Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Are IL Dems going to cut a deal with Rauner on vouchers?

Archbishop Blase Cupich and Mayor Emanuel have been talking vouchers.
What I'm hearing is that there's not enough votes in House to override Rauner's veto of school funding bill. Override requires 71 votes and Dems have only 67. It comes as no surprise that they can't find even 4 Republicans willing to break with our mini-Trump governor and support adequate and equitable funding for schools. Boss Mike Madigan doesn't seem to care that much or have any more screws to tighten,  even if he did.

Rauner is still committed to sticking it to Chicago and CPS. He claims that Chicago is getting too large a slice of the budget pie. It's the big lie, as Rich Miller points out in Capitol Fax. Chicago gets back only 80 cents for every dollar of taxes it contributes. The city is actually subsidizing the wealthy suburbs. But it's the sword Rauner's obviously willing to fall on in the upcoming elections. In the meantime, his strategy for public ed is loot, pillage and burn.

So with school opening only days away, I'm worried that a deal has already been cut between Republicans and SB1 author Andy Manar, Cardinal Blase Cupich and Mayor Rahm Emanuel for a new "compromise bill" that includes school vouchers and restrictions on teachers collective-bargaining rights.

The Tribune has already sent up some signals and naturally would love such a deal. 

Rahm insists he's against vouchers but last week, he dodged questions on school vouchers, leaving reporters to wonder about his position even as his latest batch of private emails showed Cardinal Cupich lobbying the mayor on the subject and Rahm open to discussing the matter.

When he was our guest on Hitting Left, Dem gov candidate Rep. Dan Biss called any new compromise on vouchers, "a catastrophe" and "unacceptable". He called vouchers, "a red line." I hope he sticks by that.

All the denials lead me to believe the fix is in. Hope I'm wrong.

2 comments:

  1. Yeah, this is what I suspect is going to go down. Can you get somebody to bring national attention to this? Say, Dusty Rhodes or Tina Sfondeles? Would be good if somebody could draw NPE's/ Mercedes Schneider or Diane Ravitch's interest. Cf. https://deedspeakout.wordpress.com/2017/08/16/coffee-break-8-16-17/, my post from earlier today.

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