Latest News and Comment from Education

Monday, October 14, 2013

10-14-13 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.:



The in box. What is the root of the current health insurance issue. SB1313 under the radar.
A reader writes: Despite the denials of many organizations at the time, Senate Bill 1313 is the reason we are in the mess we are in with retiree insurance. Many groups said SB 1313 affected ONLY State employees, and not teachers. SB 1313 passed the Illinois House on May 9,2012, by a vote of 74 yes, 43 no; and the Illinois Senate the very next day, May 10, 2012, by a vote of 31 yes, 20 no. On May

Playing lose with the facts on pensions.
  Laura and James Arnold. He made billions after Enron. For those of us who have toiled in the fields of  exposing corporate and political pension raids for many years, it is an honor to welcome  those like Matt Taibbi and David Sirota. As I often remind friends. I’m just a retired K-5 Art teacher who blogs. Sirota and Taibbi are serious journalists and have a huge audience. They are Steven Spiel

Legislative gibberish and the war on public employee retirees.
  State Sen. Bill Cunningham, State Rep. Kelly Burke and Oak Lawn Mayor Sandra Bury are waging a war on retirees. The war metaphor gets used a lot. And perhaps there’s a diminishing return by using it. There’s the war on the working class. The war on the middle class. The war on women. And of course, there are the real wars. The shooting kind. The twelve-year old War in Afghanistan, for example.

Ten minute drawing. A letter from Elma.

Echoes of Washington. Springfield partisan manipulation and the pension hurt.
  Chair of the Gang of Ten Illinois State Senator Kwame Raoul. From the Daily Journal: Four Republicans want a pension crisis fix to be more far-reaching. One of six Democrats wants more concessions to unions. With the Illinois Legislature’s fall veto session a week away, an Associated Press survey of a special 10-member committee tasked with finding a solution to the state’s enormous public pens

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.: Important updates on Illinois retiree health insurance and eligibility audits. Our message is breaking through.The Illinois Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability will be meeting in Springfield on October 23rd. The Commission has oversight over changes to Illinois state retiree health