…J.B. Pritzker is involved in numerous causes, including “No Kids Hungry,” where he greatly expanded a federally funded school breakfast program for poor children. “We expanded the program to 55,000 more children, and then the state legislature unanimously passed a bill to extend it beyond that,” Pritzker said. “Gov. (Bruce) Rauner signed it.”

He has also been deeply involved in efforts to expand early childhood education from birth to three years old, “because studies show that in low income areas, kids are only exposed to 3 million words, while kids in slightly higher income brackets hear 30 million words. The difference is in brain development, how your synapses develop,” he said.

Pritzker created a business incubator called 1871, named for Chicago’s remarkable growth and innovations in the wake of the Chicago Fire of 1871.

“We have the things entrepreneurs need to get a start. They need capital, technical assistance and mentorship,” he said. The nonprofit has created 7,000 jobs in Illinois, he said.

According to 1871′s website: “Founded in 2012, 1871 was created to support Chicago’s digital startup community. Since that time, it has become the hub for the city’s thriving technology and entrepreneurial ecosystem. Today 1871 is the home of more than 400 early-stage, high-growth digital startups.” It takes up 150,000 square feet of space on the 12th and 13th floors of the Merchandise Mart.

Pritzker says that as governor, he would use the 1871 model to grow Illinois’ economy because “two-thirds of the new jobs come from small businesses.”

He prefers a graduated income tax to the current flat tax of 4.95 percent on individuals and 7 percent on corporations.

“The wealthy people and corporations need to pay a higher rate than those who are in the middle class or those striving to get to the middle class,” he said. To change the income tax would take a constitutional amendment. “We also have spaghetti for a tax code. We’ve got to make it simpler to implement. Businesses say this state makes it very hard to follow our tax code,” Pritzker said.

On health care, Pritzker has announced a plan to allow everyone the right to buy into the Medicaid program, at cost.

He also talked about education, which he said is key to job creation. “Vocational education has to come back into the high schools,” because “a lot of kids don’t go to college.” Pritzker also supports apprenticeship programs and community colleges. He has the backing of 17 unions and the AFL-CIO, and many of those unions have apprenticeship programs.

“The jobs we have today require frequent changes in job training skills. We need lifelong learning, and our community colleges are the bulwark of that.”

At the K-12 level, Pritzker supports SB1, which the governor vetoed. He’s angered that the state is not living up to the Constitution, which says, “The State has the primary responsibility for financing the system of public education,” meaning more than 50 percent.

“Our state funding is at 26 percent; the average in the other states is 46 percent. We rank 50th among the states in state funding for our public schools.”

Read the full story HERE.

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