Understanding Government

I wrote a piece a month ago that looked at how the city of Chicago’s focus on violent crime comes at the expense of other worthy issues. Here’s an example: Rebecca Vevea of the Chicago News Cooperative reports that Chicago Public Schools will continue to spend millions on “Safe Passage,” a program that helps students arrive and depart from school safely.

Obviously, there are worse uses of taxpayer money. But Safe Passage was a program launched by federal stimulus funds and those funds have run out. Does CPS really need to keep this additional safety program — for which $10 million has been set aside — when it faces a $612 million deficit?

A federal prosecutor will investigate the misuse of public funds in the East St. Louis, Illinois school district — one of the poorest and most mismanaged school districts in the country, reports Nicholas J.C. Pistor. The investigation comes three months after the East St. Louis District ceded control of its operations to the Illinois Board of Education.

In Chicago and across the U.S., crime is down.  Why don’t people want to admit it?

According to all available statistics, violent crime has significantly dropped in Chicago and across the country over the last 20 years.

FBI statistics say there were 931 homicides in the city of Chicago in 1993. By 2000, there were just 628 murders – and by 2010 that number was down to 435. In fact, the murder rate in Chicago last year was the lowest it has been since 1965.

This is a national trend. (more…)

Illinois is one nine states eligible to compete for a third round of “Race to the Top” grants provided by the U.S. Education Department, reports Lisa Lambert of Reuters. Race to the Top was originally part of the stimulus bill but the 2011 federal budget called for a $200 million pool of money that will be distributed to winning state grant applicants.

Race to the Top is a signature program of the Obama administration as it has effectively provided incentives for states to adopt the education reform agenda of Education Sec. Arne Duncan. Duncan’s home state of Illinois is a model example of this: the state legislature recently passed a sweeping education reform bill that enables school districts to judge teachers on performance evaluations instead of seniority, and encourages charter schools.

State government funding for prekindergarten education programs are down across the country, according to a study by the National Institute of Early Education Research at Rutgers University. But Erin Richards of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports they are up in Wisconsin. Given the evidence available about early childhood education, this is a good step — and one that may be rewarded by Education Sec. Arne Duncan.

As it did with health care, Wisconsin expanded investments in education under the leadership of Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle and a Democratic controlled legislature. (more…)