Archive for the ‘politics’ Category

Chicago Public Schools took COVID money and splurged, now that source of funds has dried up

Posted: October 23, 2024 by John Ruberry in education, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
Tags: , , , , , ,

By John Ruberry

William J. Bennett, when he was Education Secretary under Ronald Reagan, declared the Chicago Public Schools system was the worst in the nation.

Decades later, CPS still might be at the bottom, despite a recent influx of federal COVID-19 relief cash.

According to Illinois State Board of Education test results, nearly three-quarters of CPS students can’t read at grade level and over eighty-percent of them aren’t proficient in math.

Not shockingly, many Chicago parents are finding alternatives their children’s education, such charter and private schools, or moving out of Chicago altogether. 

The sad irony is that many CPS schools call themselves things like “school of excellence,” or “STEM academy,” or “college prep high school.” 

One-third of Chicago’s traditional public schools, Wirepoints reports, are under half of enrollment capacity. One high school, the somewhat modestly named Manley Career Academy, which was built for 1,000 pupils, has just 100 students enrolled there. “Journey to world class” is the school’s motto.

There’s state-enforced moratorium preventing school closings, but that expires next year. But the Chicago Teachers Union, the straw that stirs the drink in city politics, is vehemently opposed to that.

Fewer schools means fewer union jobs. 

The CTU and its allies say that Chicago schools are underfunded. However, they never say what the proper amount is. Just more, more, and more.

CPS-per-student funding has increased by 40-percent since 2019, when scores were higher, the district now spends nearly $30,000 student, while the statewide average is just $24,000.

As I reported here earlier this month, Chicago’s leftist mayor, Brandon Johnson, who prior to his election last year was a CTU organizer, saw his school board resign because, according to media reports, “Branjo” was pressuring them to fire the CEO of CPS. 

Johnson appointed that entire board.

CTU was the primary funder of Johnson’s campaign. That union is fond of Alinskyite tactics, particularly creating and demonizing an enemy. Usually that’s the mayor, but Johnson is on the CTU team.

Johnson and CTU–assuming there is a difference between the two–are pushing for high-interest loans to increase spending for schools on things like salaries and pension obligations, rather than for capital projects, which is what fiscally responsible school districts use loans for.

CPS has a junk credit rating. 

Johnson’s new appointees will be out of office soon. A new 21-member board–10 elected and 11 appointed by the mayor, will take over shortly after Election Day next month. Many of the electoral candidates for the new school board are endorsed by the CTU.

Things have gotten so bad that even the Washington Post has taken notice.

Chicago and CPS appear to be in a death spiral. How both got there goes back decades. As for the misdeeds of the last few years, the Chicago Teachers Union deserves much of the blame.

Getting out of this mess won’t be easy. While Governor J.B. Pritzker is also a Democrat, he and Branjo aren’t close. Pritzker is a liberal, but Johnson is a quasi-socialist. But a state takeover of CPS isn’t likely. Pritzker wants to run for president one day and if the state is in charge of Chicago’s schools, then CPS becomes his problem.

Even if Kamala Harris wins the presidency next month, a federal bailout of CPS is very unlikely, especially because the district squandered COVID funds.

And Chicagoans are stuck with Johnson until at least 2027.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Two Weeks of 4th and 20 Plays from the Harris Campaign

Posted: October 17, 2024 by datechguy in election 2024, politics
Tags: ,

One of the things you will see in football particularly when a team is down by 3 scores or more are teams going for it on long 4th downs.

This is not an odd choice. The idea is that you have no chance of changing the path of the game going south without taking long chances, even chances that are unlikely to work out. So you find yourself going for it on 4th and long in the 3rd or early 4th quarter in such games.

If you manage to convert you maintain the chance to come back and win the game. If you fail, well you were going to lose anyways so you might as well take the shot.

Of course if you fail and the lead becomes four or five scores, that when you take out your starter and play your subs to keep key players from getting hurt.

And that brings us to Kamala on Fox.

For weeks Kamala ducked everybody and everything white Donald Trump chris-crossed the nation and took on all comers.

The seeing that this was not having intended effect she started doing interview with friendly location who where willing to ask seemingly softball questions (the view), edit the interviews to omit problems (CBS) or rig that question and audiences to her favor (univision),

Not only has this failed but he viability level has reached such a low point that SNL feels free to make fun of her on the theory that it doesn’t matter.

And thus the 4th and 20 hail mary passes go up, Interview on Fox, possible appearance on Joe Rogan, going to venues that she has dodged because unless something changes the margin will be as Trump puts it “Too Big To Rig”.

Alas the Fox interview appears to be yet another disaster the only question is does she:

  1. Continue to do these 4th & 20th interviews in the hopes that she hits gold?
  2. Pull back and become invisible again so that she doesn’t hurt down ticket Democrats any more than she already is?

I’m betting #2 by the end of next week but the smart thing to do is to fight like the Hail Mary passes were complete

The Great Chicago Train Robbery offers more proof of the city’s decline and fall

Posted: October 13, 2024 by John Ruberry in crime, culture, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

By John Ruberry

The evidence of Chicago’s decline and fall keeps piling up.

On Friday evening, at least 30 thugs looted Union Pacific rail cars in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood on the West Side.

The city’s leftist mayor, Brandon Johnson, who lives in Austin, was in London in advance of Sunday’s Chicago Bears game against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Although he later backed away, slightly, from his statement, in 2020 “Branjo” called defunding the police “a political goal.”

As you’ll see, the looters are so casual in these videos as they unload the U.P. freight cars, it’s as if they calmly enjoying a visit to a suburban pick-your-own pumpkin patch. They’re not hiding their faces; they’re not covering up their licence plates. One enterprising criminal even brought a cargo truck to speed their 100-percent discounts along.

The mass thievery was so vast that commuter rail traffic on those rail lines was suspended for hours.

Society is rotting in Chicago–as well as suburban Cook County, because we have had a pro-criminal George Soros-funded so-called prosecutor, Democrat Kim Foxx, lackadaisically enforcing the law for that last eight years. Thankfully, she’ll be out of office in two months.

Criminals don’t fear getting caught in Chicago–and if they are–only those accused of the most heinous crimes are locked up to await trial. Since last year, courtesy of JB Pritzker’s SAFE-T Act, cash bail is banned in Illinois.

The Chicago establishment media, TV stations are an exception, are shameful. They minimize rampant criminality, calling it “a perception problem.”

On Facebook, an hour after the brazen looting, a Chicagoan on Facebook, a self-described “entrepreneur,” was advertising a back yard full of widescreen televisions for sale. As of this writing, 5:00pm EDT, those TVs are still for sale on the social network. Facebook doesn’t seem concerned. It’s a good thing this “entrepreneur” isn’t claiming that masks don’t work against COVID.

Then again, maybe it’s a coincidence that the “entrepreneur” is selling those televisions. But there are a lot of “coincidences” in America’s third-largest city.

So far only six people have been arrested for allegedly participating in the Great Chicago Train Robbery. Where were the Chicago Police on Friday? It took the cops over an hour to arrive to the West Side rail yard. ABC 7 News’ traffic chopper showed up much more quickly. Where was Union Pacific’s security detail? Just a thought, but U.P. may want to investigate their West Side employees. I suspect that this heist may have been aided by a tip from someone working in that freight yard.

There have been other thefts of U.P. trains in Chicago recently.

Finally, where are the decent Chicagoans?

There are some, right?

John Ruberry regularly blogs just north of Chicago at Marathon Pundit.

Election 2020, Election 2024 Donald Trump and Mysterious Ways

Posted: October 10, 2024 by datechguy in Always look at the bright side of Trump, election 2020, election 2024, elections, politics
Tags: , ,

If we had known he wanted a new car that badly, we all would have chipped in and bought him one.

Johnny Bench on Brooks Robinson’s MVP Performance in the 1970 World Series

I have argued more than once that if the left had not stolen the 2020 election they would have been done with Donald Trump by now and the deep state’s business as usual would have been able to continue without a problem. Now John Conlin at the American Thinker is pointing out all the ways that the steal of the election in 2020 was a blessing in disguise for the country and a disaster to those trying to destroy it.

The blatant politicization of the DoJ, FBI, CIA, IRS, military, judiciary, etc. — really almost every aspect of the federal government — has been laid bare for all to see. For many of these folks, the concept of equal justice under the law is something they discarded long ago. Many states are as bad or worse.

For years, DEI has been destroying institutions and companies across the board. That is ending now.

Institutions of supposed “higher” education have revealed themselves to be little more than dumbing-down indoctrination centers. Much of public K-12 education has been shown to be the same. The school choice movement is now unstoppable.

All of these things had been proceeding quietly since the Obama years and even before, but now the lid has been blown off them all and the American people are seeing things as they are. Conlin again

These institutions were this way before, but this period has removed all doubt. And before one can begin to address an illness, one must first accept the reality of the disease. We have done that. 

The path forward won’t be a straight one. It will probably involve a lot of “2 steps forward, 1 step back,” but we have bottomed out. The future might look far different than today, but history will show this was the high water mark for socialism, communism, big government, gender insanity, and a whole lot more.

And we owe this awakening to the “loss” of a stolen election, which is turning out to be a wonderous win.

I’m surprised that he didn’t mention what was to me one of the biggest changes. The MSM insisting and demanding that people believe that Joe Biden was completely fine. Was it not just four months ago that they were telling Americans that if you believed he wasn’t sharp as a knife that you were spreading disinformation? They’re very public exposure as a pack of liars before even the most credulous fool is the straw that broke the back of their power.

I suspect if the left knew what it knew now it might have done things different but hey they did get 4 years of good stealing.

It may be that even seeing and knowing all this the American people may still willingly walk into the hell of a Kamala presidency, but if they do it will be with eyes wide open rather than having tyranny quietly imposed on them.

All of these were only made possible by the steal. It has turned out to be a blessing in disguise, although I admit, it was a pretty good disguise.

Older Entries
Newer Entries