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This podcast is usually about state government and how it works. But there are lots of other kinds of government in Illinois. There's cities, counties, school boards, and more! Today we're looking into what each of those governments do, what power they hold, and how they interact with each other.

Our question asker, Kayla Ginsburg, told me that she's really interested in understanding how government can impact public schools in Chicago. So we used education as a lens to map out the powers of different levels of government.

This episode covers a lot of information and we only just scratched the surface. Think of it as a kind of survey course! So if you want to know more about anything we discussed today, send me your question here.

Kayla told me that she's a visual learner so what she really wanted was some kind of flowchart or diagram to illustrate the hierarchy of local governments in Illinois. I'm not a visual person, though. Kayla is an artist (she actually designed the IlliNoise logo) so I asked her if she'd be willing to create an illustration of the material we covered today. You can find her amazing drawings on our Facebook.

A note

This episode ended up with a very strong focus on Chicago. That was partially do to Kayla's perspective as a Chicagoan but mostly due to the fact that the power map of local governments can look very different depending on where you live in Illinois, and there was simply no way to account for all of those differences in the span of this episode. Going forward I plan to focus on topics that are universal and relevant to people throughout Illinois.

Further Reading / Listening

WBEZ's Curious City: Rubber Stamp Aldermen: Why Does Chicago City Council Always Vote For What The Mayor Wants?

WTTW: Illinois House Once Again Backs Elected Chicago School Board