A recent opinion piece by Ralph Martire skillfully detailed the importance of Illinois investing more in higher education, noting that our state has for years failed to properly fund public universities. The consequences are bleak, increasingly making a four-year degree out of reach for low- and middle-income students, especially Black and Latino students. This hurts our state’s economic competitiveness and undermines our communities.
Now, these scant resources may be divided further through a broad expansion of community college degree programs under consideration by lawmakers. While the stated goal of this effort is admirable, the practical effect would amount to yet another blow to our state’s higher education ecosystem by diluting resources across institutions, undermining the ability of both community colleges and four-year universities to provide high-quality academic experiences in Illinois.
We need another approach that doesn’t pit higher education institutions against one another. Through more than 3,000 successful partnerships and agreements, public and private universities are already offering four-year degree programs that can be completed on community college campuses, online or through traditional 2+2 pathways.
These partnerships have fostered degree completion programs directly on community college campuses, further expanding access to higher education. Many students in these existing programs receive guaranteed scholarships, some of which ensure they pay no out-of-pocket costs for tuition and fees.
As policy leaders examine a new funding formula for higher education that would provide more stability and increase opportunities for all students, we must avoid measures that could hinder efforts to be good stewards of public funds.
Rather than a broad expansion that duplicates existing programs and dilutes resources, we should prioritize growing these proven partnerships first and then focus on the limited number of programs that would serve unmet student needs.
Given the many challenges facing our state’s higher education system — including fewer students due to declining birth rates and uncertainty from the federal government — we should be focused on collaboration, not competition.
Michael D. Hart, president, Governors State University chapter, University Professionals of Illinois Local 4100
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Unacceptable behavior at a frat party, work no longer tolerated
When I was in a sorority in college, there were certain fraternities that older sisters warned us against visiting. One had a “joke” of locking women in rooms of the fraternity house, while another would invite minor girls to parties and serve them alcohol until they passed out.
It goes without saying that these unsafe fraternities were frequently sexist and homophobic. If you objected to something, you would likely hear someone say, “Can’t you take a joke?”
If that’s the “fraternity-house feeling” at The Score that actor William Petersen and longtime Score radio host Dan McNeil miss — in response to Dan Bernstein’s firing — they can keep it.
Kathryn Flucht, Boystown
Let police officers do their job
The answer to the problem of downtown “teen takeovers” lies in the recent article written by David Struett and Fran Spielman: “The Streetervillle Organization of Active Residents … wants (Mayor Brandon) Johnson to give police the necessary authority to intervene before violence occurs.”
One would think that Chicago police already have the authority to prevent violence. Why does Johnson, a vocal opponent of the police department, have to give that authority?
What needs to happen is to stop politicizing CPD and let them do their job.
Susan R. Mistretta, daughter of fallen CPD Officer James O. Sexton, Darien
Traffic stops are a legal law enforcement tool
Recently, the Sun-Times, in partnership with the Investigative Project on Race and Equity, wrote a story titled, “Chicago cops have been making fewer traffic stops, but more are ending in violence” This reporting is one of the most anti-police and anti-policing initiatives I have seen in years.
Just consider the organizations that were quoted or cited in the article.
Along with the Investigative Project on Race and Equity, the American Civil Liberties Union, Injustice Watch and more — these agencies have spewed anti-police rhetoric and, in some cases, would just like to eliminate policing altogether.
The story is more about the elimination of traffic stops (we have already seen such legislation proposed in Springfield), or more correctly ,the push of the Sun-Times and others to eliminate traffic stops under the ridiculous notion of “pretextual” stops.
Let us be clear, there is no such thing as a “pretextual” stop. Every single traffic stop that is listed in the story is legal under the Illinois vehicle code. Minor violations for license plate infractions, driving with no headlights, expired license plate tags and failure to use turn signals are all currently against the law. Using those reasons to make a traffic stop is not “pretextual.”
Traffic stops are a basic part of law enforcement and an essential tool. Contrary to what you may have read in the Sun- Times, when officers make a traffic stop for an illegal violation, they typically end up finding drivers with suspended or revoked driver’s licenses, active warrants, sometimes violent out-of-state warrants, contraband, stolen items and many other illegal proceeds that are legally confiscated. Then, the driver is often arrested based on the legal traffic stop.
The fact is society is more violent.
This story in the Sun-Times was just another way to push to “defund the police” through what I call the new defunding of police through legislation. While the defund the police movement was a disaster and never accomplished its goal, what is happening in America now, and specifically in Illinois, is there is a push to pass legislation to gut policing altogether.
Tom Weitzel, retired, Riverside Police Department
Dishonoring our country’s veterans
The recent Sun-Times front-page article “The Department of Government INefficiency” made me teary and angry at the same time.
In addition to the Veteran Affairs employees, this is a slap in the face to all U.S. veterans, past and present. But then again, what would one expect from a person who referred to veterans as “losers and suckers?”
Jamie Cohn, Buffalo Grove
Incentivize domestic manufacturing
As President Donald Trump puts tariffs on imported goods from many countries — with the alleged goal of forcing some manufacturing to return to the United States — several points are worth remembering.
The loss of U.S. production and jobs to foreign countries was undertaken by big corporations to increase their profits by using the cheaper labor in many parts of the world. The corner food store did not move any operations overseas — but Levi Strauss and our auto makers sure did. These actions were facilitated by laws enacted by both parties that facilitated such moves, often giving tax breaks to the big corporations.
Instead of now imposing tariffs on foreign countries, which will clearly hurt many U.S. consumers and existing U.S. businesses, our government needs to amend our current laws to incentivize domestic manufacturing. Along the way, our laws should be changed to force the large corporations and their super-rich owners to pay their fair share of taxes.
Whether our lawmakers — too often backed and dominated by mega-wealthy donors — have the nerve to make such changes in open to question. If not, the current administration’s policies amount to no more than revenge tactics against perceived wrong-doers.
Charles Berg, Hyde Park-Kenwood
Republicans: Show us your money
Could someone please ask the Republican elected officials who are saying we all just need to be patient with the president’s economic agenda what their net worth is?
Gael Mennecke, Beverly
America is doing enough damage to its own
I’d like to personally thank you, Mr. President, for riding to our rescue and saving us all from the predatory rest of the world. But with payday lenders, the private insurance industry, pharmaceutical giants, private equity firms profiting richly off of running their acquisitions into the ground, etc., you didn’t need to go so far afield. America is ripping America off.
So I’d like to thank you, Mr. President. But I won’t until you let us know your plan for liberating us from all I’ve just mentioned — to which you can now add your own tariffs.
Jim Koppensteiner, Niles
MAGA biology
Get your hands on the April copy of Science News. You will want to go to Page 43, actually not numbered, but you will know it is the right one. The article is long, but there is a time line that will help you understand that sex is not a simple matter of X & Y chromosomes.
Why anyone who understands nature would believe it is simple? Of course, if you are MAGA, you will not read anything that shows diversity is everywhere and natural. The rest of us have information on why some of us are more different than others.
Marcelline Ricker, Downers Grove
Third time won’t be the charm
Trump believes he can run for a third term as president. Coming from him, this isn’t surprising. The man is a narcissist who only thinks about himself and what can benefit him. Every day seems to bring a new example of his contempt for the rule of law.
While his position is a concern, the real disturbing factor is that some people in America agree with him and want him to run for a third term. They are willing to trash the laws of this country and the Constitution and encourage him to take power and do whatever he wants. They support his attacks on our allies, on the media and on any who disagree with him. They support making these people the scapegoats for all of our ills.
When did we become a country that rejoices in the misery of others? When did we start celebrating people losing their jobs or families being split up? When did it become acceptable to spew hate, blaming others for all of the problems in the U.S.? And now some want to make this the permanent legacy of this country by installing a king. Hopefully, the majority will wake up before this becomes the future of this country.
Peter Felitti, Ravenswood
Laws of the land are skewed
Why is it that Elon Musk can give away millions of dollars prior to the Wisconsin Supreme Court election when giving a bottle of water to a person standing in a voting line is deemed illegal in some states?
Michael Cronin, Riverside
With friends like these …
A story for those few who still think Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is good for the Jewish people: I had an old friend who grew up Jewish in Hungary and survived World War II. After suffering under occupation, first by the Nazis and then the Soviets, he left Hungary, vowing never to return. The reason: the bulk of the Hungarian people gladly complied with how both both occupiers relegated Jews to especially low treatment.
Netanyahu is not a friend of the Jewish people but of the despots of the world. No wonder he got the red carpet from Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
Ken Stein, Lombard