Wirepoints

ABC 7, FOX 32, Telemundo, Univision and WBBM joined Wirepoints at our press conference in front of Pilsen’s Benito Juarez High School, where 85% of students graduate despite just 4% of them being proficient in reading, to cover Wirepoints’ new special report: “Chicago Public Schools fails its Hispanic students: Only 17 of every 100 read at grade level.” Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski was joined by Jonathan Serrano, a former candidate for state representative (IL-03), former CPS employee, and community leader on the city’s west side and Rob Cruz, a parent advocate, former school board member and candidate for Congress (IL-06). Read the report here: https://wirepoints.org/chicago-public-schools-fails-its-hispanic-students-only-17-of-every-100-read-at-grade-level-wirepoints-special-report/

ABC 7, FOX 32, Telemundo, Univision and WBBM joined Wirepoints at our press conference in front of Pilsen’s Benito Juarez High School, where 85% of students graduate despite just 4% of them being proficient in reading, to cover Wirepoints’ new special report: “Chicago Public Schools fails its Hispanic students: Only 17 of every 100 read at grade level.” Read the report here: https://wirepoints.org/chicago-public-schools-fails-its-hispanic-students-only-17-of-every-100-read-at-grade-level-wirepoints-special-report/

FOX 32 Chicago joined Wirepoints at our press conference in front of Pilsen’s Benito Juarez High School, where only 70 out of 1,700 students can read at grade level, to report on Wirepoints’ new special report: “Chicago Public Schools fails its Hispanic students: Only 17 of every 100 read at grade level.” @FOX32Chicago @ChiPubSchools #chicago #schoolchoice #hispanic @jbpritzker #brandonjohnson #illinois #latino @CTULOCAL1

Telemundo Chicago joined Wirepoints at our press conference in front of Pilsen’s Benito Juarez High School, where only 70 out of 1,700 students can read at grade level, to report on Wirepoints’ new special report: “Chicago Public Schools fails its Hispanic students: Only 17 of every 100 read at grade level.” @TelemundoChicago @ChiPubSchools #chicago #schoolchoice @hispanic @jbpritzker #brandonjohnson @CTULOCAL1 #illinois #latino

Chicago’s future depends in large part upon the success of today’s Hispanic students. But the city’s school system is failing them. Only 17 of every 100 Hispanic students can read at grade level. And just 12 of every 100 are proficient in math. Read more at: https://wirepoints.org/chicago-public-schools-fails-its-hispanic-students-only-17-of-every-100-read-at-grade-level-wirepoints-special-report/

Illinois lawmakers have raised their salaries by 27% to nearly $90,000 per year, making them the fourth-highest paid lawmakers in the country. Illinois lawmakers are responsible for policies that consistently leave Illinois at the bottom of the barrel nationally –from debtstotaxestocredit ratingstoout-migration. The new salary is now 25% higher than the state's median household income, while ordinary citizens have struggled with stagnant wages. These lawmakers do not deserve such significant pay raises, and the burden of funding their higher compensation falls on the taxpayers. @jbpritzker #taxes #chicagocrime #lawmakers #chicago #illinois #payraise

Chicago’s future depends in large part upon the success of today’s Hispanic students. But the city’s school system is failing them. Only 17 of every 100 Hispanic students can read at grade level. And just 12 of every 100 are proficient in math.

Illinois lawmakers are responsible for policies that consistently leave Illinois at the bottom of the barrel nationally – from debts to taxes to credit ratings to out-migration. And yet, those lawmakers have just hiked their base pay by nearly $5,000 – to $89,675 a year. That’s on top of a 17 percent raise they gave themselves just six months ago. Illinois lawmakers now have the 4th-highest pay in the country. They don’t deserve an annual salary that’s 25 percent higher than the state’s median household income ($72,205). @khqa @FOXIllinois #chicago #illinois #lawmakers #payraise

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson wrongly compared the fatal police shooting of an armed 13-year-old to the murder of a police officer by a group of teenagers. Wirepoints’ Mark Glennon highlighted how the mayor’s comment leads to a further demoralization of Chicago’s police force. @FoxNews #brandonjohnson #chicago #illinois #chicagocrime #chicagomayor

We have to find ways to be more inviting to businesses and to people. Right now our crime, education and tax policies do the opposite @FOX32Chicago @jbpritzker #chicago #illinois #chicagocrime #taxes #tax

The National Desk cited Wirepoints’ data in its report of how the nation’s largest school system, New York City Schools, is changing its reading curriculum. That comes after Chancellor David Banks said they’ve been teaching reading wrong for 20 years. #chicago @ChiPubSchools #schoolchoice @TheNationalDesk

Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson wrongly compared the death of an armed 13-year-old killed by police to the murder of a police officer by a group of teenagers. Wirepoints’ Mark highlighted how the mayor's comment leads to a further demoralization of Chicago’s police force. #chicago #chicagocrime #brandonjohnson @FoxNews

"They got rid of spelling, phonics and penmanship, " a concerned parent said. When Ted Dabrowski joined former state Rep. Ken Dunkin to talk about how Illinois lawmakers may kill the state’s only school choice program, how bad Chicago Public Schools’ student outcomes really are, why power over education should be taken from administrators/unions and returned to parents, and more. #chicago #schoolchoice #brandonjohnson #publicschool #publicschools @ChiPubSchools

Ted Joined Univision to talk about mayor-elect Brandon Johnson's plan for Chicago following his inauguration, how Johnson will finance his plans when federal COVID money runs out, how Johnson should focus on results rather than equity if he hopes to turn Chicago around and more.

Pritzker’s unilateral decision making over covid, which included some of themost draconianlockdown and mitigation responses in the country, has finally ended. These decisions ranged fromuniversal lockdownstoschool maskingtovaccine passportstothe failed management of retirement homes. All were top-down policiesnot grounded in science.They eroded the public’s trustand didmore harmthan good. @jbpritzker #covid19 #chicago #illinois #covid #covid_19

Illinois is chronically losing people and their wealth to other states as Illinoisans vote with their feet. Gov. Pritzker and the state’s legislature show no signs of pursuing education, criminal justice and pension reforms needed to make the state competitive and more affordable. Expect the exodus of residents to continue. @jbpritzker @irsvideos @FOX32Chicago #illinois #chicago #outmigration #chicagocrime #tax

Wirepoints joined FOX 32’s GoodDay Chicago to talk about the challenges facing Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson, including Illinois and Chicago’s loss of residents (which Gov. Pritzker continues to deny), the increasingly empty downtown, why high taxes, growing crime and a lack of opportunity are forcing people and businesses out, and more. @FOX32Chicago @jbpritzker #chicago #brandonjohnson #chicagocrime #chicagomayor

Data from AAAshows average gas prices in the Prairie State at $4.07 on April 17. Gov. Pritzker can’t do anything about the base price of gas, but he can do something about the state’s gas taxes. There's no reason why Illinoisans should be paying the nation’s 2nd-highest gas taxes – something residents should be reminded of every time they fill up their cars. Read here: https://bit.ly/42bv0At @jbpritzker @aaanews #illinois #gas #gastax

“Silly decisions.” That’s what Mayor-Elect Brandon Johnson called the dangerous, violent acts by Chicago’s youth a week ago that left two teens shot, a couple attacked, and property damage to cars, buses and more. “They’re young. Sometimes they make silly decisions,”Johnson saidas he doubled down on his previous calls for the public to not “demonize” those hundreds of teens who violently took over Chicago’s streets. He says he doesn’t condone the violence, but that these youth have been “starved of opportunities in their own communities.” It’s madness for Johnson to equate typical teen stupidity with the kind of violence that Chicago’s youth inflicted during their “takeover.” By excusing those actions, he’s essentially justifying the range of crime Chicago’s youth have imposed on residents across the city. #chicago #chicagocrime #brandonjohnson #chicagomayor

Mayhem? This weekend’s ‘teen takeover’ in Chicago was nothing short of mayhem. @MayorLightfoot unwillingness to call the mayhem what it is only invites even more mayhem. For more from Wirepoints visit link in bio.

Wirepoints President Ted Dabrowski testified on March 22, 2023 to members of the House Appropriations Committee on Elementary & Secondary Education. Ted made the argument that a lack of accountability, not funding, is the core problem in Illinois education today.

Ted joined Enrique Rodríguez of Univision to talk about how Illinois' education system is failing its Hispanic students. Just 18% of Hispanic students can read at grade level in Illinois. Meanwhile, education spending rises, taxes constantly increase and home values suffer. Chicago's Hispanic communities, in particular, have been hit hard by the city's property tax hikes, yet student outcomes haven't improved. In CPS, just 17% of Hispanic students can read at grade level. Check out Wirepoints' District Report Cards to see the student outcomes in your area: https://wirepoints.org/school-district-report-cards/

It took only 15 seconds last week for Gov. J.B. Pritzker to reveal what’s so wrong with his brand of leadership, where he refuses to acknowledge Illinois’ many problems and, instead, prefers to deflect and name call when someone else draws attention to those problems. Those few seconds came during the governor’s first debate against challenger Darren Bailey. Bailey brought up a recent hard-hitting Wall Street Journal editorial that reported, among other failures, that just 2 percent of Decatur Public School’s black 3rd-graders could read at grade level in 2019, while nearly 100 percent of the district’s teachers were evaluated as proficient or excellent. Most of the data came directly from Wirepoints’ recent report: https://wirepoints.org/poor-student-achievement-and-near-zero-accountability-an-indictment-of-illinois-public-education-system-wirepoints-special-report/ When confronted with those facts during the debate, all Pritzker could do was declare that Wirepoints research was “wrong” and call us his favorite phrase: “carnival barkers.” But our education research wasn’t wrong. All our data came directly from the Illinois State Board of Education – part of Pritzker’s own administration. You can check out the WSJ piece “Illinois’ Shocking Report Card: The Land of Lincoln is failing its children and covering it up" here: https://wirepoints.org/wirepoints-in-the-wsj-illinois-shocking-report-card-the-land-of-lincoln-is-failing-its-children-and-covering-it-up/

Ted was on with Mike Flannery of Fox 32 to discuss how Chicago leaders and the Chicago Teachers Union are failing students horribly by keeping dozens of near-empty schools open across the city. Flannery asked the CTU participate in the interview – their official response was “F*** Wirepoints.”