Friday, January 21, 2011

States Declaring Bankruptcy? Illinois is a candidate

The Campus, since it started with Furlough Days and the Voluntary Separation Program has had some trouble retaining faculty, as these necessary evils to trim costs frighten professors that the overall environment here will deteriorate. The same sort of thing might happen in the University of California system, where there are several highly rated public universities. The article excerpted below talks about whether bankruptcy is consistent with the U.S. Constitution (it is if the states declare it themselves and it is not imposed at the insistence of creditors) but does not talk about State Law. In Illinois, my understanding is that State Law would need to be rewritten in order for bankruptcy to be declared. I doubt there is the political will to do that, which is part of the reason we're in this mess to begin with.

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