As one statehouse reporter put it, the main headline from this week is "Something finally happens in Springfield." Democrats and Republicans came together to pass stop-gap funding for higher education in Illinois.
It comes as Chicago State University is threatening to close and other state schools — including the flagship Urbana campus of the University of Illinois — have announced or carried out hundreds of layoffs. The crisis is far from over, as most universities are getting about a third of the state money they'd been expecting. And the state's human service vendors are still waiting to see whether they'll ever be paid for the services they've performed.
Sean Crawford is joined by Charlie Wheeler, Brian Mackey and Illinois Issues' Jamey Dunn.
