In “Do by learning” (Aug. 15, 2013), I examined the case for providing alternatives to college prep as a path to a high school diploma. Among the pieces I drew upon for that column was Alex Tabarrok’s “Tuning In to Dropping Out “ in a recent issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education. I described, […]
James Krohe Jr.
Posted inOpinion
Three-way traffic
“A place for everything and everything in its place, I say, and a park is not the place for cars.” That was me, ranting in this paper in 1978. I promised then that it would be my last word on the subject, and it was for 35 years. That’s a long time for me to […]
Posted inOpinion
The profit motive
A year ago I ventured an opinion about one of the chronic ailments suffered by U.S. health care — expensive, ineffectual or unnecessary treatments that are partly a result of incentives built into our perverse system of paying for such things. (See Just what the doctor ordered, August 23,2012.) On August 19 Tyler Cowen pointed to […]
Posted inOpinion
Shereikis remembered
There is a new stone bench on the UIS campus dedicated to the late Rich Shereikis, a founding faculty member of UIS’s predecessor school and a long-time contributor to IT. (See “The right combination of sensibilities,” April 11, 2013.) The bench adorns the berm where West Lake Drive meets the campus ring road. The spot, […]
Posted inOpinion
Another woman’s story
I recently spent a pleasant weekend in the company of a handsome widowed lady named Christiana. She did most of the talking, which was fine with me, as what she had to say was well-observed and often wryly funny. Besides, I couldn’t have interrupted her if I tried, she being dead for the past 141 […]
Posted inOpinion
Here comes the neighborhood
Back in 2011 I chastised Springfield officials for the city’s failure to take steps necessary to slow the rot that has been spreading through east side housing for years. Having damned officials then, it is only fair that I praise them now. The manager of the city’s building department recently announced that 63 dilapidated buildings […]
Posted inOpinion
Do by learning
The other day the Springfield School District 186 board took a break from discussions about finding a new superintendent – which it is not in a hurry to do – and heard a few things about something they ought to be in a hurry to do. Capital Area Career Center director Bob Klingborg informed the […]
Posted inOpinion
Why cities die, continued
If you enjoy the grisly autopsy scenes in your favorite cop drama, you might like to poke about a bitin the corpse of the City of Detroyt, as I did in Dancing around the issue from the Aug. 8, 2013 paper. Since that piece appeared, J. Eric Wise added to the discussion in this City […]
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Readings for extra credit
My piece about whether collegiate athletes ought to be paid (see ”Throwing in the towel,” Aug. 1, 2013 was merely a course-summary version of a complex argument. Readers interested in learning more about that argument might find these interesting: “The Shame of College Sports” by Taylor Branch. Atlantic Monthly, Oct. 2011 “College sports reform needed, […]
Posted inOpinion
Dancing around the issue
“It wasn’t the airplanes. It was beauty killed the beast.” – King Kong The Motor City finally ran out of gas. The recent bankruptcy of Detroit’s municipal government has been explained and re-explained. It was a single-industry city, the equivalent of the mining camp, that failed to diversify its economy. It was badly run, meaning […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Life after football
In “Throwing in the towel,” I discussed recent proposals to reform big-money collegiate sports. Good sense reforms are unlikely to ever be adopted to the extent that are good sense reforms. So interwined are sports and the American college experience, most alums university leaders believe, that curtailing them in any way would cripple fund-raising and student recruitment, […]
Posted inOpinion
Throwing in the towel
It’s mid-summer, but the thoughts of every red-blooded Illinoisan are already turned to autumn. The fields resound with the satisfying crunch of pads against pads, helmet against helmet, brain against skull as college football squads go through their two-a-days. College football, like basketball, is a tribal thing, and I’m not of that tribe. It isn’t […]
