Editorial Roundup: Illinois
Chicago Sun-Times. November 3, 2023.
Editorial: Keep after-school programs alive across Illinois
Lawmakers must do whatever they can to keep after-school programs afloat. Thousands of young people could lose access to programs because of a costly overspending error by the Illinois State Board of Education.
For an example of the difference that access to after-school activities can make in the lives of young people, consider the city’s newest Boys & Girls Club in Garfield Park.
There was loud opposition two years ago to the idea of locating the club on the campus with the city’s new public safety academy. Having African American and Latino young people in close proximity to large numbers of police officers was indeed a radical idea that had to be done right, as this editorial board said at the time.
But plans went ahead, and in August, the $15 million Rusu-McCartin Boys & Girls Club opened on a long-vacant parcel of land at 4411 W. Chicago Ave. A community youth council helped determine what kind of programs the club offers, and will do the same working on long-range plans for partnerships with police and firefighters — the part that really has to be done right.
Already, we’re told, the club serves up to 100 youth a day from Garfield Park and surrounding West Side neighborhoods and has a long waiting list. With ample space — 27,000 square feet, including a gym, a large kitchen, maker space and more — the club could easily provide more activities if it had enough staff.
“For so many years, this (lot) was just trees and dirt,” the club’s director, Tevin Haynes, told us in a meeting with the editorial board this fall. “Now it’s a kind of sanctuary… a beacon of hope for our kids.”
Can the new club make good on its broader long-term goal of fostering better relationships between Chicago police and young people of color? We hope the answer is yes — though it’s worth pointing out that Chicago police, as well, must be proactive and do their part too.
Even so, it’s encouraging to hear this from a young woman on the youth council:
“Every single interaction changes how I think and feel about police and the academy,” Re’Yonna Igess told the editorial board. “The one-on-one interaction is totally different from what they (police) have to do for their jobs. That one-on-one interaction should be there. … That connection helps every interaction that comes after that.”
Safe places and programs to keep kids engaged
That a new Boys & Girls Club seems to be making a positive difference for young people in a tough neighborhood — and could do more — is a reminder of this: Young people all across our state, especially in neighborhoods hard-hit by decades of disinvestment, deserve safe places and programs to keep them engaged and out of trouble.
Research has shown, time and again, that after-school hours are when young people are most vulnerable, likely to engage in, or become a victim of, violence or other dangers. And for every young person already enrolled in an after-school program in Illinois, four more are waiting for a chance to participate.
So we urge the Illinois Legislature and the governor’s office to do whatever they can, in the veto session that starts Nov. 7, to find money to keep vital after-school programs up and running.
Activists and supporters recently called for $50 million in supplemental appropriations, to allow time for setting up contracts with program providers.
“If we have to wait until May, we won’t have contracts in place by next year,” Susan Stanton of ACTNow told us. Summer programs are also at risk, she added. “We don’t want that to be the time when the gap (in access) opens.”
The money is needed to make up for a costly spending error by the Illinois State Board of Education, which overspent federal after-school funds and left some organizations scrambling to keep from shutting down programs. Thousands of students have already lost access to activities, and some 42,000 more children, including in Chicago, will lose out by June 20, 2024, according to ACTNow (After School Children and Teens Now), a statewide advocacy organization.
Illinois has no shortage of pressing needs, and its coffers are not limitless. After-school programs have never had ample funding, and that’s a larger problem that will need to be solved.
But kids shouldn’t have to pay the price for mistakes made by ISBE.
As Michael Crowley, the president and CEO of Boys & Girls Club of Chicago, told us, after-school isn’t just about the risk to kids. “There’s also tremendous opportunity, for young people to find their passion, to discover their potential, to build their confidence.”
Illinois should get behind creating those opportunities.
Champaign News-Gazette. November 5, 2023.
Editorial: Will Illinois embrace a realistic energy future?
Illinois needs to face the music on its energy future.
Nuclear power politics will be up for discussion — and possibly on the voting agenda — this week when legislators return for three days (Tuesday through Thursday) to wrap up the fall veto session.
Two issues have come to the fore.
Will Democratic legislative leaders allow the rank-and-file to vote on overriding Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s veto of legislation to lift the state’s moratorium on the construction of a nuclear power plant?
And, if so, will legislators who expressed supermajority support for ending the moratorium stick with their earlier position, or wilt before gubernatorial power?
Depending on how that question is answered, another may arise: Will legislators be allowed to vote on a substitute nuclear power bill that comports with Pritzker’s “stated” — but not necessarily credible — reasons for his veto?
It could be that the idea of lifting the moratorium is an idea whose time has not come. But it’s only a matter of time before it does.
Why?
Legislators, foolishly, have put all their energy eggs in the windmill and solar baskets. Current policy calls for clean energy to produce all of Illinois’ power needs by 2050.
That’s a pipe dream, not a reasonable expectation. Unless legislators change course — as they inevitably must — there won’t be enough energy to provide heat in the winter and cool air in the summer. That’s why a supermajority of Republicans and Democrats — including leaders in both parties — supported legislation to lift the moratorium in the first place.
Unfortunately, after working with legislators to shape the bill and expressing support for it, Pritzker took people by surprise by vetoing it.
He’s given multiple explanations for his decision, so it’s impossible to say if his veto was the result of serious concerns or craven politics related to his ambitions.
Whatever the governor’s motivation, the veto needs to be overridden. It’s either that or passing state Sen. Sue Rezin’s substitute legislation.
Lifting the moratorium would open the door to the construction of small nuclear modular reactors — the new, new thing in energy production.
The days of building massive, horrifically costly nuclear power plants, a la the one in Clinton, are coming to an end.
Rezin’s substitute bill calls for additional approval oversight by the Illinois Commerce Commission or the specific permission of the governor and General Assembly before construction of the smaller reactors.
That’s not really necessary, given the intensive oversight provided by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. But this is Illinois, where politics dictates policy for sometimes nefarious reasons.
Rezin, a Republican from Morris, correctly argues Illinois “must embrace advanced nuclear policy … before our state loses its competitive advantage.”
Whether that’s through an override or passing Rezin’s substitute is, for the most part, immaterial.
Time is not on the side of those who want to keep the moratorium. Sooner or later, they’ll be forced by circumstance to recognize energy reality. Better sooner than later.
END