THE ILLINOIZE: Groundhog Day for some unemployment benefit applicants...Beware of woke teachers (or something)...How Democrats can fix redistricting...Thapedi resigning

February 2, 2021

It was 28 years ago when Woodstock (Illinois, not New York) became the focus of many laughs and modern-day memes as the stand-in for Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania in the 1993 movie “Groundhog Day” starring Chicago native Bill Murray.

Many of the “Punxsutawney” scenes were actually shot in McHenry County in 1992. You can see many of the filming locations here. The town celebrates with an annual Woodstock Groundhog Days, though events this year are limited because of COVID-19. Woodstock Willie (the Woodstock equivalent of the Pennsylvania rodent) will still make his prognostication at 7am today. You can livestream it on Facebook.

Don’t worry though. Tomorrow will be February 3rd. Maybe.

We have quite a few new subscribers today thanks, mostly, to a little Facebook promotion we have running. Thank you for joining us. If you have any questions, thoughts, or comments, please drop me a note anytime at patrick@theillinoize.com.

Let’s get to it.

THE UNEMPLOYMENT KERFUFFLE CONTINUES

Our Ben Garbarek spoke with a private school teacher who was laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic and was one of thousands of Illinoisans who had problems getting benefits from the Illinois Department of Employment Security.

The Illinois economy continues to lag as the pandemic rages on, and it’s not clear whether IDES has all of its ducks in a row after 10 months.

“It just seems like the pace of governmental action is always remarkably and notably slower than you’d like, Ryan Burnett, who was laid off, said.

But just when he thought he was done, he got sucked right back in. His unemployment benefits were flagged for potential fraud, which has been rampant across the country and the state. Burnett said someone from IDES helped clear up the situation but not without an extra bout of anxiety before it was settled.

“It’s so very obvious that there isn’t a lot of motivation or kind of ‘get up and go’ on their part to make it happen,” he said. “It’s the fact that it ends in .gov and not .com that it seems to be running that slow. Amazon would not do this.”

I know the most frustrating thing for people like Ben and me as well as many lawmakers (Republicans, mostly), is the lack of transparency from IDES. They refused to take our questions, Governor Pritzker has blamed either the Trump administration or the Rauner administration for failure of the system, and there haven’t been any legislative efforts to get to the bottom of it.

Shouldn’t we expect state government to be more responsive and transparent?

Check out Ben’s story this morning.

ONLY WOKE TEACHERS WELCOME?

Three House Republicans alleged yesterday new rules for teacher certification being proposed by the Illinois State Board of Education are an attempt to “indoctrinate” teachers in “partisan progressive politics.”

The Culturally Responsible Teaching and Leading Standards would replace current teacher certification rules.

I have the proposed rule linked in our story from yesterday, and if you read it closely, there are a lot of platitudes that are certainly liberal, but they are not quantitative or something that can be measured in a review or with a test.

Rep. Tom Demmer (R-Dixon) is correct when he says a lot of the proposed rules about understanding culturally diverse students already exist.

It seems the language in the rule is a little less than direct in its punishments or how it will measure if a teacher is “woke” enough. But, I’m not sure if it warrants the fire and brimstone the GOP was proclaiming yesterday.

It also begs the question- does the State Board of Education really need to be focused on social justice talking points when so many kids are falling behind with continued e-learning everyday?

DEMS CAN FIX REDISTRICTING

I wrote a new opinion piece for the site this morning.

It comes down to this: Governor JB Pritzker campaigned as a do-gooder reformer. New House Speaker Chris Welch promised “a new day.”

They have the opportunity to make one of the most major changes in the history of state government: they can finally institute independent, or bipartisan, at least, redistricting.

As you likely know, Congressional, State Senate, and State House districts must be drawn every ten years with new census data. We learned late last week the census data will be delayed, and the legislature will have to get creative to get maps enacted, especially since there’s a constitutional deadline to make it happen by June 30th.

We could go a long way to reforming this state by drawing more “50-50” competitive districts. They can’t all be, but more can. That means we can remove more of the corruption, extremism, and incompetence voters seem to elect in primaries.

Let’s hope Welch and Pritzker will take the step to make it happen.

What do you think? Drop me a note at patrick@theillinoize.com. If you’re a legislator, lobbyist, or Joe Blow, we won’t use your name.

REP. THAPEDI RESIGNING

The always fabulous Hannah Meisel of NPR Illinois reported this weekend that southside State Representative Andre Thapedi (D-Chicago), who was just sworn in to his seventh term in Springfield, is planning to resign.

“Good things are ahead," Thapedi said. "There are things I want to do. I want to still contribute,” Thapedi told NPR

Thapedi is an attorney.

Per Hannah: Thapedi ran unsuccessfully for Cook County subcircuit judge in 2006 and said he wouldn’t rule out another run for judge in the future.

He didn’t return our message and no official date for his resignation is known yet. His district runs east to west from the Chatham neighborhood to southwest suburban Hickory Hills.

He’s the first member of the House to be sworn in last month to announce his resignation. Two incumbent members of the Senate, Andy Manar (D-Bunker Hill) and Heather Steans (D-Chicago) have already resigned.

MEA CULPA

I tend to write this newsletter a little late the night (or morning, it’s currently 1:03 A.M.) before it goes out. Last Friday, I was a little bleary eyed and missed a few mistakes. There were some typos that looked amateurish, and I hope you know I expect better of myself.

I’m not perfect and will never be, but I want this newsletter to be the best possible. I’ll do better.

ONE LAST THING…

If you are enjoying The Illinoize, please consider dropping a few dollars into our virtual tip jar on PayPal. We’re trying to keep the newsletter free as long as we can, but we need to keep the lights on in the meantime!

You can Like us on Facebook or Follow us on Twitter. As always, we invite you to share this e-mail with your friends and colleagues. Click the share button below.

Thanks so much for all of your support.

Have a wonderful week.