Spit Take
ArchPundit
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It would be much cuter if it wasn’t Normal.
Uncategorized
Welcome to the Occupation
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Going Forward
I’m trying to figure out what exactly ArchPundit is going to be going forward and I’ll probably have some sense in the next week or two and will post when I get a few things out of the way that have been keeping me from the site. I can say, I’m not going away, but I certainly can’t post like I used to.
PCCC Endorses Ilya Sheyman in IL-10
Just passing along this from Progressive Change Campaign Committee. I haven’t taken a position in this race, but Ilya is good people.
We saw over the last couple years that just electing “Democrats” is not enough.
Even with full Democratic control of government — including 60 seats in the Senate — corporate Democrats killed the public option and watered down Wall Street reform.Â
In 2012, we can’t just focus on electing Democrats. We need to focus on electing bold progressive fighters.Â
Today, we’re proud to endorse Ilya Sheyman in the 10th Congressional District of Illinois.
We’ve spoken with Ilya many times and watched his campaign grow from its infancy to the strong people-powered army that it is today. Ilya has built a campaign that can win — and win big.
He supports government investment in jobs, Medicare for all, holding Wall Street accountable — and pretty much every progressive position you can think of.
He says, “I am sick and tired of Democrats who refuse to stand up and fight back for progressive values that make a difference in people’s lives.”
In addition, we spoke with Ilya this week about Elizabeth Warren — and his enthusiasm for her candidacy is palpable. Ilya vows to be a strong ally of hers in Congress, and she will need that.Â
We will be mobilizing our 36,000 Illinois members on Ilya’s behalf in the days ahead. Please share this email with at least 5 of your neighbors today — so others join the fight.
Thanks for being a bold progressive.
— Adam Green and Stephanie Taylor, PCCC co-founders
Who Could Have Predicted?
The unsuccessful 2011 mayoral campaign of Carol Moseley Braun has failed to file documentation on how $315,000 in campaign funds was spent, something that is required by state law.
Illinois Board of Elections officials told the Chicago Sun-Times and NBC5 News they have been unsuccessful in getting either Braun or her now-defunct campaign to explain how the money was spent.
Candidates are required by law to file quarterly campaign disclosure statements. In an April 15 filing, Braun reported raising $323,000 and spending $315,000.
In the report, the Braun campaign listed “Vendors Multiple” instead of itemizing expenditures over $150.
Probably a Lot of These to Follow
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If you make a joke about it’s the end of the world I’ll ban you forever.
Thanks
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sigh–all good things must come to an end.
“To our Fans and Friends: As R.E.M., and as lifelong friends and co-conspirators, we have decided to call it a day as a band. We walk away with a great sense of gratitude, of finality, and of astonishment at all we have accomplished. To anyone who ever felt touched by our music, our deepest thanks for listening.” R.E.M.
Still swamped for a few days. Deciding how to go forward with much more limited time.
Trib Editorial Board Blows the Irony Meter Again on Financial Accountability
They issue a series of questions that are mostly easy to answer and have been answered by anyone who bothers to look at actual data.
•Why are expenses rising as enrollment decreases?
It’s that thing that they teach in high school economics called inflation, but looking at the numbers it’s not hard to understand this. Students leaving the CPS tend to be students who have fewer problems. Limited english proficiency, students with IEPs, high poverty students, tend to not leave at the same rate as students without those challenges and thus, it’s more expensive to educate them because they need individualized attention. The rate of LEP is nearly twice that of the state depending on the year and poverty rate is just about twice the state average. So add to this the need to deal with these students in smaller class size settings and yet the CPS has more students on average per classroom than the state.
Making all of this more difficult is that personnel costs and especially health care are increasing faster than the rate of inflation and you end up with avery modest enrollment increases leading to higher costs per student.
One of the things to keep in mind, the CPS keeps pretty close to state averages on expenditures except for students services which is higher because of the types of students overrepresented in the CPS as mentioned above. Given that the instructional and overall spending isn’t that outrageous:
| Chicago 2008-2009 | 7,690 | 12,880 |
| State 2008-2009 | 6,483 | 11,197 |
That’s pretty good for a district with the sort of challenges CPS has. All bureaucracies can be made more efficient, but the know nothings at the Trib Editorial Board would be well served to understand that education costs money.
Why hasn’t CPS controlled costs better by outsourcing more jobs, including central office jobs that could be more efficiently and economically run by outside contractors?
This is baffling and largely not consistent with evidence regarding the costs of outsourcing. Central office jobs mostly maintaining programmatic support and monitoring. Some aspects of schools might be served by some outside services, but those are essential to running an effective district. Making broad claims about outsourcing is a meaningless trope that makes the great white guys feel smart, but has no meaning.
So CPS proposes a tax increase — and even more troubling, a raid on reserve funds. There are some efforts at discipline. CPS will deny teachers a scheduled 4 percent raise, cut scores of central office middle managers and streamline departments. It will slash many popular programs, including mentoring for at-risk students; bilingual education; literacy initiatives; extracurricular math, science and technology clubs; and other after-school programs.
Perhaps they need more revenue? How long do you think you can run an effective organization without raises? Sustainability isn’t about cutting things when you are trying to reach students who are harder to educate than the average student. These cuts are exactly what leads to a District like CPS offering fewer opportunities and attracting less qualified teachers and it happens where the students need those the most.
Alexi to Chair Illinois Community College Board
Quinn regularly plugs Illinois’ network of 48 community colleges — the country’s third-largest community college system. For every student at at a public four-year-college in Illinois, two attend a community college, Quinn notes.
Giannoulias, 35, served as state treasurer and narrowly lost a race for U.S. Senate last year to Republican Mark Kirk. Giannoulias ran just two percentage points behind his Democratic ticket-mate, Quinn.
Since losing, Giannoulias has been putting together a political science class he will teach at Northwestern University this fall called “Campaigning versus governing.” He said Tuesday he plans to announce next month a full-time job he’ll be taking.
The part-time post as chairman of the community colleges board is unpaid.
“I’m incredibly excited to help reform our community colleges here in Illinois,” Giannoulias said. “Putting Americans back to work is the single greatest challenge facing our country. A well-educated work force is crucial to that. This meshes my two passions: education and creating jobs.”
This and Sheila Simon’s efforts to visit all of the community colleges are a very good sign of an essential element of economic development being prioritiezed by Quinn.
Community colleges several important functions. They provide affordable education to students who can’t afford attending a full university and allows less mature students to remain at home while still making progress. They provide a variety of programs that improve skills prepare those who won’t go on to a full BA/BS for skilled work. They provide excellent places for students who need to rehabilitate their academic careers.
A higher profile chair can push these issues far more than the usual chairs who are competent professionals, but don’t have the same level of political access.
Wisconsin Drops Down to 1 Seat GOP Senate Advantage
Eric thinks it’s a victory for Walker because they didn’t kill the king. The thing is, Walker isn’t a king, but a Governor and now he has to moderate because one Republican in the GOP Senate caucus isn’t extreme and is unlikely to pass more over the top legislation.
To add to this, Nate Silver has projected a toss up if Walker is recalled based on the turnout and results last night.
Walker is still vulnerable, more Senators can be recalled along with him in January. Change is often slow and requires patience, but this is progress. The worst of Walker’s agenda is stopped and he seems to be vulnerable for the spring. Being a liberal often comes with the problem of assuming we’ll find a way to lose, but sometimes we do win and that usually comes from persistence and hard work.