Jack Franks Still Running for State Rep. – Part 33

Since moving to Illinois in 1958, I’ve been following Chicago schools.

The first reason was because Benjamin Willis, my mother’s Queen Anne’s County School Superintendent, was then in charge of the Chicago Schools.

Those were the days when trailers were brought in to house students in overflowing schools.

Critics named them “Willis Wagons.”

Over the years the school system always seem to be serving the poor poorly.

While I was in Springfield during the 1970’s, one could almost count on a request to bail out the schools by sending an extra $20 to $40 million.

James Meeks

James Meeks

Mayor Daley even came down once for a Committee of the Whole.

If the educational situation has improved over the decades, it’s hard to notice.

(Hard to believe that electing the Chicago School Board will make any difference other than giving the teachers union total control of everything.)

So, when the Rev. and State Senator James Meeks came up with a bill to help poor kids in Chicago by giving them vouchers and even got it passed over to the Illinois House, I was optimistic that Illinois might finally on the way to improving Chicago kids chances of getting a decent education significantly.

As a bonus, the program, according to calculations by then-Huntley School Board member Larry Snow, would save taxpayers about $280 million a year.

A “no-brainer,” wouldn’t you think?

But with sixty votes needed to pass the House, the bill came up 12 votes short.

Jack Franks was one of those voting, “No.”

The first vote on James Meek's voucher bill to allow Chicago public school strudents in the worst and most crowded schools to obtain vouchers to attend the private schools their parents select.

The first vote on James Meek’s voucher bill to allow Chicago public school strudents in the worst and most crowded schools to obtain vouchers to attend the private schools their parents select.

Republicans in the suburbs were willing to help inner city kids, but McHenry County’s Democrat was not.

He was representing the Chicago Teachers Union, which was adamantly opposed to the program to allow kids’ parents to pick the school of their choice.

How liberals can condone his “No” vote, which would have saved the state $280 million a year, is beyond me.

After you look at the campaign contributions that Jack Franks has received through 2009, you might want to ask him why he voted to poor mainly black and brown students in the Chicago school system to a continuing subpar education when he could have done something about it that would have saved $200 million a year and not hurt anyone in his legislative district.

$78,150 from the IFT and its local affiliates.

So, maybe getting Jack Franks out of the Illinois House would be a good thing.

The problem is that he has not withdrawn his candidacy for his tenth term.

Sunday, May 15th, Gonigam reported this about Franks not running for both offices:

“Franks qualified that saying he’d give up the Rep. race if the Committee can pick another candidate who’s both ‘electable’ and holds a political outlook consistent with his own.”

Has Jack Franks filed a Withdrawal of Candidacy statement yet?

Check whether Franks has filed the form yet, by clicking here.


Comments

Jack Franks Still Running for State Rep. – Part 33 — 6 Comments

  1. Various Teacher Unions have contributed $362,504 since he started to run for State Rep. (as of a week ago).

    Other union contributions to Jack Franks total $589,243.n That is almost one million dollars from unions alone. In total, Jack Franks has received almost five and one half million dollars in campaign funding.

    McHenry County cannot afford Jack Franks.

  2. Legal kickbacks, paid by union dues.

    Who pays the teacher’s salaries, we
    The tax payers do .

    So we the tax payers are more or less
    Paying for Jack Frank’s political
    Campaign, folks.

    Think about it & send him TWO
    Withdrawal forms ! ! !

  3. Stick to posting crappy comments, Watchdog 2.

    Your poetry is 2nd grade level at best

  4. LOL didn’t notice what had happened there,
    Not intentional.

    Just want to see Jack Franks out of
    McHenry county & reacting to the above info.

  5. The McHenry County Federation of Teachers labor union consists of the local bargaining units in Woodstock School District 200 plus the McHenry County College support staff council labor union.

    Woodstock District 200 has four bargaining units: Teachers, Custodians, Support Staff, and Transportation.

    Support staff is not the instructors and professors but rather the support staff which can include assistants, food service, secretaries, technicians, and more…the details are in the collective bargaining agreement.

    The McHenry County Federation of Teachers, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU, which is the teacher union in Chicago Public Schoos), and many other local unions roll up to the Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT) which is the a statewide teacher union.

    The other statewide teacher union in Illinois is the Illinois Education Association (IEA).

    The IFT rolls up to the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).

    The IEA rolls up to the National Education Association (NEA).

    The IFT & IEA and their affiliates account for almost all (but not all) education labor unions in the United States.

    Public sector organized labor in states such as Illinois has no effective taxpayer counter.

    They were able to shape and change state law, local board policy, collective bargaining negotiations, and effectively do the same at the Federal level through their organized network, although to a lesser extent at the Federal level than state and local.

    If Illinois had the same labor rules that Federal follows, we would be in much better shape.

    The result has been unsustainable government finances at the State and many local levels, and part of that has been Jack Franks, friend of organized labor.

    The claim Jack Franks has made that he’s never voted for a tax hike is ridiculous.

    He’s voted for many things that will hike taxes.

    The claim is no more legitimate than Bill Clinton’s famous statement that he did not have sexual relations with that woman.

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