The pension crisis is a looming shadow of Springfield's long mismanagement. It's also a symbol of how the two sides can achieve politically unpopular compromise. Read more
The state has long had trouble deciding to pay its share of employee pension costs. In the 1990s, representatives of the pension system filed a complaint about it, and were told: the constitution guarantees that the state has to pay the pensions. It doesn't guarantee that it has to fund them. Read more
Rahm Emanuel and CTU head Karen Lewis are both addressing the legacies of their predecessors; the physical residue of reform; teacher-on-the-street takes; the national significance for politics and labor; and more Read more
