELLIHUB) — Air Traffic Collision Avoidance Systems (TCAS) and Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcasts (ADS-B) will be down or spotty in 5 states, extending up to 200 miles off shore of the Eastern Seaboard, until Oct. 1, according to a NOTAM issued Sept. 1 by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The NOTAM reads in part:
Due to military activities, the TCAS and ADS-B surveillance may be unreliable in the airspace over Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, and extending approximately 200 nautical miles offshore, from 1 a.m. EDT (0500z) Sept. 2 until midnight EDT (0459z) on Oct. 1.
Pilots are advised that the traffic alert and TCAS may fail to establish tracks on nearby aircraft and may fail to receive traffic alerts (TA) or resolution advisories (RA). Operators should be aware that tracks may first appear within close proximity to their aircraft, and may immediately go into TA/RA status.
Pilots are advised to maintain an increased visual awareness in this area. If operators believe that an aircraft should have triggered an alert, the incident should be reported to air traffic control as soon as possible.
This is due to a late notice Department of Defense exercise, and NBAA has voiced its concern to the FAA that these sort of significant impact tests need much more notice to operators in the NAS.
This is immensely concerning not only for the safety of passengers and staff aboard flights navigating the affected areas but for the security of our country as well. In fact the last time we saw similar systems go down was during the attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC) and the Pentagon, Sept. 11, 2001.
https://www.intellihub.com/alert-air-traffic-collision-warning-systems-l...
Thanks.
So how do we translate this in 'everything is awesome'?
Beer.
Alright I'm done.
This is the part where, in the original plan, Obama/Reid/Pelosi would whip up a massive federal bailout for Chicago. Please pass the schadenfreude.
I don't understand what the politicians are doing. Just raise the taxes. Raise the taxes as much as necessary. Look, folks: Democrats are always elected in Chicago. Voters don't know what else to do. The fact that they go back and vote for dems, again and again and again, says that they think they are Jesus, Moses, and Abdul all rolled into one. So just raise the friggin' taxes. 60, 70, 80%. Whatever it takes. What are you waiting for??? Do it now! Don't worry about getting re-elected. Of course you are going to get re-elected!
1. wtf does voting have to do with it. easter bunny?
2. if you believed in said voting, the voters who do not pay any tax will vote in the politician that gibbs dem da mos.
3. if you or your business are forced to pay said taxes you can leave the state or local, further eroding tax base.
4. detroit
Maybe I'm not up on new math, but using the old math
Seems you ought to be able to get a private school education for $15,000.
Remind me, what do Obama, Ramos, and Christie pay for private school so their kids do not have to mingle with these kids?
The school superintendant in my county makes around $270,000/year in salary and benefits. I imagine he will retire soon and make just as much in his pension.
Seems fair.
BAAHH!
The corruption and destruction of state and local finances due to public pensions is a joke. When CAL PERS loses money it doesn't matter because the taxpayer has to make it up.
When Wall St. crooks stole from my retirement accounts the state doesn't/won't make up my losses. but, just like CAL PERS, the crooks aren't prosecuted either.
Public employees should be smart enough to save for their own retirement. It's time (past time) to eliminate a corrupting influence.
The school superintendent in this academicly mediocre, poorly behaved district of ~5,547 students is paid $175,000 in salary alone.
The board members are so proud of themselves because they hired him without the benefit of a search firm.
These kids don't need school to become a waiter or cook.
Robots got that job.
Need more meth and crack lab attendants and distributors.
All these guys will be promoted to flight engineers through attrition.
"IIS"...
(Idiots In Suits....)....the people who designed and voted for these pension plans.....
Chicago credit rating was dropped to junk back in May. These pricks needed to offer 8% for 30 years on $743 million bond offering. In a couple of years this will look like a great deal to them.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottbeyer/2015/07/21/chicago-paying-the-price-for-junk-bond-status/
I like it when I see stats on personal debt and the concerns of financial people. The State dwarfs everyone when it comes to defaults and consequences and even risk.
All Chicago needs to do to raise hundreds of millions of dollars is to sell the rights to their parking meters for the next 75 years.
oh wait....
More Drive bys needed, Problem solved.
Another shining example of a Democratic run city, like Detroit, hitting the wall. If they think people are leaving their city and state now, just give it a few more years when it becomes obvious how much taxes have to be raised to bail out this mess.
But without government, who'd employ skill-less mouth-breathers to overspend into oblivion and fail miserably at improving childhood literacy?
It's the government "middle class".
for those with only minor math skills, Chicago spends $15,862 per student and $297,619 per teacher. Now teachers certainly don't get paid that, and students don't get $15k worth of education.
If you can't walk into the Chicago Schools or the administration building and find and easy 20% to lop off the top, you really aren't trying.
Of course, this half billion is only a down payment. The retirement plan uses outdated life expectancy tables and absurdly high investment returns. Even if nothing changed, they'll be back at the table asking for more and more. However, the likelihood of current investment assets staying the same is low, with a 20% drop highly likely. This will make the situation practically disastrous.
thats a couple hundred grand over 12 years per pupil. Better we didn't send them to skoo, invest that money in the stawk market,
along with , say, half of the pension obligations (which wouldnt exist due to no teachers), and our kids would be set for life !!!
Replace "schools" with "children's prisons" or "re-education camps" and things will be a little more honest here.
No kidding as that's about the quality of "kids" in those places.
Build a bunch of gay bathhouses and name them ''ObamaAndRahm' Steam and Cream'' Jews welcome.
Will make a bundle.
Chicago residents hit upon alternate solutions. Grizly details follow:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/09/07/cops-find-body-parts-toddler-in-chi...
or this
http://www.inquisitr.com/1910862/woman-allegedly-cut-babys-throat-with-c...
The second story has the all too familiar story line: The family are described as “great people” by neighbors.
John Wayne Gacy was a great neighbour also. Loved kids.
Cheech,,
Come on it's just planned parenthood Chicago style
The jobs on the South Side and Northern Indiana are GONE. This is a never ending spiral. The only jobs that have been added are at the Chicago Fed....
The New York branch of the U.S. Federal Reserve, wary that a natural disaster or other eventuality could shut down its market operations as it approaches an interest rate hike, has added staff and bulked up its satellite office in Chicago.
Lived in Highland, Indiana as a kid, near Gary. YOu could barely breathe the air then for the steel mills in Gary and Whiting.
Yea, I remember that too. When I was a kid our neighborhood's septic tanks would leak out when it rained too much. There was a nice stream us kids always played in...
"We'll put the band back together, do a few gigs, we get some bread."
We're on a mission from God.
Local Gubermint gonna borrow some money from the money changers. Dig deep tax-payer, dig deep, that black hole of debt is going to come calling one day.
Get Your Stinking Paws Off My Wallet!!!
I do not expect it will happen, but the change in the 1901 model for educating our children is desperately needed as it is hopelessly antiquated and obsolete.
Just like churches, multi-million $ buildings that sit idle 70% of the time makes zero sense.
They are preparing to spend $200M on a new HS in our district. It will take 5 years to complete and will be gold plated of course.
Churches, libraries, schools, sports stadiums, other government structures ..... used just a fraction of the time, monuments to stupidity and wasteful spending.
sschu
The Edifice Complex, an incurable, chronic, decades-old disease, originating on U.S. college campuses, and later spread to state, federal and medical locations, which areas, after the impending world equity and credit collapse, will resemble the vacant city of Pripyat outside of Chernobyl, Ukraine:
http://www.ukrainianweb.com/images/chernobyl/chernobyl_zone.jpg
I recall talking with someone in 1992 to the effect that the teacher's unions were obsolete and education would be way different in 10 years. 24 years later and it is the same, I was totally wrong.
Newton's first law applies here, they will not change until forced to and it looks like it will take a serious budget shortfall to cause this change. $500M, peanuts to these guys and will not make it so.
sschu
If Chicago's school budget is anything like others I've seen, the problem is quite easy to pinpoint. In most districts, only something like 1/3 to 1/2 of the total budget goes to actual in-class costs (and that's including pensions for the teachers). The rest is spent on administration (whch is ridiculously bloated in every government entity), transportation (bussing), and one hell of a lot of money for consultants to tell the district the best way to teach the students in the future. These non-classroom related costs are what makes the budgets totally unaffordable. Besides, State funds, Chicago likely gets lottery funds, a share of local property tax revenues and a minimum of one parcel tax. Additionally, since I'll wager that massive budget doesn't contain shit for maintaining the school buildings, they've likely floated bonds that, at least in California, get paid with yet another addition to the property tax rate.
Have Rahm and Forrest Claypool take a hell of a red pencil to the useless parts of the budget and maybe they wouldn't need to go out on hunger strikes.
And, maybe take a look at pay for performance as well. You likely would be able to cut your budget by about 90% given what I assume are dreadful graduation rates and even worse rates on any standardized tests you might want to give to, you know, see if you taught the kids anything.
Dream on my friend.
Grief counselors are my favorite. Who the hell are they? When there is a disaster, I read about them. What the hell are they? Is this a degree or a subset of some counseling certificate? Are they on salary, on stipend, on demand? Are they 1099 short term hires?
I bet you will find janitors who own Escalades.
All you have do is drive by the hi rise projects in South Chicago and you will think ''This isn't going to end well'
Not everyone can be an NBA star. Lots of opportunies for crack and meth distribution though.
Last week, one 16 y/o kid broke his neck playing football in Texas. He is paralyzed from the waist down. Another broke his neck and died playing football in Louisiana. Neither game was stopped. The one in Texas had a 45-minute delay, but the game resumed and was played to the end.
Football: the most important part of the curriculum. Since public schools are so afraid of any hint of religion on school grounds, they really should reassess the fervor surrounding football.
The head coach's salary relative to a math teacher's salary deserves some scrutiny too.
Shut 'em down. The "schools" aren't anything but holding tanks for young gang members in that shithole. Any good students should be given vouchers to attend private schools that willl sink or swim based on quality. Chicago, another once great American metropolis, now a third world cesspool.
What is funny...is that Arnie Duncan the current education chief ran this for 8 years.... It is a view of what happens after Obama's people perform their awful decision making. The US will be 10 times worst than this Eight years from now
I would run from that place. The whole state is insolvent. Had I a home or business there I would be sick with worry.
more than 85% of students are considered economically disadvantaged (i.e. mom's on welfare)
IT used to be the City That Works.
Now it's the City That Twerks.
Couldn't happen to a nicer town.
"Now it's the City That Twerks."
I think now they're doing the nay-nay, all day-day. But props for the rhyme!
The People suck, the roads suck, the politics suck, line up D8's blade to blade and push it into Lake Michigan..
"Couldn't happen to a nicer town."
So long Chicago schools, your city can no longer afford you anymore.
Don't blame the Ponzi'd house of cards you pitched your tent under for the rain falling down.
Here's your crisis Rahm. Don't let it go to waste.
Chicago is a dystopic bellweather about 20 years ahead of the rest of the country.
L.A and Miami not far behind
20 years? More like 20 months.
Rahm says
We will be selling coon hunting licenses. Coon hunting season starts Jan,1 and ends Dec.31.
limit of 200 coons per license holder.
Female coons no limit
Na serius, dat be racciss.
Financial perverts like Buffet and Soros need to ...
Good... let em all shut down. Anyone here who's kid(s) are in an educational concentration camp, whether public or private... you have my contempt.
They had to do a $500 million property tax hike just to plug an immediate hole in the police and fireman's pension fund. It's a f'ed.
Rahm says ''I got my 10 figure nestegg in Tel Aviv. I will be heading there as soon as I finish destroying Chicago. Oy Vey.
FUCK them.
In jail for fixing grades the Atlanta/Chicago school criminal enterprise.
Yeah, the Chicago way alright.
I heard Oprah has converted to Judaism
That which cannot go on, won't...
Hope it crashes and burns soon in $hitcago - cannot happen soon enough
Just have the teachers sell hotdogs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33zPlnhymCU
Did we expect anything else?
Socialism ends when you run out of other people's money. In this case a bunch of it went to the unions and the bloated pension plans they pushed through pliant politicians.
“There is a priorities crisis,” said Jitu Brown, a community organizer and parent who is participating in the hunger strike.
I studied Jui Jitu once. Couldn't do it on an empty stomach.
Stand By for Stand By.
All that money wasted on wars! and banksters along with the production off shoring, legal and illegal on shoring is coming home to roost. And don't forget those fine 'immigrants' who come here to soak up what's left.
And the fat lady still hasn't sung yet. This is just the beginning.
Thank the corporations and especially those nice fellas in DC that you'll probably vote back in next year!
No, dude, you're right, but, really, all the fucking moron American dingbats have to thank is themselves.
People in this country, people I have known for more than fourty, even fifty years, still vote for tax increases.
WTF? Are people really that fucking stupid?
YES. I guess.
I gave up playing within the system about 15 years ago and I can tell you that its better on the outisde.
Shoot me or whatever. This system (and I am talking economically, socially and morally) is fucked with all capital letters. (please note my measure of restraint in not using ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. You're welcome.)
It's going to fail. Just be a good Boy Scout - and I'm completely serious about this - and be prepared.
Sucks when you "Run-Out" of other peoples money... Illinois is a Fucked Up State!!! Second to None!!!
Sucks when you "Run-Out" of other peoples money... Illinois is a Fucked Up State!!! Second to None!!!
But but but....multi- generational Democrat controlled utopias can't collapse! Unpossible!
Check the CAFR. Probably billions there.
yes the hidden treasures of the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report each state hs one
Why School Reform Failed
http://www.amren.com/news/2015/08/why-school-reform-failed/
The Egalitarian Illusion
http://www.amren.com/features/2015/08/the-egalitarian-illusion/
Hunger strike, or diet?
First start cutting salaries and positions at the top. These people make two-three four hundreds of 1000's of dollars but go unacountable. Eliminate the waste at the top and work your way down. Of course that is not the way it's done. Just eliminate teachers instead of the mangement at the top! If the school system is realy in that bad of shape, then why is the present management still in place?
Time for a change!!!!!!!
jj
screw their pensions. They laregely turn out functionally illiterate politically correct idiots at about 12 grand a year per "student" As much as I rile on the wall Street crooks fleecing America -that doesn't excuse what is going on at the State, local and County levels. This country is so fucked up. As evil as Wall Street and the zionist Jews and their partners who control things -I can't defend the average ignorant corrupt AmeriKan -sheeple -most of whom are serfs targted for eventual extermination by their Masters.
Well, it is not just Chicago in Illinois. The pensions are killing the state and city budgets. Pensions that were put in place by lawmakers who received political contributions from the public unions. Anyone see anything wrong with that. Here is a link to pension problems in Illinois.
http://www.illinoispolicy.org/reports/the-crisis-hits-home-illinois-loca...
Ya pensions are killing the state but not cause of the Unions
ZERO percent interest doesn't add fuck all to pensions, AND only the ELites get money at zero percent. I would like my mortgage to be at zero percent at 30 years!
Selling state revenue producing assets to BANKERS and PRIVATE Companies adds to the shit show.
The unions are the only one who care about the middle class and the average joe getting a fair shake.
People will be fleeing back to small cities and towns in droves. A cratering tax base being part of the exponential nature of collapse. I predict Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota will be destinations for the Illinois working class.
Exactly why I am leaving, they will bring their brain dead votes with them.
Those chicago bonds must be looking ripe for the picking once the various counties have restructured their debts
One more sign of a debt based monetary system reaching end of life.
nope not even close, i mean what in the 5000 years of known human history makes you think mankind has the ability to learn lessons
The American Revolution
Ever since Crook County lost O'Bozo, their community disorganizer, it's been all downhill.
Let m burn - they largely turn out functional illiterate politically correct idiots anyway -at about 12 grand a year per body.
Si se puede Holmes....
Hey I have the solution. The fucking morons that exported the economy the china can take Mulligan, get the manufacturing tax base back and problem solved.
Your Crazy, NAFTA has been great for Illinois.
Think of all the great jobs Mexico has received thanks to Illinois 6 billion invested this year alone making CARS!
USA! USA! USA! can't wait for TTIP to destroy my state and Town USA! USA! USA!
Chicago must find the money in the existing system "for the children". Cut the salaries of the systemic parasites and make them pay for their benefits. This is a crisis, don't let it go to waste.
It's going to be fun to watch government workers and the politicians go at each other's throats.
They can't raise taxes as anyone with a real job left due to being taxed to death. I listened to 3 school teachers in Colorado complaining we did not have the services that schools in the East consider necessities. My comment was that those school systems are bankrupt and their answer was more taxes here. Always willing to spend other peoples money to enrich themselves. Don't like teacher pay do something else.
They'll just fuck Chicago’s citizens with one-time levies.
I live in Wayne County, MI. The county I live in nailed us with a tax. We voted no, the management cried and apologized while they levied one-time taxes anyway.
Wayne Co. Commission won't try to override Evans' veto
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/wayne-county/2015/06/10/wayn...
Chicago's citizens fucked themselves when they voted for the politicians who enabled those ridiculous pensions.
They should all move to the south and do as a virus does
Kill the pensions and Social Security. They were poor stewards of their future.
Sorry, it's on them.
I just finished reading Newt's book and he is right; we have a failed government and a failed educational system. I don't see it getting any better either.
Gloomy
Wrong headline, should be; Chicago schools close, student IQs grow astronomically.
The best option for tax payers would be for Chicago to file bankruptcy. The debt would be eliminated, no taxes raised. Yes, the pension of govt employees would be cut, and money lenders would take a haircut too. But I dont give a damn about government workers and money lenders.
Yes, there is this provision of the Illinois State Constituion:
SECTION 5. PENSION AND RETIREMENT RIGHTS Membership in any pension or retirement system of the State, any unit of local government or school district, or any agency or instrumentality thereof, shall be an enforceable contractual relationship, the benefits of which shall not be diminished or impaired.--------------------------------------------However, Federal bankruptcy law trumps that provision.
"The debt would be eliminated, no taxes raised" HAHHAHAAHAH you guys
here is what is GOING to happen...the debt will be structured and renegotiated. meaning investors will be able to buy chicago bonds for pennies on the dollars, the maturies will be lengthend to give chicago breathing room but the caveat being that debt payments will come from things like an increase sales tax or property tax.
Ive bought distressed debt before, nothing like buying a bond for 20cents on the dollar paying a YTM of 14% yield with a nice juicy par upside for the next 20 years and while i am here this is what Zerohedge should be informing you guys about.
Teachers and Government Unions were supporting Democrats, getting them elected and re-elected year after year, decade after decade and in return, the officials would reward them with plush contracts, thus solidifying there power in office! Wealth is not produced by debt and as such the poor people of Chicago will suffer for their lack of economic illiteracy. Unions and the public sector will be made to pay for their previous transgressions and the furry of economics will teach Illinois the hard lessons recently learned by the city of Detroit.
Wealth is not produced by debt and as such the poor people of Chicago will suffer for their lack of economic illiteracy.
Wealth and debt are not the issue here. Defaults are the issue here. Governments make trading promises and get them certified (i.e. they create money). But unlike responsible traders, they don't deliver on those trading promises ... they just roll them over, and that is default.
Allowing governments to rollover their trading promises allows those undeliverable promises to be passed to the rest of the marketplace in the form inflation. Inflation has been governments' principal funding source for a very long time now.
They have exhausted that funding source. The only funding source open to them now is to steal your savings (including pensions).
We are truly at one of those "we have to blow up the village in order to save it" points to which the government is so good at delivering us.