It is easy to get lost in the big picture of frustrations over the state legislature's inability yet again to produce a budget.
But doing so obscures a lot of meaningful little pictures that also are a part of Springfield's mosaic of many failures.
One of those little issues that is actually a huge one is school funding reform.
The Illinois Senate moved on that monumental question this session, but with such a transparently cynical move to turn it into an unjustified windfall for Chicago that it is sure to be vetoed by Gov. Bruce Rauner.
Chicago Democrats used the issue as a means to maneuver a bailout of the mismanaged Chicago Public Schools system that for years has wildly overspent while over-promising its powerful unions.
Unfortunately, many Democratic legislators from the suburbs shamefully went along. Read the editorial in the Daily Herald in its entirety.