To say that corruption in Illinois can come to a halt would be to make a huge assumption that corruption anywhere can come to a halt. That’s feasible just about nowhere, especially not in Illinois. Corruption is not just a surface fault, but something that’s much deeper and that protrudes much further than something that can come to an immediate stop. But according to a new report released from the University of Illinois at Chicago, “Curing Corruption in Illinois: Anti-Corruption Report,” cleaning up dirty politics is just as easy as taking out the trash. If only we had known this earlier.

The report presents some background information on political corruption in Illinois, if you didn’t already know through experience. It then goes on to explain how corruption occurs through some intelligent analysis. We could tell you how corruption occurs without any kind of analysis: Get into Illinois politics and sooner or later you’ll find it – or better yet, it’ll find you. But the best part of the report by far would have to be its proposed plans for how to stop corruption in Illinois.

A co-author of the report, Dick Simpson, said because of the continuous corruption in Illinois politics, now is the opportune time for an anti-corruption strategy. Finally, someone is shedding some light on what we really need: a report, which must have cost a few heavy pennies, filled with pages with ways of how we can push corruption out the door. Because after everyone reads this report, with the snap of a finger, corruption will be out the door.

One of the suggestions of how we can begin ending corruption in Illinois politics is through requiring the public schools curriculum to include teaching the consequences of corruption, as well as the importance of honesty in ethics. Maybe if we drill it into the kids’ heads, then they won’t try to sell their cupcakes at lunch for a dollar, or their football tickets for an A on their English paper. We don’t think the kids are the problem right now and if we push for public schools to teach this, then we should at least require our future government officials to take a class or two. At least.

Next step to cleaning up Illinois politics, according to the report: Elect reform candidates who are running on a reform platform — the type of candidates who will keep their promises. Not only is this common sense, but it seems to be the recurrent nightmare in Illinois elections. Almost every candidate in Illinois has run on a reform platform simply because of the corruption. Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich ran on a reform platform; we elected him and that turned out just swell.

If these are the more valid points in the report, it looks like we know a little more about how to go about kicking corruption out of Illinois than we thought.