It’s election time. Nationally, most voters have made up their minds about the top of the ticket.
But what about those state legislative and county races?
What will Illinois voters do? Are they really that upset about their property taxes? Especially the folks in the south suburbs, who have seen double-digit percentage increases in taxes in just one year.
Will paying thousands more in just one year for the same house you’ve lived in for years, motivate people to vote out their elected official?
Will voters turn to voting for a familiar name, a candidate who looks like them and has a similar ethnic name?
Will voters be swayed by the commercials spewing talking points without context around the kitchen table with the family? Or will it be abortion, abortion, abortion – property taxes be damned?
There’s another side to this issue. Not only are people paying more in taxes, but those taxes also aren’t delivering results.
In the south suburbs that include Dixmoor, Harvey, and Thornton those residents are hurting the most. According to this FOX 32 report, 15 south suburbs have seen their median tax bill increase by 30% or more. These towns saw even higher increases: Dixmoor – 122%, Harvey- 82%, Thornton – 58%
Thornton Township HSD 205 serves those communities and has three high schools. Overall, only 7% of students read at grade level, and only 4% do math at grade level. In one of the high schools, no students are at grade level in math. They spend $26,000 per student, so money isn’t the issue.
This didn’t just happen. It’s been this way for a long time.
The State Rep in that area is Will Davis. He’s been in office for over 20 years and has served as the head of the Appropriations Committee for Elementary and Secondary Education for over a decade. K-12 education is his specialty. He knows how the money flows – and he knows how poorly the schools in his area perform. Davis is an ardent supporter of teacher unions and opposes school choice, so nothing will change for his residents.
He’ll remain in office until he no longer wants to. Because that’s how it works in Illinois.
This topic was on my mind as I was at property tax town hall in Chicago Heights this weekend. Ted and John from Wirepoints were there sharing their data. They laid out the scam being played against those in Dixmoor, Harvey, and other nearby suburbs, and they published them in this article. Here is one slide from that set. If it doesn’t make you puke, then you are either in on the scam or numb to the situation.
These communities are majority-minority, which is why they pulled out the Black proficiency scores. The overall proficiency for the entire student population is not that much different.
Poor-performing schools aren’t just an issue in the southern suburbs. You’ll find them everywhere. In West Chicago Elementary School District 33, only 16% of students are at grade level in reading or math. This elementary district spends over $25,000 per student.
West Chicago Community High School doesn’t perform much better. Only 22% and 21% of students read or do math at grade level, respectively.
Maura Hirschauer is the State Rep for West Chicago. She’s a teacher by profession, so you would think she would be focused on improving education for her constituents. She’s not. The commercials she is running say she was a leader in taking away guns.
That’s a joke. First, gun crime in West Chicago really isn’t an issue, and second, the criminals don’t obey gun laws.
I’m not too far from Hirschauer’s district, so when I saw she was up with TV commercials, I looked into her campaign account. Just 18 months ago, in her April 2023 filing, she had a negative balance. Since then,
- Unions put over $260,000 into her race between April 2023 and September 2024
- In just five weeks, from August 16 to September 20, 2024, the Democrat party has given her over $250,000.
- In the last two weeks, the Democrat Party has put in nearly $100,000 more!
- At the end of September, Unions gave $65,000 more, with $50,000 of that coming from the teacher unions
- JB for Governor campaign gave her $50,000 on October 8th
It is an obscene amount of money, and this isn’t even a top-tier race. The Democrats and their allies take no chances. They need obedient tools like Hirschauer to get their work done, so they spend big to make that happen.
Her record is atrocious, though. She’s not this soft Mom image portrayed in commercials. I mean, what Mom votes to decriminalize fentanyl, enough to kill 1.500 people? Maura did, click HERE to view the vote on HB 3447.
Hirschauer is also anti-business. But in this state, union money flows to candidates while businesses aren’t organized to do the same.
The above examples should prompt all readers to investigate who is on their ballot and what their record is.
Fact-Checking CUSD 200 Referendum
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