Wednesday, April 24, 2013

UPDATE: Do TRS members need to worry + The Illinois Charter Commission, less democratic oversight than the CPS board. | Fred Klonsky

The Illinois Charter Commission. An über committee with even less democratic oversight than the CPS board. | Fred Klonsky:


Rauner called Arne and got his kid into Walter Payton. Isn’t that special?

Popout.
Bruce Rauner, GOP gubernatorial candidate and Rahm best friend is back in the news today.
Greg Hinz reporting again.
Last week it turns out that Rauner couldn’t decide if he lived in Chicago or the north shore. He votes here. Pays property taxes on his primary residence in wealthy Winnetka.
Today Hinz reports that Rauner was one of those special interests that got his daughter into selective admission 



The union leadership and Cullerton at the table. Do TRS members need to worry about that?

Retired teacher and activist Roger Sanders reposts this from Capitalfax:
UNIONS CLOSE TO PENSION AGREEMENT     
Senate President John Cullerton said yesterday that he believes he is close to an agreement with public employee unions on a new pension reform proposal. 
The proposal is reportedly at least loosely based on two bills that the Senate has already passed. 
Last May, the Senate approved HB 1447, which required members of the State Employee Retirement System and the General Assembly Retirement system to choose between continuing to receive their annual 3 percent cost of living raises or give up access to government subsidized health insurance and forgo any pension benefits from future salary increases.  If they choose to keep those COLAs, the raises wouldn’t be compounded and would be limited to 3 percent or half the cost of living index.  Last 

The Illinois Charter Commission. An über committee with even less democratic oversight than the CPS board.

The Illinois State Charter Commission can almost be described as an über committee with even less oversight than Chicago’s mayoral controlled school board.
If a privately managed charter application is rejected by a local school board, even a board that was democratically elected as all but the CPS board are, than the unelected Charter Commission an overrule that decision.
And the district still pays the bill.
Not directly, of course.
But the state will deduct the cost of the charter operation from money that would go from the state to the local board.
This is precisely what is happening in Chicago with two charter schools operated by a group called Concept