Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.:
Fred Klonsky | Daily posts
The in box. “How can you be an advocate and not be an activist?”
The following appeared in the November newsletter of the North Lake Shore Illinois Retired Teachers Association. Irene Jinks is the unit president. 40.644923 -73.959265
Chicago students speak out against military school.
Logan Square’s Ames Middle School has been targeted for closing. The local alderman and the Mayor wanted it turned into a military academy. The community wasn’t consulted. In recent days the word has been that the militarization of Ames would continue. Then it wouldn’t. On again. Off again. One thing is certain. The students say no.
Keeping retirement weird.
Cyrus works for the National Park Service at the African Burial Grounds in lower Manhattan. Halloween seemed like the perfect reason to spend a few days in New York. Anne and I have never done Halloween with Lucy and Joey. Lucy is now ten years old. How many more chances would there be to knock on Brooklyn doors with the both of them? Lucy will be a teen-ager soon enough. She will likely have no
YESTERDAY
For defending the right to read Persepolis, Lane Tech students receive Intellectual Freedom Award.
It was a cold and rainy March afternoon when Lane Tech students protested the banning of Persepolis. Photo: Fred Klonsky Last March CPS Barbara Byrd Bennett unilaterally issued an order that the award winning book by the Iranian writer Marjane Satrapi was not appropriate reading material for high school students at Chicago’s north side Lane Technical High School. Byrd Bennett’s order was that the
The in box. Carol Marin on the Guzzardi election for Illinois House.
Carol Marin. Chicago Sun-Times. Just 125 votes. That’s all that separated defeat from victory in 2012 when an upstart nobody — Will Guzzardi — challenged an incumbent with a powerhouse last name — State Rep. Toni Berrios — in a faceoff on Chicago’s Northwest Side. The recount gave the regular Democratic Party fits. Guzzardi snuck up on all of them, including Toni Berrios’ dad, Joe Berrios, whose f
HMS audit in Minnesota. Fifty percent error rate. Is ALEC behind it?
Is ALEC behind the audit of state employee insurance eligibility? When in September Illinois state retirees began receiving letters of audit from HMS we were quite surprised. Illinois’ Central Management Services (CMS) had hired the Arlington, Texas-based company to find fraud among those pensioners who were claiming dependents under their coverage. HMS promised they could cut the number of dep
OCT 31
Questions for Central Management Services.
If your doctor accepts Medicare but chooses not to participate in the PPO Advantage Plan, can you pay his charges at time of service and submit a claim to United Healthcare for reimbursement? If so, what is the time period for reimbursement? State of IL is a notoriously slow pay, so much so that some doctors have refused to take public employees as patients. While TRIP was a “slow pay”, the St
Medicare Advantage roll-out is heading off the cliff.
. The deadline for deciding what our retiree health care will look like – whether we go with Medicare Advantage or op out – is December 13th. Central Management Services is co-sponsoring informational seminars across the state between November 11th and December 11th. The one for retirees who live in Chicago is at the Thompson Center on December 6th. That gives me seven days to figure out what I w
OCT 30
Bev Johns. SB 578 agreement.
After difficult negotiation, we have reached an agreement with the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and legislative staff to further amend Senate Bill 578. State Representative Linda Chapa LaVia, and State Senator Kirk Dillard are the Illinois House and Senate Chief Sponsors of SB 578. The amendment to the amendment adds the words “including special education teachers” and adds new catego
Bob Lyons on TRS developments.
Bob Lyon represents retirees on the Teacher Retirement System board of trustees.
Don’t TRIP on this TRAIL.
The move by Illinois to change the Teachers Retirement Insurance Plan (TRIP) to the Total Retiree Advantage Illinois Plan (TRAIL or is TRAILP?) is going badly by any measure. Over the past several weeks I have tried to keep readers up to date with all the information I could gather. What I haven’t done is posted hearsay horror stories that I couldn’t confirm. The stories that go, “My brother’s sis
CPS school closings. Many students left in behind.
Catalyst: Level three is the lowest level school by the CPS board’s measure. Catalyst’s analysis of the data on enrollment from the 1st, 10th and 20th day of school also showed that more than 2,000 students, including preschoolers and severely disabled students, were not enrolled anywhere on the first day of school. This figure represents about 18 percent of the 11,729 displaced students and
OCT 29
List of currently scheduled Illinois Medicare Advantage information meetings.
SEMINAR SCHEDULE Any impacted retiree may attend any meeting. All locations will host two sessions (9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.) unless noted otherwise. November 11, 2013 Rock Island High School 1400 25th Avenue Rock Island, IL 61201 (Sponsored by Senator Mike Jacobs and Blackhawk Unit (Rock Island Cty) IRTA) November 12, 2013 Legacy Theatre 101 E Lawrence Avenue Springfield, IL (Sponsored by Repre
Chicago Halloween protest. Unbury the TIF surplus.
Amisha Patel of the Grassroots Collaborative. “Unbury the TIF money.” Over 75 students, parents, and community members joined together at City Hall Tuesday to demand that the TIF Surplus Ordinance be released from the Rules Committee and brought to a vote in City Council. Participants held signs with photos of Rules Chair Michelle Harris and Rule Vice-Chairs calling on them to unbury the TIF Su
I’m on video from the Heartland Cafe talking to Katy and Mike about pensions and politics. VIDEO
October 26, 2013
Medicare Advantage information from the Illinois Senate Democratic Caucus. “Questions abound.”
The is information provided by the Senator Cullerton and the Illinois Senate Democratic Caucus.
Teachers getting rich of of their pensions? No. But Wall Street is.
Rhode Island’s Treasurer funnels state pension funds into the accounts of her hedge fund friends. David Sirota continues his great work exposing the nation’s pension thievery. In Pennsylvania, for instance, the state pension’s investment in hedge funds forces retirees to pay a whopping $770 million in fees every single year. For that money, the Wall Street Journal reports that “the $25 billion
Toni, the apple and the Chicago media’s short-term memory.
Will Guzzardi is running against Berrios. Chicago’s scandals of the rich, political and famous are as regular as a reporter on Metamucil. But their media life-span doesn’t even match up to the usual 24-hour news cycle. UNO’s $98 million in kick-backs? A vague memory. CPS’s Barbara Byrd Bennett and her principal training contract? Oh. Right. Rahm assistant Lois Scott, Amer Ahmad and Ohio money l
OCT 28
Bev Johns’ PPO Adventure
CMS has posted a number for UnitedHealthcare Group Medicare Advantage PPO: 888-223-1092. Good sign: recorded voice answering said thank you for calling about plan “offered for members of an Illinois State sponsored plan”. Within a minute transferred to a real person in North Carolina: friendly and patient person. But it took 41 minutes to get the answer to “what is the cost for going to an emergen
The in box. Illinois CMS has just posted customer service phone numbers for the Medicare Advantage providers on their web site.
CMS has just posted customer service phone numbers for the Medicare Advantage providers on their web site: Plan Component Administrator’s Name Customer Service Phone Numbers UnitedHealthcare Group Medicare Advantage PPO UnitedHealthcare (888) 223-1092 Coventry Advantra HMO Coventry Advantra (855) 223-4807 Humana Medicare Employer HMO The Humana Benefit Plan HMO a
Steps and lanes and Dennis Van Roekel.
NEA Prez Dennis Van Roekel. I’m writing this morning as a guy who has done more bargaining than a used car salesman. Mine have been union contracts. So, I was interested when NEA President Dennis Van Roekel spoke out against the traditional step-and-lane salary schedule. “Let’s get rid of step-and-lane. I don’t like it. It forces people to work for peanuts when they start, and if you stay there
New York is poised to elect De Blasio. Chicago needs a candidate for the 99%.
New York City’s next first family. This morning the latest polls show New York Democrat Bill De Blasio ready to win the election on November 5th by historic margins. It is as deep and thorough a rejection of the Bloomberg and Giuliani years as it gets in electoral politics. Their candidate, Republican Joe Lohta, has become a joke. “Knock, knock. Who’s there?” De Blasio has run a campaign of low
OCT 27
Homeless.
H/T Glen Brown. from The Children Of The Poor by Gwendolyn Brooks What shall I give my children? who are poor, Who are adjudged the leastwise of the land, Who are my sweetest lepers, who demand No velvet and no velvety velour; But who have begged me for a brisk contour, Crying that they are quasi, contraband Because unfinished, graven by a hand Less than angelic, admirable or sure. My hand is stu
Sunday reads.
At the Capitol in Springfield, Illinois last Tuesday. Photo: Fred Klonsky Norm Scott points out that charter operators are allowed to close their schools for a politically driven protest while public schools being invaded by these charters had to hold their protests/rallies at their schools after school. More than 1.1 million students in the United States were homeless last year, a record high, a
OCT 26
A bill that would exclude special education parents and teachers.
H/T: Bev Johns. On October 22, 2013, Senate Bill 578 was completely changed by an amendment in the Illinois House of Representatives. House Amendment Number 1 LIMITS who can provide CPDUs to ONLY the following: (1) ISBE (2) ROEs (3) Illinois professional associations representing (a) school administrators – IASA (b) principals – IPA (c) school business officials – IASBO (d) teachers – IEA and IFT
Keep retirement weird.
Chicago Blues harp master Corky Siegel and me at the Heartland Cafe this morning. Just another Saturday morning in the life of a retired K-5 art teacher. It included an interview of Live from the Heartland with Katy Hogan and Michael James. My opening act was only the Chicago master of the blues harp, Corky Siegel. Oh. And I met the Cuban Ambassador to the U.S. over eggs and coffee. Well. He’s
The move to Medicare Advantage. The good, the bad and the ugly.
There wouldn’t be as big a problem if the timeline wasn’t so short. Illinois state retirees feel pressed and pressured to make decisions that have a major impact on their health and health care. I have been deluged with phone calls and emails and comments/ Trust me. If people are turning to me to get advice on what to do about health insurance, that is a bad sign. It is simply too short a time fra