Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.:
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| Road Trip Week 2 |
Joravsky on Rahm and pensions.
Ben Joravsky in the Reader: Now that the cuts are official, Emanuel is blaming them on the teachers—or at least the $400 million contribution he has to make to the teachers’ dastardly pension system. Speaking of cynicism. As pretty much everyone concedes, the major cause of the so-called pension crisis is that neither Mayor Emanuel nor Mayor Daley before him made payments to the pension fund that
YESTERDAY
JUL 25
Ken Davis’ Chicago Newsroom on Rahm and pensions.
[ youtube=http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4J-00iHqDM&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DY4J-00iHqDM]
JUL 24
The in box. CTPF responds to Rahm’s lies about pensions and layoffs.
From the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund. The Chicago Teachers’ Pension Fund (CTPF) described as “misleading” claims by Chicago Public Schools (CPS) that the increasing pension obligations will cause the layoff of more than 2,000 workers. CTPF countered that CPS understood the increase would occur in 2010 when it struck a deal with the Illinois Legislature to provide three years of pension underfund
Todd Mertz’s Illinois pension update.
By Todd Mertz For the most part, nothing new or significant came out of the three planned Pension Conference Committee meetings. At this time, there are no meetings scheduled. But you can be sure there is work going on behind closed doors. Actuaries are in the process of calculating the cost savings of a plan proposed by state university presidents. It is believed by some that both Cullerton’s S
JUL 23
Glen Brown on the Civic Committee’s collaboration with the bond rating companies.
By Glen Brown. http://teacherpoetmusicianglenbrown.blogspot.ca/2013/07/fahner-civic-committee-helped-jaw-down.html Corporatists are alive and well in Illinois. The history of our State has been one of excessive greed and shameless hypocrisy, of corruption and oppression, of extortion and domination, of exploitation and deception, of selfishness and subjugation, of poverty and unemployment and ineq
The in box. Fahner admits the Civic Committee told the bond rating companies to lower Illinois’ ratings for political purposes.
Go to Capitolfax to see the video. http://capitolfax.com/2013/07/23/fahner-civic-committee-helped-jaw-down-states-bond-rating/#comments * If you go to about the 47-minute mark, you’ll hear an unidentified questioner say this to Fahner… “Maybe sometimes you gotta be irresponsible to be responsible. If a political solution really doesn’t produce a favorable outcome, maybe you really need a market so
Mark Stefanik: YEE-HAW. WELCOME TO CRAZY RAHM’S CHI-TOWN USED CITY SALES.
By Mark Stefanik. You want a safe city? You just leave it to Crazy Rahm. I transferred cops, put ‘em in new districts…you know, shake things up a bit. There’s nothing like putting a cop in a new environment where he doesn’t know the ‘hood or the players to keep him on his toes. I’m creating a super blue zone right along the lakefront. There’ll be so many uniforms along the Mag Mile and LSD, why he
JUL 22
Still road trippin’.
We are about halfway through our road trip through the Northwest. The last two days we have been staying at a beautiful lodge on Lake Quinault. Our stay included a guided three-hour hike through the Quinault National Forest, a rain forest. During the five-month rainy season the area gets a foot of rain a day, The climate here produces an amazing variety of things that grow out of the earth and
Xian Barrett: Yes, I was fired and we will still win.
By Xian Barrett Posted on his blg: Teacher X: http://chiteacherx.blogspot.com/2013/07/yes-i-was-fired-and-still-we-will-win.html At 9:11am Friday morning, on a quiet, scripted phone call from my principal, my teaching career ended. Again. Many of you have already read the exact details here: http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/21411000-418/cps-calls-teachers-mom-to-tell-him-hes-getting-laid-of
JUL 21
Mark Stefanik: The pension is not the problem. Part II. It’s a wonderful life.
By Mark Stefanik Nobel prize economist Paul Krugman has exposed the fallacies and distortions of the pension crisis crowd. Tax expert extraordinaire Ralph Martire absolves the Illinois Pension plans of any blame in the State’s fiscal mess. He even points the way forward with specific remedies for fiscal health. So why is the Committee of 10 still meeting? Why is the phrase “looming pension crisi
The in box. Paul Krugman on “the big pension scare.”
Paul Krugman, NY Times: OK, this is quite amazing: Dean Baker catches the WaPo editorial page claiming that we have $3.8 trillion in unfunded state and local pension liabilities. Say it in your best Dr. Evil voice: THREE POINT EIGHT TRILLION DOLLARS. Except the study the WaPo cites very carefully says that it’s $3.8 trillion in total liabilities, not unfunded; unfunded liabilities are only $1 tril