More Articles

Here are some more articles from the Trib and Herald. They do a good job of explaining how school district get more money than they claim from a referendum. Here is a excerpt form the Trib article talking about so-called “tort immunity” tax dollars are being spent on teachers salaries among other things.


Hundreds of school districts across the state and dozens in the Chicago region have dramatically increased special taxes for legal claims and insurance expenses over the last five years, a recent study shows, but not necessarily because legal troubles have mounted.

The obscure tax, which doesn’t show up on homeowners’ bills, in some districts has paid for portions of salaries for teachers, administrators, secretaries, custodians and cafeteria workers, a Tribune review of court records and district financial reports shows.

Chicago Tribune
Use of obscure school tax sparks 4 Downstate suits

Daily Herald
About our analysis
Tax reform bill gaining support
House leaders may hold tax hearings
Officials zero in on tax-hike safeguard
Law takes aim at tax loophole
The true cost of a school tax vote
Looking at some local schools
How the tax gap works
A detailed look

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7 Responses to “More Articles”

  1. Tim, on April 21st, 2005 at 4:20 pm Said:

    There are risks in believing everything that the mainstream, print media publishes. Context and accuracy are sometimes not what they should be.

  2. Cathy, on April 21st, 2005 at 6:21 pm Said:

    Tim of which article are you referring?

  3. Tim, on April 22nd, 2005 at 7:57 am Said:

    The Tribune article and several of the recent Daily Herald articles. It’s also a shame that the confusion exists for around 10 years on tax cap related problems and the legislators don’t even notice the issue is there until the news media begins to discuss the issue.

  4. Lennie, on April 22nd, 2005 at 9:50 am Said:

    Tim, could you be more specific please?

  5. carl, on April 22nd, 2005 at 11:09 am Said:

    tim…your just getting set up here…they really don’t care. your point on context has been made time and time again, but they just don’t care; if a tiny extraction makes their point, it makes their post. anything else? go fish!

  6. Cathy, on April 22nd, 2005 at 1:11 pm Said:

    Tim,

    What specifically was wrong in Diane Rado’s article and where are your resources so I can verify your data? Do you contact her to find out where she got her data?

    Legislators knew what was happening but because they are so indebted to the teachers union they will not do anything until forced to do something about the spending problems in the schools. Do you have any idea how much of our tax dollars are used to pay union dues which in turn are use to get legislators elected who will do as the teachers union say. The year Blago was elected the teachers unions gave him 2 million dollars. Would it not have been nice if that 2 million dollars could have stayed in the classrooms?

    Jack Franks a representative in McHenry County gets 40,000 dollars a year from the unions, which could pay the salary of one teacher. Just think of the number of representatives and senators that get that money and how many more teachers could be hired. What does Jack Franks do in response to this 40,000 dollar a year donation? He proposes a Bill that sees that teachers do not have to pay income taxes on the first 30,000 dollars of their salaries. If this were to pass we would lose millions of dollars in income taxes each year. Who makes up the difference? The taxpayers.

    Does having the unions in schools make schools better? No. Look at the performance of private schools versus public schools. I do not want my child to be forced to go to a public school that have teachers who care more about the union than they do actually teaching our students. Teachers have a choice to go to public schools or private schools. I respect teachers in private schools and I respect teachers in public schools who refuse to be a part of the union that is destroying the American Education system.

    Respect is earned and not commanded I refuse to support schools that refuse to be accountable for educating our children. Teachers and schools are rejecting No Child Left Behind. Wow, what a concept children performing at grade appropriate levels! If teachers had been doing their jobs for the last 20 years we would never need “No Child Left Behind.”

    If teachers would quit promoting there small class size myth we could afford to pay all teachers 100,000 dollar a year because the exponential increased in funding that has occurred over the years while class size has shrunk.

  7. carl, on April 27th, 2005 at 11:05 am Said:

    http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0504270267apr27,1,81364.story?coll=chi-newslocal-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true

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