Teachers, Unions, and Transparency
From S.T. Karnick at The American Culture:
In case you missed it, LA Times reporters Jason Felch, Jason Song and Doug Smith used California’s public records law to obtain seven years of math and English test scores from
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Summertime Blues
According to the Chicago Tribune, a new Congressional report called “Summertime Blues” shows stimulus funding has gone to buy iPods for high school students, cell phones for smokers trying to quit, and advertising for the stimulus itself.
Stroger Uses Jobs to Reward Friends, Punish Foes
A court-appointed watchdog group claims Cook County Board President Todd Stroger is “using the county payroll to reward those who backed his failed re-election effort and punish those who did not,” the Chicago Tribune reports.
Quinn Hands Out Raises to Staff
The Associated Press reports “Governor Quinn has given his staff 43 raises averaging 11.4 percent since he became governor.”
Chicago to FOIA: Drop Dead.
The Beachwood Reporter discusses the City of Chicago’s less than stellar response to FOIA requests from the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform, which recently released its annual lobbying survey. The survey reported counties and public agencies paid lobbyists…
Medicaid Transparency Passes Both Houses
Medicaid Transparency (HB5241) has passed both Houses and now awaits a signature from the Governor. The Institute’s Kristina Rasmussen testified in support of this legislation, explaining how it would provide the following:
- Offer government administrators
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Raises in Chicago Public Schools or Not?
Check out this revealing (and entertaining) story by Chicago Reader’s Ben Joravsky about the maze of Chicago Public Schools spending and the difficulties in figuring out exactly where all the tax dollars are going and why.
Joravsky’s piece,…
If Companies Won’t Do Business with Illinois, What’s Next?
Shore Galleries Inc. refused to ship bullets to the Illinois Department of Corrections unless the state paid the vendor upfront, according to a report from the Herald Review today. Currently, the state owes the Lincolnwood firm $6,000, and…
Transparency and Teacher Layoffs
The SouthtownStar has been looking into south suburb school district spending over the last week amid growing talks of teacher layoffs and cutting school programs. The paper sent FOIA requests to 18 towns and 25 school districts asking…
Sunshine Commission Passes House
Good news from Springfield yesterday: The House passed legislation to create the Illinois Sunshine Commission (HB4836), which would create a commission “to conduct a thorough review of the relevance, efficiency, and effectiveness of each “State executive branch program.”…
