Teacher Pension Chief: Crisis Not Our Fault, But Our Reality; Teachers Union to Emanuel: We'll Take You Down

WE'RE NO. 1 With 40 percent growth in state income tax money in 2012, Illinois topped the nation, reports the Wall Street Journal. Unfortunately, all that new money went straight into a public pension system still doomed to failure and still ravenous for even more tax dollars. And even with all that new money, taxpayers get stuck with $86 million a year in penalties because the state is chronically late paying its bills. Our editorial today asks the burning question, "Crazy, isn't it?" (Spoiler alert: The answer is yes.) Read it!

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THE $100 BILLION SYMPTOM Dick Ingram, executive director of the Illinois Teachers Retirement System -- the largest pension fund in the state -- writes in a Reboot Illinois op-ed today of a bitter fact for current and retired teachers: "The state’s fiscal problems are not our fault, but they are our reality." The TRS fund could dry up in 20 years under the current system. But, Ingram notes, pension reform isn't the cause of the state's financial trouble. It's an effect of years of bad management and shady budget practices. Pension reform may treat one symptom, but the state needs to attack the disease, says Ingram. Read it here.

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VIRTUAL CHARTERS OFFLINE Every kid is different, and they all learn in different ways. So why, wonders journalist Scott Reeder, is Illinois so eager to ban online education? Reeder looks critically at a bill that would put a one-year moratorium on online-only charter schools in Illinois. "Parents should be able to weigh the options and decide what’s best for their children," he writes in his weekly column.

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DAILY TIP-OFF Texas Gov. Rick Perry is out to poach businesses and jobs from Illinois with a week-long ad campaign aimed at Chicago business owners. Illinois' business climate "is designed for you to fail" and is "not unlike a burning building on the verge of collapse," Perry said in an ad Monday in Crain's Chicago Business. Gov. Pat Quinn's office was unimpressed: "We’ve seen this rodeo before.”

The Chicago Teachers Union has battled Mayor Rahm Emanuel over teacher evaluations and hiring practices (which led to a strike in September) and the coming closure of 54 schools in poor neighborhoods. Now it says it's ready for war. The union plans to start a voter registration drive as part of a larger campaign to oust Emanuel in 2015. It hopes to register 100,000 new voters in neighborhoods where schools have been closed. The anti-Emanuel campaign officially starts May 23, the day after Chicago Public Schools is expected to formally approve the school closings. Links to Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times stories are here.

Even with no candidates officially declared, the 2014 race for governor is making news. In Springfield Monday, Gov. Pat Quinn and Attorney General Lisa Madigan (who may or may not challenge Quinn in the Democratic primary) addressed an Illinois Association of Realtors conference on housing. Neither talked politics, though any talking they do will be interpreted politically these days. The State Journal-Register has coverage. Meanwhile, the Daily Herald's Suburban Political Recount blog tallies the war chests of three possible GOP candidates for governor, with Chicago venture capitalist Bruce Rauner firmly in the lead.

Links to these and other Illinois news articles are in the Daily Tip-Off section of our website.

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We're tired of Illinois government being a national laughingstock. Aren't you? Visit our website and make a difference.

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