Often overlooked in the concern over Gov. Bruce Rauner’s obstructionism is the damage he is doing to his own agenda. Not the Turnaround Agenda, but the governor’s alleged support of ideas like more equitable education funding and streamlining local government through consolidation. Hopes are high that Rauner will follow through on his promise to reform the criminal justice system and thereby reduce racial disparity in the state’s prison system – the subject of this week’s cover story by Patrick Yeagle. On this page, James Krohe Jr. makes a case for Rauner to go down in Illinois history as a progressive, if he would do what he says he wants to do. But this week, instead of concentrating on a governor’s tasks at hand, Rauner was trying to take over Chicago Public Schools, prompting a union official to call him a “madman.” Please get to work, governor. You’re wasting precious time. –Fletcher Farrar, editor and publisher
This article appears in Feb 4-10, 2016.
