My Blog

Author: jbosco

  • CPS is Broke, State not Helping

    Two months into the school year, Chicago Board of Education officials Tuesday were already estimating next school year’s deficit at $700 million.

    …

    Chicago Board of Education officials Tuesday were already estimating next school year’s deficit at $700 million.

    During the meeting, officials revealed the state still owes CPS $164 million from last school year and has been late on an additional $206 million so far this school year.

    (Full story here.)

    CPS is not only broke, but broken.  It’s time to look at all of the options available to fix, not just the politically expedient ones.

    We should be looking at what I call the “Clean Sheet of Paper” solution.  If you put 25 educators in a room what kind of system would they build.  We should also be looking at the “Grey Paper” solution, how can we take what we have and make it better.  These are not mutually exclusive; they can be done in a parallel path.

  • Rahm Talks Trash

    An interesting bit, shows that Rahm’s not just another pretty face:

    (1) Establish a “benchmark” price per ton after comparing the cost of collecting Chicago’s 1 million tons of annual garbage to costs in 10 major cities.

    (2) Give the city’s 1,142-strong, $173.7 million-a-year refuse-collection army a chance to generate the savings necessary to meet those benchmarks.

    (3) Switch from a ward-by-ward to a grid or zone system of collecting garbage if Phase Two doesn’t work.

    (4) And, if all else fails, implement a “managed competition” between city employees and private companies to achieve savings.

    (Full story here.)

    My complaint?  It’s a fine plan, but it’s also politics as usual.

    Let’s face the facts, how long does it really take to establish a baseline price?  If it’s more than a 20 minute phone call to Waste Management or Onyx then it’s taking too long.

    But we all know how this is really going to go.  The Union will high-ball the number and preach all kinds of doom-and-gloom about snow plowing.  The city will counter, and back-and-forth and round-and-round it will go and then magically, over steaks at Gibson’s a deal will be struck.

    I say we accept 1 through 3 and inevitable and get right on to Number 4.  Find out what a private contractor will bid for the job and let the union compete.  Whole process should take a few weeks and immediately save the taxpayers millions.

  • Strong-arm Robbery

    At 12:30 a.m., a female Roosevelt University student was robbed of her iPhone in the 600 block of South Michigan Avenue, according to Central District police.

    (Full story here.)

    This is the kind of event that troubles me.  No camera is going to stop this.  And let’s be honest, it’s just not practicable to say that “no one should ever walk alone.”  The only solution is more police on the street and locking up the criminals.

    We need more police, a real State’s Attorney who will take crime seriously, and judges who give out long sentences.

  • Why Gutierrez Isn’t Running for Mayor

    From the Sun-Times:

    Convicted political fixer Tony Rezko gave U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez free upgrades on a riverfront town house after the congressman asked for them, Gutierrez told the FBI, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned.

    Gutierrez’s comments to federal agents in a previously undisclosed 2008 interview contradict what the congressman told the Sun-Times in 2006 about the purchase.

    (Full story here.)

    Ladies and gentlemen, it is up to us to say that we’ve had enough.

  • More Crime Nonsense

    Let’s start with the premise:

    Chicago police officials reported today that October crime statistics continued a drop in violent and property crime for the 22nd consecutive month.Total crime dropped by 3.7 percent compared to the same time last year while property crime dropped by 2 percent and violent crimes dropped by 9.8 percent, police said.

    The only reported increase was in motor vehicle thefts, which were up by 22.7 percent compared to last year’s figures.

    (Full story here.)

    Daley Watches Crime Stats
    Daley Watches Crime Stats

    Why this is udder nonsense:

    So I’m at the recent Beat 1211 CAPS meeting and the very nice CAPS officer is telling us about the recent success of the extra “hot-spot” protection we’ve been getting over on the West Side.

    The officer tells us about 17 calls to 911 within a two square-block area in the month of October dealing with everything from “kids being loud” to a “man with a gun” and one call for “shots fired.”  However the kicker is that these 17 calls resulted in ZERO reports.

    Seventeen calls to 911, zero reports.  So you know how the Mayor looks at it?  No reports, no crime.

    Perhaps if CPD was not understaffed response time would be reasonable so that when people call 911, you know, an officer shows up in 5 or 10 minutes.  Then maybe the person who called would still be around to, you know, file the report.

    Incredible.  Simply incredible.

  • Subpoenas Deny Hendon

    Ooops.

    State Sen. Rickey Hendon today took himself out of the race for Chicago mayor, a week after revelations that a federal grand jury has issued subpoenas for records on dozens of state grants, some of which he sponsored.

    (Full story here.)

    Well another one bites-the-dust.

    My guess is that if Lisa Madigan had been doing her job we would have an even narrower field.  Maybe an honest businessman would have had a chance instead of the hoi polloi of political insiders left standing.

  • CPS Changing For the Worst

    Under the headline “Changes may ease admissions to elite CPS schools” we’re told that CPS is now going to reward student who attended failing schools by letting them go to the best high schools in the city.

    Using U.S. Census data, the district began evaluating all 874 census tracts in the city on five indicators: median income, adult education, percentages of single-family homes and homeowners and the percentage of children living in non-English speaking households. For the 2011-12 school a sixth criteria will be added: school performance.

    CPS ranks the census tracts based on the indicators and divides them into four tiers. Last year, 40 percent of openings in selective schools went to students with top academic scores overall and the other 60 percent were divided among top-scoring students in each of the four socioeconomic groups.

    This year, only 30 percent of the openings will be reserved for students with top scores overall.

    (Full story here.)

    This is the kind of decision that is made by bureaucrats, not educators.  What educators know, and how schools function from kindergarten on,  is that excellent students need other excellent students around them to keep them challenged.  Brilliant or gifted students are bored when placed in classrooms with remedial students; remedial students feel overwhelmed and inferior when placed in a classroom with gifted students.  As such, neither student is served by being forced to study with the other.

    This is the problem with CPS.  Too many bureaucrats and not enough educators.  That needs to change if we’re going to have a world class primary and secondary educational system.

  • The Chicago Way

    With the election now behind us I’d like to pause on a great little story in the Trib. today.

    Cook County voters Tuesday narrowly retained four Circuit Court judges who had been deemed unqualified to continue on the bench by several legal groups.

    Jim Ryan and Susan McDunn each garnered about 63 percent of the vote, just above the required 60 percent to be retained; Dorothy Jones pulled in 64 percent; and William O’Neal recorded 66 percent.

    (Full story here.)

    This is nothing short of embarrassing.  We must do whatever it takes to change the crooked system that keeps unqualified people in office.  Apathy is not an excuse, let alone a reason, for poor judges to be retained.

    All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

    — Edmund Burke

    That about sums it up.

  • Daley: Fewer Police Next Year

    Even on the way out Mayor Daley cannot be straight with us.  After weeks and weeks of hammering away telling us that crime is down — when anyone west of the lake knows it’s not — along comes this half-truth.

    The city at the end of this year will have about 950 vacant police officer positions, said Gene Munin, the city’s budget director. Although the city plans to hire 200 officers next year, it projects that 300 will leave the force.

    Munin later conceded that the projection of 300 departures was not in keeping with historical patterns. Typically, about 450 officers retire or leave the force for other reasons each year, he said.

    (Full Trib. story here.)

    The truth is that we’re already down about 2,500 – 3,000 police officer positions.  So the reality is that we will be short another 950+ police next year.  That “another” is a key word missing from the Mayor’s mouthpiece.

    Police are critical to the viability of this city.  Residents must feel safe not only in their homes but on the streets where they travel.  Tourists will find other places to visit if we do not maintain law and order.  People who travel for business may be forced to come, but they will hide in their hotels and get out as soon as they are able.

    You may have noticed that travel to Mexico is extremely cheap now-a-days.  It’s a violence plagued place where American’s not longer want to travel.  This is NOT a comparison, residents know Chicago is safer than many big cities in the U.S.  But we cannot deny the reality that continuing to short change the residents on police protection is a sure fire way to create a city that no one wants to live in or visit.

  • Illinois Schools Screw it Up

    Thousands of Illinois schools are like mediocre students: Most of their pupils are passing — but not distinguishing themselves — on state achievement exams.

    Illinois Standards Achievement Test results set to be released Friday reveal that pushing students to think and perform at higher levels has been elusive for the vast majority of public schools, even in affluent communities with involved parents.

    (Full story here.)

    Long story short, we continue to fall further and further behind.  Why?  Because we are not demanding excellence as all levels of education.  Our schools are run by politicians who’s only goal is to remain in office.  So they appeal to the lowest common denominator in order to attract the greatest number of votes.  In the process, the sell our most gifted students, our best and our brightest, down the river of mediocrity.

    We should all be ashamed at how bad our schools function.  The republic cannot survive without fresh leadership.  Currently that leadership is being provided by those who had a private education.  That is not a sustainable model.  Education reform must be our top priority.