No
matter how predictable it is, it still comes off as quite offensive. As though
those suburban pols of the Republican persuasion, along with those of the rural
Illinois bearings, are going to save us poor, ignorant Chicagoans from our
stupidity and incompetence.
AT
LEAST THAT’S my read of the fact that the General Assembly’s Republican
leadership are working with Gov. Bruce Rauner to come up with a bill to create
an oversight board for the Chicago Public Schools.
Senate
Minority Leader Christine Radogno, R-Lemont, made a point of saying Wednesday
that this measure will allow the public schools to declare bankruptcy as a way
of legally rebuilding its finances.
As
if they’re offering up a life preserver to prevent the schools from drowning financially.
Personally,
it’s more of a political power play – trying to gain some influence over an
entity that is very much a part of the Democratic Party power structure in this
city of Chicago and state of Illinois.
JUST
AS I recall the mid-1990s effort to permit local school councils in Chicago as
a move approved by Republican politicians in Springfield because they were
convinced incompetent Chicagoans would screw everything up to the point where
the state could then justify a takeover of the Chicago Public Schools.
Back
then, state government had significant Republican influence. For one two-year
period, it was GOP-dominated.
But
that was then. Now, it is a Democratic-controlled government. Although not
Dem-dominant as it was back before the days of Bruce Rauner as governor.
Which
is why this measure – which officials said could be introduced before the
Legislature within a week – is destined to failure.
IT
WOULDN’T TAKE a supermajority vote of Democratic unanimity to kill this off. A
simple 60 votes in the Illinois House and 30 votes in the state Senate would be
enough to do the job.
That
is, unless Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and state Senate President
John Cullerton, both D-Chicago, decide to use their legislative control to
prevent the measure from ever coming up for a vote.
Actually,
that tactic would be the way that Republican partisans would handle the issue –
not even giving a chance to something they oppose. I don’t doubt that Cullerton
and Madigan, especially Madigan, will want this to come up for a vote.
Because
then, the Democratic, Chicago-leaning majorities can come out and vote against
the measure. It will fail. It technically will appear to have been
democratically debated.
EVEN
THOUGH THE outcome was preordained. And Madigan, in particular, will come
across as smug if he says that the issue was considered, and the people
rejected it.
It’s
pure politicking. I realize that. Politicking by both sides, and part of the
continued efforts to strong-arm one’s own views down the throat of the
opposition. Actually, I find myself agreeing with the Chicago Teachers Union.
In
a statement issued on Wednesday, union officials said it was ridiculous to have
state government get involved in school finances when they can’t even approve a
budget for state government’s own nearly 8-month-old fiscal year. It is a bit
more truthful than the Madigan statement that accuses Rauner of trying to
attack the middle class and make even more money for his wealthy friends.
Although
the honest-to-goodness truth about all this is that it is all more about
partisan rhetoric and seeing who can one-up the other in the ongoing fight over
who really runs things – and who comes across as the whiny brat!
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