Better than American Idol: Barrett[MPC] on Education and Transit
Jeff Berkowitz: ... go to that point, Chicago Public Schools, $12,000 per kid per year. Why isn’t that enough?
MarySue Barrett: ... an adequate education costs- in today’s dollars- $6,400 per child, per year. And, the CPS- when you take away the additional funding for special education or bilingual education, high poverty—doesn’t have enough local resources to provide those needs. And, that’s true for the majority of school districts around [Illinois].
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MarySue Barrett: We are big fans of congestion pricing and again, we are not going to get there tomorrow-- in the same way that there is not going to be public-private school choice in Illinois tomorrow, there is not going to be a London style road...
********************************************
This Week's suburban edition of "Public Affairs," airing in the Chicago metro suburbs, features MarySue Barrett, President, Metropolitan Planning Council, debating and discussing Education Funding Reform, Transportation Choices and Government Planned/Market Planned Growth and much more with show host and legal recruiter Jeff Berkowitz. See, below, for the Public Affairs suburban airing schedule, including a special airing in ten suburbs tonight. You may also [Watch the show with MarySue Barrett on your computer].
*******************************************************
MarySue Barrett, who worked in the Mayor Daley administration for seven years and has been President of the Metropolitian Planning Council for a decade, debates and discusses with show host and legal recruiter Jeff Berkowitz education funding reform, whether voters may view the current expenditure of $12,000 per kid per year in the Chicago Public School System as sufficient to educate kids well, whether the "foundation," i.e., minimum level of spending on education per kid statewide, should be increased; whether we should expand the state government caps on the number of charter schools and create school vouchers to permit school choice; whether we should have a "tax swap," i.e., an increase in the income tax and sales tax and a decrease in the property tax; what citizens might get "in exchange," for an income tax increase; the potential adoption of a merit pay compensation system in Illinois public education; the use of central planning as opposed to markets to guide suburban-city growth; the use of congestion [or peak load] pricing on the highways/ tollways, whether more roads or more mass transit should be emphasized; whether the concept of "sensible growth," or "smart growth," is based on a 19th Century or 21st century model of residential-job pattern choices and much, much more.
** ****************************************
MarySue Barrett, President, Metropolitan Planning Council, will be the featured guest on the Monday, Jan. 22, 2007 [8:30 pm, Cable Ch. 21] City of Chicago edition of "Public Affairs."
*************************************************
The "Public Affairs," cinema page gives you a choice of more than twenty-five episodes of “Public Affairs," including this week's suburban show with MarySue Barrett, Metropolitan Planning Council President, and recent shows with State Rep. Paul Froehlich, Eric Zorn-Dan Proft, John McCarron, Gery Chico, former State Sen. Steve Rauschenberger, Chicago Mayoral Candidate Dorothy Brown [D] and State Rep. Julie Hamos [D-Evanston], as well as interviews, discussions or remarks with or by U. S. Senators John McCain and Barack Obama, former NYC Mayor Rudy Giulianiand many, many more pols on our video podcast page[Watch here].
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Jeff Berkowitz: …the state legislature is starting to meet…and one of the things they are focusing on is education funding reform, you and your organization are heavily involved in that issue…Chicago Public Schools (“CPS”)- they spend about $12,000 per kid per year…might some people say—and I know education funding reform is not just about Chicago, but a lot of it revolves around the needs of CPS, might somebody say, isn’t that enough, $12,000 per kid per year?
MarySue Barrett: I think we have to start by setting the stage a little bit more broadly. There are tons of stereotypes that trip us up in this debate…we last had a serious debate about school funding and tax reform in Illinois ten years ago, so we are obviously long overdue…a lion’s share of the schools can’t support their own budgets out of the local property tax, which is true for 95% of the school districts around the state. If they had to totally locally fund, we’d fall short, almost across the board, there is a huge disparity, which I think most viewers won’t—
Jeff Berkowitz: I know, we’ll go through that. But, let me start with Chicago if we can. We’ll come back. I know you are saying that it is part of a broader debate, and it’s useful for the viewers to know that. But, go to that point, Chicago Public Schools, $12,000 per kid per year. Why isn’t that enough?
MarySue Barrett: I’m not a budget expert. So, I’m not prepared to retort whether $12,000 is the accurate statistic. I do know that it is a “foundation level,” district, which means that today in Illinois and this has been true since 1997, we’ve actually finally got a definition of what an adequate education costs- in today’s dollars- that’s $6,400 per child, per year. And, the CPS- when you take away the additional funding for special education or bilingual education, high poverty—doesn’t have enough local resources to provide those needs. And, that’s true for the majority of school districts around [Illinois].
******************************************
MarySue Barrett: …Fortunately, there are some new tools on the table, we funded “Illinois First,” …primarily off of a motor vehicle registration fee- if you go back to the earlier package, it was gas taxes, so all of those transportation fees are on the table—
Jeff Berkowitz: But, aren’t they the wrong way because the gas tax- it doesn’t track mileage, it doesn’t track usage [Berkowitz misspoke, the gas tax does sort of track usage, just not whether the usage is peak or off peak, which is the concept of congestion pricing-- charging much higher prices in peak periods than off peak periods ] …what we want as I understand it from reading some of …the opposing point of view to what your organization seems to take—You have a lot of congestion [on the roads]…because drivers are not charged. We now have the ability without toll booths to charge people, we have these transponders so you can track [time of usage, peak or off peak usage, etc.]--
MarySue Barrett: Not the competing view, that is our view.
Jeff Berkowitz: That’s your view?
MarySue Barrett: We are big fans of congestion pricing and again, we are not going to get there tomorrow-- in the same way that there is not going to be public-private school choice in Illinois tomorrow, there is not going to be a London style road [ congestion charge for driving into the central London, England area from 7:00 am to 6:30 pm, M-F, See here], but we do have, as you are saying, the tools because of the I-Pass system to de-ploy this kind of strategy. We are working with transportation agencies right now on some congestion pricing experiments that can show people some of the exciting things that can happen…a variation of what you are talking about is called private-public financing of infrastructure and you hear talk about that right now with the toll road system…
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Jeff Berkowitz: So, would you favor bringing back the notion of these jitney cabs that were sometimes more efficient to get people from point A to point B than cumbersome buses that are very large, very fuel inefficient [and travel with very low loads]. Would you go that far?
MarySue Barrett: Well, you know, the RTA is in the midst of its own strategic plan with its new leadership and I have a lot of faith that they are going to explore a whole range of options and I do think that the traditional CTA bus and train, Pace bus, Metra train lacks some in between steps that we need to explore as a Region and absolutely, there are some cheaper ways to go about serving it, but…[As you can see here, going back a number of years, jitney cabs existed in Chicago, at least some of the time, due to an essentially government created monopoly of the taxi business—a monopoly that raised the price of transportation above the competitive level and didn’t want to serve low income black areas, creating an opportunity for “jitneys,” i.e., private cars, to serve some main roads in those areas by picking up and dropping off customers for a nominal fee. Those were different times- different circumstances, but providers like jitneys might currently also be able to compete with quasi-government created monopolies in the transportation business, if the government wanted to “look the other way,” and let the jitneys meet some of the transportation wants of customers more efficiently than government licensed trains, buses and taxis].
*************************************************
MarySue Barrett, as is airing this week on Public Affairs in 35 Chicago Metro suburbs [See below for the suburban airing schedule] and as will be airing on Monday, Jan. 22, 2007 [8:30 pm on Cable, CANTV] on the City of Chicago edition of Public Affairs. The show was recorded on January 7, 2007. You may also[watch the MarySue Barrett program here].
***************************************************
In twenty-five North Shore, North and Northwest suburbs, the "Public Affairs," show airs every Tuesday night in the regular weekly Public Affairs slot, 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Ch. 19 or 35, as indicated, below.
In ten North Shore suburbs, the Public Affairs show air three times each week in its regular slots at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Ch. 19, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, as indicated, below. Tonight, there is special airing of the MarySue Barrett show at 9:30 pm on Comcast Cable Ch. 19 in these ten suburbs.
******************************************************
The suburban episode of Public Affairs airs every Tuesday night :
at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 19 in Buffalo Grove, Elk Grove Village, Hoffman Estates, parts of Inverness, Lincolnwood, Morton Grove, Niles, Northfield, Palatine, Rolling Meadows and Wilmette
And at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 35 in Arlington Heights, Bartlett, Glenview, Golf, Des Plaines, Hanover Park, Mt. Prospect, Northbrook, Park Ridge, Prospect Heights, Schaumburg, Skokie, Streamwood and Wheeling.
and every Monday night, Wednesday night and Friday night at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 19 in Bannockburn, Deerfield, Ft. Sheridan, Glencoe, Highland Park, Highwood, Kenilworth, Lincolnshire, Riverwoods and Winnetka. In these ten suburbs, there is a special airing tonight, at 9:30 pm, of the show with MPC President, MarySue Barrett.
The City of Chicago edition of "Public Affairs," airs every Monday night at 8:30 pm on Cable Ch. 21 [CANTV] throughout the City of Chicago.
****************************************************
Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
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MarySue Barrett: ... an adequate education costs- in today’s dollars- $6,400 per child, per year. And, the CPS- when you take away the additional funding for special education or bilingual education, high poverty—doesn’t have enough local resources to provide those needs. And, that’s true for the majority of school districts around [Illinois].
******************************************
MarySue Barrett: We are big fans of congestion pricing and again, we are not going to get there tomorrow-- in the same way that there is not going to be public-private school choice in Illinois tomorrow, there is not going to be a London style road...
********************************************
This Week's suburban edition of "Public Affairs," airing in the Chicago metro suburbs, features MarySue Barrett, President, Metropolitan Planning Council, debating and discussing Education Funding Reform, Transportation Choices and Government Planned/Market Planned Growth and much more with show host and legal recruiter Jeff Berkowitz. See, below, for the Public Affairs suburban airing schedule, including a special airing in ten suburbs tonight. You may also [Watch the show with MarySue Barrett on your computer].
*******************************************************
MarySue Barrett, who worked in the Mayor Daley administration for seven years and has been President of the Metropolitian Planning Council for a decade, debates and discusses with show host and legal recruiter Jeff Berkowitz education funding reform, whether voters may view the current expenditure of $12,000 per kid per year in the Chicago Public School System as sufficient to educate kids well, whether the "foundation," i.e., minimum level of spending on education per kid statewide, should be increased; whether we should expand the state government caps on the number of charter schools and create school vouchers to permit school choice; whether we should have a "tax swap," i.e., an increase in the income tax and sales tax and a decrease in the property tax; what citizens might get "in exchange," for an income tax increase; the potential adoption of a merit pay compensation system in Illinois public education; the use of central planning as opposed to markets to guide suburban-city growth; the use of congestion [or peak load] pricing on the highways/ tollways, whether more roads or more mass transit should be emphasized; whether the concept of "sensible growth," or "smart growth," is based on a 19th Century or 21st century model of residential-job pattern choices and much, much more.
** ****************************************
MarySue Barrett, President, Metropolitan Planning Council, will be the featured guest on the Monday, Jan. 22, 2007 [8:30 pm, Cable Ch. 21] City of Chicago edition of "Public Affairs."
*************************************************
The "Public Affairs," cinema page gives you a choice of more than twenty-five episodes of “Public Affairs," including this week's suburban show with MarySue Barrett, Metropolitan Planning Council President, and recent shows with State Rep. Paul Froehlich, Eric Zorn-Dan Proft, John McCarron, Gery Chico, former State Sen. Steve Rauschenberger, Chicago Mayoral Candidate Dorothy Brown [D] and State Rep. Julie Hamos [D-Evanston], as well as interviews, discussions or remarks with or by U. S. Senators John McCain and Barack Obama, former NYC Mayor Rudy Giulianiand many, many more pols on our video podcast page[Watch here].
***************************************************
Jeff Berkowitz: …the state legislature is starting to meet…and one of the things they are focusing on is education funding reform, you and your organization are heavily involved in that issue…Chicago Public Schools (“CPS”)- they spend about $12,000 per kid per year…might some people say—and I know education funding reform is not just about Chicago, but a lot of it revolves around the needs of CPS, might somebody say, isn’t that enough, $12,000 per kid per year?
MarySue Barrett: I think we have to start by setting the stage a little bit more broadly. There are tons of stereotypes that trip us up in this debate…we last had a serious debate about school funding and tax reform in Illinois ten years ago, so we are obviously long overdue…a lion’s share of the schools can’t support their own budgets out of the local property tax, which is true for 95% of the school districts around the state. If they had to totally locally fund, we’d fall short, almost across the board, there is a huge disparity, which I think most viewers won’t—
Jeff Berkowitz: I know, we’ll go through that. But, let me start with Chicago if we can. We’ll come back. I know you are saying that it is part of a broader debate, and it’s useful for the viewers to know that. But, go to that point, Chicago Public Schools, $12,000 per kid per year. Why isn’t that enough?
MarySue Barrett: I’m not a budget expert. So, I’m not prepared to retort whether $12,000 is the accurate statistic. I do know that it is a “foundation level,” district, which means that today in Illinois and this has been true since 1997, we’ve actually finally got a definition of what an adequate education costs- in today’s dollars- that’s $6,400 per child, per year. And, the CPS- when you take away the additional funding for special education or bilingual education, high poverty—doesn’t have enough local resources to provide those needs. And, that’s true for the majority of school districts around [Illinois].
******************************************
MarySue Barrett: …Fortunately, there are some new tools on the table, we funded “Illinois First,” …primarily off of a motor vehicle registration fee- if you go back to the earlier package, it was gas taxes, so all of those transportation fees are on the table—
Jeff Berkowitz: But, aren’t they the wrong way because the gas tax- it doesn’t track mileage, it doesn’t track usage [Berkowitz misspoke, the gas tax does sort of track usage, just not whether the usage is peak or off peak, which is the concept of congestion pricing-- charging much higher prices in peak periods than off peak periods ] …what we want as I understand it from reading some of …the opposing point of view to what your organization seems to take—You have a lot of congestion [on the roads]…because drivers are not charged. We now have the ability without toll booths to charge people, we have these transponders so you can track [time of usage, peak or off peak usage, etc.]--
MarySue Barrett: Not the competing view, that is our view.
Jeff Berkowitz: That’s your view?
MarySue Barrett: We are big fans of congestion pricing and again, we are not going to get there tomorrow-- in the same way that there is not going to be public-private school choice in Illinois tomorrow, there is not going to be a London style road [ congestion charge for driving into the central London, England area from 7:00 am to 6:30 pm, M-F, See here], but we do have, as you are saying, the tools because of the I-Pass system to de-ploy this kind of strategy. We are working with transportation agencies right now on some congestion pricing experiments that can show people some of the exciting things that can happen…a variation of what you are talking about is called private-public financing of infrastructure and you hear talk about that right now with the toll road system…
****************************************
Jeff Berkowitz: So, would you favor bringing back the notion of these jitney cabs that were sometimes more efficient to get people from point A to point B than cumbersome buses that are very large, very fuel inefficient [and travel with very low loads]. Would you go that far?
MarySue Barrett: Well, you know, the RTA is in the midst of its own strategic plan with its new leadership and I have a lot of faith that they are going to explore a whole range of options and I do think that the traditional CTA bus and train, Pace bus, Metra train lacks some in between steps that we need to explore as a Region and absolutely, there are some cheaper ways to go about serving it, but…[As you can see here, going back a number of years, jitney cabs existed in Chicago, at least some of the time, due to an essentially government created monopoly of the taxi business—a monopoly that raised the price of transportation above the competitive level and didn’t want to serve low income black areas, creating an opportunity for “jitneys,” i.e., private cars, to serve some main roads in those areas by picking up and dropping off customers for a nominal fee. Those were different times- different circumstances, but providers like jitneys might currently also be able to compete with quasi-government created monopolies in the transportation business, if the government wanted to “look the other way,” and let the jitneys meet some of the transportation wants of customers more efficiently than government licensed trains, buses and taxis].
*************************************************
MarySue Barrett, as is airing this week on Public Affairs in 35 Chicago Metro suburbs [See below for the suburban airing schedule] and as will be airing on Monday, Jan. 22, 2007 [8:30 pm on Cable, CANTV] on the City of Chicago edition of Public Affairs. The show was recorded on January 7, 2007. You may also[watch the MarySue Barrett program here].
***************************************************
In twenty-five North Shore, North and Northwest suburbs, the "Public Affairs," show airs every Tuesday night in the regular weekly Public Affairs slot, 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Ch. 19 or 35, as indicated, below.
In ten North Shore suburbs, the Public Affairs show air three times each week in its regular slots at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Ch. 19, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, as indicated, below. Tonight, there is special airing of the MarySue Barrett show at 9:30 pm on Comcast Cable Ch. 19 in these ten suburbs.
******************************************************
The suburban episode of Public Affairs airs every Tuesday night :
at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 19 in Buffalo Grove, Elk Grove Village, Hoffman Estates, parts of Inverness, Lincolnwood, Morton Grove, Niles, Northfield, Palatine, Rolling Meadows and Wilmette
And at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 35 in Arlington Heights, Bartlett, Glenview, Golf, Des Plaines, Hanover Park, Mt. Prospect, Northbrook, Park Ridge, Prospect Heights, Schaumburg, Skokie, Streamwood and Wheeling.
and every Monday night, Wednesday night and Friday night at 8:30 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 19 in Bannockburn, Deerfield, Ft. Sheridan, Glencoe, Highland Park, Highwood, Kenilworth, Lincolnshire, Riverwoods and Winnetka. In these ten suburbs, there is a special airing tonight, at 9:30 pm, of the show with MPC President, MarySue Barrett.
The City of Chicago edition of "Public Affairs," airs every Monday night at 8:30 pm on Cable Ch. 21 [CANTV] throughout the City of Chicago.
****************************************************
Jeff Berkowitz, Show Host/Producer of "Public Affairs," and Executive Legal Recruiter doing legal search can be reached at JBCG@aol.com
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