Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.:
Fred All Week Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher
Unanimity is the enemy of democracy.
Retired members of the Illinois Education Association should be receiving their ballots in the mail. We get to vote for nine delegates to the NEA Representative Assembly. The RA takes place the first week of July in Denver. I am running as a delegate. #19 on the ballot. Not every one of the 10,000 members of IEA Retired knows all the names on the ballot. It is not unusual for those who have recom
Keeping retirement weird. The viagra trial.
It must be a sign of old age. I see a news item about the Vegara Trial in California? I read it as the Viagra Trial. The Vegara Trial, The California law suit that challenges teacher seniority and tenure rights, is being funded by the usual corporate union haters. Yesterday Linda Darling Hammond, the Stanford professor and noted scholar of teacher effectiveness, took the stand to testify in favo
The doctrine of in loco parentis in no way justifies CPS student interrogation techniques.
- Statement of Bruce Boyer, Child Advocate and former CPS parent, and Stacey Platt, Child Advocate and CPS parent, Clinical Professors of Law, Civitas ChildLaw Clinic, Loyola University Chicago School of Law (for identification purposes) The doctrine of in loco parentis in no way justifies the Chicago Board of Education’s alleged actions in removing children from their classrooms to question the
YESTERDAY
As CPS sends investigators into schools to interrogate opt out students.
CPS parent and teacher Michelle Gunderson labels her child before sending him to school.
Interrogating CPS students: “I’m not sure what would make it illegal,” said CPS spokesman Joel Hood.
The Chicago Sun-Times: “I’m not sure what would make it illegal,” said CPS spokesman Joel Hood. Hood said in a statement: “Chicago Public Schools is meeting and talking with students, teachers and staff at Drummond Elementary School about ISAT testing to ensure students were comfortable during the time the test was administered. “CPS officials only spoke with students who opted to talk with them,
Klonsky, you’re no Svengali.
Fred, IEA leadership is as inbred as it can possibly be. You are just not part of the club, so you must be attacked and eliminated. In IEA land, leadership comments are constructive, while anyone else is “anti-union”. When questions are asked, or explanations requested, they become indignant. This is “Do as you are told!” land. How dare you question them or how they run a union that they consider
IEA ex-President Haisman accuses.
- Bob Haisman, former IEA President. Klonsky posted his latest Anti-IEA blog this AM…. entitled ….”IEA President Cinda Klickna tolerates no dissent. Her language turns ugly.” ….WOW! All I can say is Klonsky must have grown up in a very Cloistered environment (No wonder he likes his Ivory Tower so much — where he can be detached from the real world.) If President Klickna’s words “tolerate no dissen
MAR 20
Vote stealing in the 26th district. How do I know?
How do I know there was vote stealing in the 26t State Representative District race in which incumbent and pension thief Christian Mitchell is leading Jay Travis by around 400 votes? Because 3rd Ward Alderman Pat Dowell said, “Jay Travis is a sore loser and a desperate losing candidate. Her accusations are preposterous. I respect the voting process and I would never do electioneering at the polli
IEA President Cinda Klickna tolerates no dissent. Her language turns ugly.
In the first communications to IEA members after the election, IEA President Cinda Klickna began her evaluation of our electoral efforts with an attack on the “naysayers (who) called our involvement in the primary’s ‘a fool errand’ and suggested it was a waste of time.” She referred to “those folks who root for our union to fail.” Who was she referring to? Certainly if she meant our political oppo
John Dillon. Good cops and bad: Rauner and Rimel.
- John Dillon publishes Pension Vocabulary where this piece was first posted. My email from Rebecca Rimel couldn’t have come at a worse time. Bruce Rauner had just won the nomination to run as the Republican gubernatorial candidate in Illinois, and the email from the CEO of the PEW Charitable Trust was just another back-handed indignity, albeit one delivered in far more delicately crafted verbiag
Jim Keating. Watchful waiting.
- Jim Keating writes about legislative matters for the newsletter of the Du Page Illinois Retired Teachers Association. All right, action was called for and action was taken. The IRTA and others have filed law suits in the hope of getting the Illinois courts to overturn Senate Bill 1 because it clearly diminishes our pension benefits. This law suit will eventually make its way to the Illinois Su
MAR 19
Community supports Ames Middle School. Another Logan Square victory last night.
At the risk of turning my blog into a local neighborhood news outlet, I want to report on the Ames Middle School victory. Along with electing Will Guzzardi as our next State Representative, this was a big victory for the people. Ames Middle School is a successful Logan Square neighborhood school that the Chicago school board – with the backing of Rahm and Alderman Roberto Maldonado – wants to con
Movement politics won in Chicago yesterday.
Celebrating Will Guzzardi’s win at the Logan Square Auditorium last night. State Representative-elect Will Guzzardi made it the cornerstone of his acceptance speech last nightafter handily winning the election against Machine daughter, Toni Berrios. After handily beating her father, Democratic Chairman Joe Berrios After handily beating Illinois Party Chairman and House Speaker Mike Madigan. Chi
MAR 18
Spell UNO, U*N*I*O*N.
UNO’s Juan Rangel served as Rahm’s election chairman. The scandal-ridden United Neighborhood Organization runs the largest chain of charter schools in Ilinois. Now they run the largest chain of unionized charter schools. The charter chain’s first contract with the teachers represented by the Illinois Federation of Teachers was ratified by a vote of 445-16. Previously, only about 300 teachers an
What I’m reading over coffee at 4AM. Chris Christie’s Pensiongate. A Bruce Rauner preview.
Election Day. Logan Square. 39th State Representative District. 4AM – I’m heading out to do poll watching this morning. I’m grabbing a quick breakfast of coffee and an english muffin with peanut butter. Need my protein. I’m reading the article from The Nation on New Jersey’s Chris Christie and his corruption involving the state’s pension system. If you want to know what a Bruce Rauner administrat
MAR 17
Dillard thanks the teacher unions for their support by calling for cutting state school funding to Chicago by a billion bucks. And other weird election news.
- Mike Klonsky’s Small Talk: Okay, so what did AFT & IFT leaders get in return for their support for Republican Kirk Dillard? The Man From ALEC is now calling for a billion-dollar cut in Chicago school funding and a “scrubbing of the rolls” for Medicaid, the state’s healthcare program for the poor. PUNCH 62 In the bizarre world of Chicago politics, there’s also lots of “liberal” money
Me, Reg Weaver, Bob Kaplan and Pearl Mack.
This is me, former NEA President Reg Weaver, Bob Kaplan and Pearl Mack at the 2013 NEA RA in Atlanta. Pearl, Bob and I are running as delegates again this year. Reg doesn’t have to run.
A war on charters?
Bill de Blasio ran for mayor of New York with a promise that if he is elected, New York’s charter schools will have to pay their own way. No more free rides at the cost of neighborhood public schools. He got elected. He’s trying to carry out the promise. Weird, right? A politician tries to carry out a campaign promise. Now he’s getting slapped around by Democratic Party Governor Cuomo and the boy
MAR 16
Breaking. Glen Brown endorses Fred Klonsky for retired delegate to the NEA RA.
SUNDAY, MARCH 16, 2014 Fred Klonsky for IEA Delegate Me on the right. Pension thief, State Senator Dan Biss on the left. Fighting for against pension theft on my blog, with IEA Retired and in the streets. From pension blogger and activist, Glen Brown: If you are an IEA Retired member or know somebody who is and support Fred Klonsky’s views and activism, here is what you can do to help: 1
The candidate’s mom called so you have to show up.
My mom. The voice mail message on my cell had a 919 area code. That’s North Carolina. I don’t know anybody in North Carolina. Not anybody that would be calling me on a Sunday afternoon anyway. But it was Will Guzzardi’s mom. No really. She was reminding me that I had volunteered to do poll watching on Tuesday and that meant showing up at 5AM to get my final marching orders and precinct assignme
Sunday reads.
Maintenance costs for closed CPS schools cut by $300 million. Gates echoes union leaderships complaint of Common Core’s bumpy implementation. Or do they echo him? As living standards fall for seniors, signs of a Silver Revolution. Those of us who turned 20 in ’68 are 65 today. Investigate the test. Netflix loves charters and hates elected school boards. What’s really happening with Chicago’s m
Lobby days.
Fred, I had the opportunity to talk with Senator Bill Cunningham and Representative Kelly Burke at a town hall meeting here on the south suburbs this morning. I wanted to ask them about their position on possible future cuts to the pension system, given that all of the corporate special interests have stated that complete elimination of the pension systems is what is necessary if Illinois is to
MAR 15
Keeping retirement weird. Happy St. Patrick’s Day.
Bernadette Devlin in 1969. Happy St. Patrick’s Day. I know. Officially it is on Monday. But they are dyeing the Chicago River green today. And the Chicago downtown parade is today. And the kids will be falling down drunk in Wrigleyville tonight. Which reminds me of Bernadette Devlin. No, no. Not the drunk part. St. Patricks Day. Devlin, elected in 1969, was and remains the youngest person ever
MAR 14
Ken Previti. Dillardrauner vs Raunerdillard: The strategy of fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD).
- Ken Previti is a retired Illinois teacher now living in Florida. He blogs at Reclaim Reform. The teachers in Illinois, and elsewhere, are facing a FUD moment. (FUD is the acronym for Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. This is the vile marketing-propaganda strategy for causing confusion and harm to competitors.) When two or three identical products or candidates use FUD to damage competitors and peop
The latest on pension thief, Elgin’s Representative Keith Farnhum.
Following the General Assembly’s vote on pension theft I ran a few mug shots of some of the pension thieves. One was Representative Keith Farnhum of Elgin. Will there soon be an actual mug shot? Today’s Trib: Federal agents executed search warrants Thursday at state Rep. Keith Farnham’s home and district office in Elgin and Homeland Security asked state authorities to help secure the lawmaker’s
It’s not just about the endorsement. It’s also about the right to dissent.
Glen Brown In the discussion over the IEA, the IFT and the AFSCME endorsement of ALEC’s Kirk Dillard, what has emerged is not so much the issue of who we should vote for. It’s also about the right to dissent from arbitrary, top-down decisions by the union leadership. And their vision of what our unions stand for. What seems to upset former IEA Presidents Haisman and Swanson is not so much the s
Did union members’ PAC donations go to this crap?
It is reported that a number of our unions, including the Chicago Federation of Labor, have given money to the pro-Dillard PAC that is attacking Bruce Rauner for not being against against women’s reproductive rights enough. Protect the unborn says the mailer paid for with union members’ donations. Who asked us if this was okay?
Daley’s stipend for sitting in on Coke board meetings would pay the pension of five city workers.
When Richie Daley, facing polling number in the single digits, announced he was leaving the 5th floor to Rahm Emanuel, he was offered a job by Coca Cola CEO Muhtar Kent. It should be noted that Coke CEO Kent was paid $29,115,573 in 2011 and $30,460,186 in 2012. Richie was given a job on the Coke Board of Directors. The job required Daley attend a few meetings a year for which he receives compensa