Latest News and Comment from Education

Monday, July 15, 2013

7-15-13 Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.

Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.:





The in box. Why a 3% COLA?
Fred, Why is the COLA rate higher than the inflation rate? Seems it should track inflation, or a little less since retired folks don’t, in theory, spend as much $ on the things that have historically driven inflation. You are getting more of a raise in income than working folks. That is not what a pension is supposed to be about. -Anonymous   Anonymous, I’m not sure what you mean by “what a pen

ALEC, The authors of Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, is meeting in Chicago. The Chicago Federation of Labor invites us to protest ALEC.
Message from the Chicago Federation of Labor. Be there Thursday, August 8 to protest outside of the American Legislative Exchange Council [ALEC] 40th Anniversary Conference in Chicago August 7-9. ALEC is bringing state politicians to Chicago to push a dangerous agenda that rewards greedy CEOs at the expense of middle class families and our public schools and puts our safety at risk. Forty years of


We Are One: Urgent. Contact the Gang of Ten. No to Diet Cola.
The We Are One coalition of state public employee unions sent out this urgent message today regarding a possible behind-closed-doors agreement for a cut in retiree COLA. The pension conference committee has held three public hearings, and public employees and retirees have filled committee rooms to overflow capacity each time in support of a fair pension solution. But the committee remains stacke


Follow up to Saturday Coffee. Never trust oral histories. The truth about Jesse Kincaid, Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder.
. When I did this past Saturday Coffee post, I wrote about Taj Majal and Jesse Lee Kincaid playing at my high school back in ’65. I mentioned that Taj and Jesse had split and Taj went on to join Ry Cooder in a band called The Rising Sons. Never trust 45 year old oral histories. Jesse’s brother Quentin Guerlain writes to tell me that I got  (some of) it wrong. Fred and all, The Ash Grove was quite


Illinois just deputized 300,000 George Zimmermans.
  I never get used to this stuff. I’m not surprised by it. I’ve seen too much. I know too many people. Marched too often. Or maybe not enough. Too many funerals. The last couple of years I have written mainly about teaching, unions and pensions.   I get it that many readers of this blog follow me for that reason. But this is not a one trick pony. Maybe some of the readers just ignore what I have


7-14-13 Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.
Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.: Pension song.. Please Don’t Steal My Teacher’s Pension by Glen Brown (an emulation of John Prine’s “Please Don’t Bury Me”)   G                                  C Woke up this mornin’, wrote another essay G                            D about sustainability G                          C And that unfunded