Illinois schools could be affected by weakening Dept. of Education

The Trump administration is reportedly drafting an Executive Order aimed at dismantling some or all of the U.S. Department of Education, and although Presidents cannot eliminate a federal agency created by Congress (like the DoEd, in 1979), Trump could try to cut its budget or staff.

So despite most funding for public education from pre-school through higher education coming from local taxes and state fundings, there are concerns.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker last month called federal assistance vital to families.

“If they take that away, that’s going to be highly detrimental to the people of our state,” he said. “So, I’m going to do everything I can to preserve that funding. I hope that that does not end up being a target of their attacks.”

The Department of Education has about 4,000 employees operating a $79 billion budget, helping students with special needs and children from low-income households, plus managing federal student loans and collecting and distributing research on learning, teaching testing and more.

Harold Meyerson of The American Prospect says targeting researching and reporting in the name of efficiency could be government removing pesky facts it would rather not disclose, from inflation and climate change to workplace safety and public schools’ “best practices.”

Silencing education could be disastrous.

“As a percentage of the current yearly federal budget of $6.8 trillion, axing those particularly targeted employees would reduce federal spending by roughly zilch,” he writes. “But if the ‘counting’ agencies are among those targeted for decimation, that ‘zilch’ can be promoted as constituting gazillions.”

Targeting DoEd is unpopular, too.

“Only 29% of Americans support abolishing the Education Department,” notes Urban League President Mark H. Morial. “In fact, nearly 70% of voters want to see education funding increased.”

To absent friends, and better times

With all the chaos and evil around us all, I need additional stimuli to balance the outrage and sorrow so many Americans feel.

Fortunately, the National Pastime resumes this month, in stadiums and sandlots, and in hearts and minds longing for innocence and purity at a time of depravity and greed.

As baseball approaches, everything seems fresh and new (if cold and dormant); everyone has an equal change (depending on off-season acquisitions and injuries), and the possibilities are endless (at least through 162 games).

I miss all that.

And more.

To rekindle my love for the game before Major League Baseball starts March 18 with the Cubs playing the Dodgers in Tokyo, I’m re-reading some of the great comments about baseball that three late pals and I shared in 20 years of pilgrimages to Opening Day at Wrigley Field.

A few favorites that still soothe me:

* “The strongest thing that baseball has going for it today are its yesterdays,” said Lawrence Ritter, author of The Story of Baseball.

* Baseball Hall of Fame owner of the White Sox, Indians and Browns Bill Veeck (whose memoir was Veeck as in Wreck), described baseball as “played by people, real people, not freaks. Basketball is played by giants. Football is played by ... hulks. The normal-sized man plays baseball and the fellow in the stands can relate to that. Destiny has become less manageable, and consequently life has become … more difficult. Baseball is

almost the only orderly thing in a very unorderly world. If you get three strikes, even the best lawyer in the world can’t get you off.”

* Novelist Thomas Wolfe (Look Homeward Angel and You Can’t Go Home Again) said, “One reason I have always loved baseball so much is that it has been not merely ‘the great national game,’ but ... a part of ... our lives, of the thing that is our own … the million memories of America. Almost everything I know about spring is in it – the first leaf, the jonquil, the maple tree, the . . . grass upon your hands and knees, the coming into flower of April. And is there anything that can tell more about an American summer than ... the smell of the wooden bleachers in a small town baseball park, that resinous, sultry and exciting smell of old dry wood.”

* And playwright William Saroyan (The Human Comedy and The Time of Your Life) wrote, “Baseball is caring. Player and fan alike must care, or there is no game. If there’s no game, there’s no pennant race and no World Series. And for all any of us know there might soon be no nation.”

I sure miss the nation we happy few Cubs fans shared, especially between 1987 and 2006 in Chicago openers.

I miss the game itself and the warmth we somehow felt freezing in the grandstand, and the beer and cigars and laughter and playfulness.

I miss my friends and the camaraderie.

I miss my country.

I still care.

Voter turnout can be key, but it’s often disappointing

There are probably several factors that lead to lower voter turnout in some elections. Obstacles to Getting Out The Vote range from apathy and poverty to a lack of transportation (especially in rural areas or communities without public transportation), dissatisfaction with choices and limited exposure to engagement – particularly in 'off-year' elections with no presidential contest, and consolidated local elections.

In those, such as Illinois’ April 1 election, political parties, candidates and news media spend less time and money on effective communications to the public.

The United States is behind many other countries in voter turnout, so even when turnout improves – like in 2020 and 2024, according to the Pew Research Center – the USA is in the middle of the pack.

At the top of the 51 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation (OECD), Pew’s listed the turnout rate for six nations (Uruguay, Turkey, Peru, Indonesia, Argentina and Sweden) as better than 80%.

At the bottom of the OECD list are Costa Rica, Croatia, Luxembourg, South Africa, Bulgaria and Switzerland, all with about 52% or less.

The United States sits at Number 32 with a 62.8%

There is a slight difference between what’s a turnout – the percentage of those who registered (and therefore at some point intended to vote), and the percentage of those of the voting age of 18 (and presumably could vote). So in Peoria County since 2020, turnouts of the percentage of registered voters who cast ballots fluctuated between 16.19% to 72.56%.

The Consolidated General Elections of 2021 and 2023, like the April 1 contest, averaged 16.8, compared to the general elections of 2020, 2022 and 2024 averaging 63.82.

However, the most recent Census estimate of Peoria County’s population is 177,163, with 42,248 residents younger than 18 years old. Therefore, about 135,265 are age-eligible to vote, and since the Peoria Election Commission reports 117,217 registered voters, more than 18,000 Peoria County adults are not even registered.

In November, about two-thirds of voting-age citizens cast ballots, meaning tens of millions did not. Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris 77,302,580 to 75,017,613 (49.8% to 48.3%), according to the Federal Election Commission, reporting the total as 152,320,193 – 98.1% of all votes for president.

Meanwhile, the nonpartisan independent election organization Ballotpedia reported that another 2,895,872 votes went to 22 other candidates with at least 359 votes – such as Jill Stein (Green Party), RFK Jr. (independent), Chase Oliver (Libertarian), and Cornel West (independent) – and write-ins nationwide.

Americans who could vote but didn’t may be a significant political group.

“The 2016 election also highlighted the political impact of non-voting,” writes columnist and cartoonist Ted Rall. “Non-voters skewed Democratic [according to Pew Research], accounting for 55% as opposed to 41% for Republicans. Hillary Clinton lost because she wasn’t able to motivate enough of her own party’s supporters.

“Non-voters were even more powerful in 2024,” Rall adds. “An astonishing 19 million Americans who voted for Joe Biden in 2020 considered the choice between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump and picked the couch.”

Locally, the turnout for the April 1 consolidated election is expected to follow the historical pattern.

That’s troubling to the League of Women Voters of Greater Peoria, which recently posted, “These elections will determine the future of the City. People elected will make decisions on how our tax money is spent.

“Want to see your City do more of this and less of that? Spend more tax money here and less tax money over there? You have to vote and make your voice heard!”