After more than four hours of discussion, the Illinois General
Assembly’s pension conference committee concluded their first public
hearing Thursday with no clear plan for resolving the state’s pension
crisis.
A list kept under former Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan’s
administration of clout-heavy Chicagoans and public officials looking to
get kids into some of the city’s top schools was made public last week.
Some education experts say the log is another example of the
intense competition for too few high-quality school seats in the city
and the disparity in education and economic investment in Chicago neighborhoods.
“The fact that there’s so many people who want to get into
those schools shows that the people really want a quality education,
and the system should be responsive instead of disinvesting in various
school communities,” said Eric “Rico” Gutstein, faculty associate with
the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Collaborative for Equity and Justice in Education.
Gov. Pat Quinn
turned up the rhetoric on pension reform during today’s state budget address,
largely putting the blame on lawmakers for their failure to act.
State Sen. Kwame Raoul (D-Chicago), chairperson of the Senate Pensions and Investments Committee from 2007 to 2012, will chair the newly organized Special Committee on Public Pensions and State Investments, with a focus on promoting state investment in minority and female-owned businesses.
Since seeing his school vouchers measure through the Illinois Senate last week, Sen. James Meeks (D-Chicago) has heightened the prospect that Chicago could become
ground zero in a statewide voucher experiment. But critics say the measure does little to get at the root of Illinois' education shortfalls: inequitable funding.
When the Illinois Supreme Court threw out
a state law placing caps on medical malpractice damages, the
court also ditched some crucial insurance industry reforms. Indeed, state regulators
cite those regulations -- established in a 2005 bill that included the caps -- as the primary reason malpractice premiums for doctors and
hospitals are declining in Illinois.
A list kept under former Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan’s
administration of clout-heavy Chicagoans and public officials looking to
get kids into some of the city’s top schools 
