Post by Logan on Jan 21, 2016 0:56:37 GMT -6
Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner on Wednesday launched a years-in-the-making all-out assault on the Chicago Teachers Union, pushing a state takeover of the city's public school system while contending his onetime ally Mayor Rahm Emanuel had "failed" to get the job done.
Democrats, including House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton, quickly decried the plan, which also would allow the district to declare bankruptcy. They each accused Rauner of using Chicago Public Schools' financial crisis as a new avenue to push his efforts to curb union power while diverting attention from the lack of a state budget.
And so the political dynamic surrounding CPS quickly mirrored the impasse in state government: Both sides are digging in over deep-seated ideological differences and playing the blame game over who's responsible for the mess. Meanwhile, a solution remains elusive as rhetoric passes for progress in dealing with CPS finances, leaving thousands of schoolchildren, their parents, teachers and administrators in distress.
For CPS, money woes are a recurring problem that has drawn in the rest of the state every 15 to 20 years. The last time was 1995, when Republicans who ran state government handed control of the city's schools and some financial flexibility to then-Mayor Richard M. Daley. But Daley, using powers agreed to by the GOP, reduced teacher pension payments, and today soaring retirement funding is the major factor in the financial problems the school district faces.
Continued at www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-illinois-republican-cps-bankruptcy-met-20160120-story.html .
Democrats, including House Speaker Michael Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton, quickly decried the plan, which also would allow the district to declare bankruptcy. They each accused Rauner of using Chicago Public Schools' financial crisis as a new avenue to push his efforts to curb union power while diverting attention from the lack of a state budget.
And so the political dynamic surrounding CPS quickly mirrored the impasse in state government: Both sides are digging in over deep-seated ideological differences and playing the blame game over who's responsible for the mess. Meanwhile, a solution remains elusive as rhetoric passes for progress in dealing with CPS finances, leaving thousands of schoolchildren, their parents, teachers and administrators in distress.
For CPS, money woes are a recurring problem that has drawn in the rest of the state every 15 to 20 years. The last time was 1995, when Republicans who ran state government handed control of the city's schools and some financial flexibility to then-Mayor Richard M. Daley. But Daley, using powers agreed to by the GOP, reduced teacher pension payments, and today soaring retirement funding is the major factor in the financial problems the school district faces.
Continued at www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-illinois-republican-cps-bankruptcy-met-20160120-story.html .