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Friday, June 21, 2013

UPDATE: Special Needs students at shuttered Trumbull file federal law suit against CPS. | Fred Klonsky

Special Needs students at shuttered Trumbull file federal law suit against CPS. | Fred Klonsky:


Ten minute drawing. Rahm’s new board member.

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The retirement gamble and HB3303.

Waiting in the wings while Madigan and Cullerton figure out if they can make a deal on their versions of pension reform are a group of Republican legislators who want to turn our defined benefit pension into a Vegas-style gamble with 401(k)s and 402(b)s and defined contributions.
Glen wrote about it:
Don’t be fooled by some Illinois politicians’ saccharine prevarications about stabilizing the public employees’ defined-benefit pension plans. What some of them really want to do is reduce and weaken them so they are inevitably eliminated. Defined-benefit plans are lucrative opportunities for corporate predators. 
Watch the 13-minute 60 Minutes: 401k Recession segment, especially an interview of a lobbyist for the 401(k) industry named David Wray (who is also president of the profit-sharing 401(k) Council of America); then read about the differences between a Defined-

Ten minute drawing. We have the potential to go nowhere.

cullerton

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On the road to Atlanta NEA RA. Am I a bomb-thrower or a cheerleader?

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It was a a year ago that I was prepping for my trip to DC to attend my last NEA Representative Assembly as an active teacher.
This year I leave a week from today to attend the NEA RA in Atlanta. Plus two days earlier to attend the Retired Conference.
Last year I was under attack as a union cheerleader by a group calling for the dismantling of my union. The NEA hadn’t taken a strong enough stand against standardized testing for their taste, and while I agreed with some of 

The Jose Vilson on the invisbility of people of color.

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From The Jose Vilson:
That’s why, if ever I’m asked, I put the “the” in front of my name. I approach the work I do with students rather humbly, and take it seriously, but, like the hundreds of teachers of color getting cut off now, the hundreds more that’ll lose their job in the next few months, and the millions of children of color who get affected by a lackluster and vacuous school system daily, I’d remain invisible, a 

Special Needs students at shuttered Trumbull file federal law suit against CPS.

2013-6-19 JN v Byrd-Bennett1 Complaint
COMPLAINT INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT
1. Plaintiffs J.N. and D.H.1 (collectively, the “Children”) are children with disabilities who attend Lyman Trumbull Elementary School (“Trumbull”), a Chicago Public School. Plaintiff J.N. is 9 years old and has Down Syndrome. Plaintiff D.H. is 11 years old, is developmentally delayed, and suffers from severe anxiety and mood disorders. The Children spend 100% of their school days at Trumbull in self- contained special education classrooms, which must contain no more than 8 or 13 students (depending on whether an aide is present) to accommodate their disabilities.
1Pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 5.2, the Children’s initials are provided in lieu of their full names, as