by Mark Cavers Youth Connection Charter School is a hybrid school that combines direct classroom instruction (think traditional school) with an online curriculum and enrolls students who have dropped out of other high schools. This unique learning environment allows teachers to tailor individual lessons to meet each students’ needs. Here is a short film detailing YCCS...
by Katherine Casey Taxpayer-funded state lobbying is once again on the rise in Illinois. As the Illinois Policy Institute noted earlier this year in its 2011-2012 Illinois Legislators’ Guide to the Issues, a lack of transparency still plagues the topic of lobbying across the state. Unknown to many citizens, “state-level lobbying” has quickly seeped its way into towns and...
CHICAGO (June 15, 2011) — The city of Evanston scored the highest of five Evanston-area governments in the latest leg of the Illinois Policy Institute’s “Local Transparency Project,” which grades governments on the availability to the public of vital community information. The city earned a score of 91.7 out of 100 possible points for making...
by Kristina Rasmussen PETA sent Gov. Quinn a letter echoing our request that he veto funding for the state’s Urban Fishing Program: I am writing on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and our more than 2 million members and supporters, including thousands across Illinois, to respectfully urge you to end state funding for the Illinois...
by Sameer Warraich Anthony Randazzo of the Reason Foundation recently published an article discussing the effect of government intervention in the mortgage market. As with many government interventions to expand home ownership, there are unintended consequences. While some groups are criticizing a move to make “qualified residential mortgage” guidelines more strict, Randazzo highlights the often overlooked difference between affordable...
by Aon Hussain Just last week, the Chicago Sun Times published an interesting article about the state of rising teacher salaries. In some parts of Illinois, it is not uncommon to see some teachers earning six figures. In addition to high teacher salaries, administrators of various school districts are making a lot of money even as school...
by Drew McKinley Last week the Illinois House passed HB1698, which attempted to reform Illinois’s broken workers’ compensation system. In the bill, the key mechanism for reducing spending is to cut payments to physicians and specialists by 30%. However, studies have shown that cutting reimbursements to physicians actually increases the cost of care. For example,...
by Drew McKinley As the Institute noted this week, Illinois is currently suffering from the thirdworst job loss rates in the nation. Also this week, the CME Group announced it was considering leaving Illinois. The corporate tax hike passed during the most recent lame-duck session of the state legislature is poised to cost the CME Group $50 million...
by Brian Costin A new study out by the Mercatus Center of George Mason University shows that Illinois ranks poorly when it comes to Freedom amongst the states. This study comprehensively ranks the American states on their public policies that affect individual freedoms in the economic, social, and personal spheres. Here’s Illinois’s rankings in each of the categories. 27/50 regulatory policy...
by Mark Cavers Mayor Rahm Emanuel has decided to put salary information for all 34,218 city of Chicago employees online for the public to see, analyze, and download. In the past, the information has been provided through news organizations and non-profits but this is the first time the data is available directly from the city. This level...
by Mark Cavers The Amazon tax, which became law in January, is bad for businesses, workers, and families. Last week, Performance Marketing Associates brought a lawsuit against the Illinois Department of Revenuechallenging the constitutionality of the law. As far back as last year, executive vice president, Kristina Rasmussen warned that if the bill passed companies would flee Illinois. The day...
by Mark Cavers Earlier today, Governor Quinn announced his appointment of former mayoral hopeful Gery Chico to the head of the Illinois State Board of Education. Chico will face a challenging job as he oversees schools in communities as diverse as Chicago and Sparta. He is charged with overseeing all 868 school districts, 2.1 million...
Over the past decade, only Michigan and Ohio had worse private sector job growth than Illinois. The Prairie State’s private sector job growth was down 7 percent. That means 363,100 jobs disappeared between April 2001 and April 2011 — that’s equivalent to disappearance of Delaware’s entire private work force.
by Mark Cavers At the tail end of the legislative session the Illinois State Senate added $430 million in operating costs to this year’s capital bill, a move that was opposed by the House, which refused to consider the bill. Today Governor Quinn announced that capital and road construction programs will begin to shutdown as early as...