Corporate Ed Reform, Really ?
Catching hell.
NEA President Dennis Van Roekel spoke to the NEA Retired Conference in Atlanta last July just prior to the NEA RA. He spoke – not from notes as far as I could tell – and said that as a result of defeats for collective bargaining rights in several states, the NEA would be backing off those issues over the next couple of years and focus more on issues of teacher quality. I checked around to make sur
Saturday coffee.
NY’s Bill de Blasio and his wife. Union support him. Except for the teachers union. After a day in which the temperature rose to the upper 90s, a summer storm full of thunder, lightening, wind and hail swept through Chicago early last night, sending poor Ulysses under the bed. I love the sound and feel of these midwestern storms. I grew up in LA where it rains for days or not for months. In Chi
YESTERDAY
Lean on me.
Dan Kleinman is a Chicago activist and member of the Senn High School Local School Council. He posted this to his blog and asked me for a comment on his Facebook page. Dear Dan, I remember the movie Lean on Me with the wonderful Morgan Freeman. I remember hating it. The image of a tough-love principal walking down the halls of school wielding a baseball bat like a thug freaked me out. But I lov
Dumb war.
“I don’t oppose all wars,” State Senator Barack Obama said in October 2002. “What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war.” Bombing a country to stop bombing a country is a dumb war. Dumb wars kill people. Andy Borowitz wrote satirically in yesterday’s New Yorker: Attempting to quell criticism of his proposal for a limited military mission in Syria, President Obama floate
AUG 29
Illinois Retired Teachers Association President Gary Elman addresses TRIP and Medicare issues.
Given the concerns about the Teacher Retirement Insurance Program and Medicare, I asked IEA President some questions in an earlier post. She offered a prompt response. I also asked Illinois Retired Teachers Association President Gary Elman the same opportunity. Full disclosure: I am a member of both organizations. President Elman responded: Thanks for asking, Fred. First, congratulations for orga
Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky joins Chicago fast-food strikers.
Illinois Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky joins fast-food strikers in downtown Chicago today. Congresswoman Schakowsky will be joining with members of SORE (the Skokie Organization of Retired Educators), a new chapter of IEA – Retired, at our first luncheon. She will be discussing issues of Social Security and Medicare protection against those who would deny workers their promised retirement benefi
Q and A with IEA President Cinda Klickna on the Teacher Retirement Insurance and Medicare.
IEA President Cinda Klickna. Last week IEA President Cinda Klickna sent out the following information to IEA members. On Aug. 21, the Teachers’ Retirement Insurance Program (TRIP) Committee met with the Illinois Department of Central Management Services (CMS). The committee is made up of representatives from the Illinois Education Association (IEA), Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT), Illin
A reader thinks I don’t understand pensions. Ouch.
Fred, Unfortunately, I think you misunderstand pension reform. It would not take away the pension of retirees. Instead, pension reform as proposed in IL would curtail the defined benefit pension benefits that are earned in the future. - Anonymous Dear Anonymous, Well, nobody’s perfect. However, if passed SB1 would have: Eliminated current cost of living adjustments Delayed the age of the cola ad
Illinois House pension bombers? Primary them! Will Guzzardi for State Rep.
Will Guzzardi. Will Guzzardi announced today that he is running for State Representative from my district. The incumbent is Toni Berrios. She is the daughter of the corrupt boss of the Cook County Democratic Party, Joe Berrios. This is a rematch. Will Guzzardi lost by just 125 votes two years ago. There is a lot of issues that recommend Guzzardi. I care deeply about one. Toni Berrios voted for
AUG 28
Today, President Obama speaks of Dr. King, and prepares for another war.
“America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we have fashioned it into
Life in Rahm’s Chicago. Drones for Safe Passage.
“There’s still a big safety issue, especially with the small ones,” said Chicago Alderman George Cardenas of the 12th Ward. “They have a tendency to crash from time to time. So now you have something with spinning blades over the top of children that could fall out of the sky. That would seem unwise.” However, that is a minor problem for the Aldeman Cardenas. He has become the main advocate for u
AUG 27
They call the most dangerous streets in Chicago, Safe Passage routes. They call the schools that are farthest away from home, Welcoming Schools. But they call emergency plans in case a gunman enters a Chicago school building, “None of your business.”
John Kugler is on the safety committee of the Chicago teachers union. He’s been asking for the state-required emergency plans from CPS since last Winter. CPS won’t show them. They won’t give them to a local reporter for NBC either. Even after a Freedom of Information Act request. Why? Because they never filed them. Or didn’t create them as the law required. For the past six years. They call the mo
Godwin’s law, paranoia and the political misuse of language.
Here is Godwin’s Law. Godwin’s law (also known as Godwin’s Rule of Nazi Analogies or Godwin’s Law of Nazi Analogies is an assertion made by Mike Godwin in 1990 that has become an Internet adage. It states: “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1. “In other words, Godwin said that, given enough time, in any online discussion—rega
The progressive South rises again.
North Carolina NAACP legal chair Al McSurely, Rev. William Barber and the Klonsky brothers. It wasn’t their plan, but the Republicans and Tea Party folks in North Carolina have created a progressive, multi-racial movement that has rocked the state over the past few months. The Moral Monday Movement. “It’s a big tent,” Al McSurely told us. “The center pole is anti-racism. But includes the issues