Latest News and Comment from Education

Friday, April 18, 2014

4-18-14 Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher

Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.:








Walter Esler. So what does this tell us about Squeezy?
When Rauner lies to us, we write it off. - Walter Esler When someone like Rauner lies to us, we write it off. He thought we were stupid. We caught him. It’s okay. We now know not to trust him. Both sides learned. The second time he lies it’s more serious. He lies, knowing we’ll catch it. It’s a way of expressing his contempt for us. Still, it’s okay. He’s a Republican. Contempt for civil servants

Anonymous. “You just want more, more and more.”
Fred, Let me see if I have this right-you want to tax people more even though you are prohibited by the state constitution from doing so, but pensions can;t (sic) be changed because the constitution says they can’t be. I get it, a one way street. People would go for this if you lowered property taxes, sales taxes, fees etc and took Illinois off the list of most highly taxed states, but you just wa


Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Farewell letter.
With Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Cartagena, Colombia. 2011. In 2011 Anne, our good friend Nathalie and I traveled to Cartagena, Colombia. Gabriel Garcia Marquez has a home there. It is a walled compound by the sea. Locals complained how he rarely stayed there, although every tax ride somehow found it’s way to it. “He lives there,” the driver would say. But he rarely did, preferring Mexico City, Havan
Peter Dowd. Rauner is no regular guy.
The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) released an editorial cartoon created by attorney J. Peter Dowd with the law firm of Dowd, Bloch, Bennett & Cervone, which represents the CTU and other unions and their pension and health funds. Regarding the illustration, Dowd said: “I was inspired by the blatant hypocrisy of Bruce Rauner. For the Republican primary he started out as the successful businessma
Sean Burns. Fair tax.
Yesterday the IEA’s Sean Burns and I had a phone conversation about the status of the Fair Tax initiative. A fair tax in Illinois would end the current situation where someone like Ken Griffin, Forbes Magazine’s richest man in Illinois is taxed at the same rate as a Wal-Mart Associate. Sean is the go to guy on the IEA on this issue. “We are short a few votes, Fred. And time is short.”  “Send me w


4-17-14 Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher
Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.: GTCR is Rauner’s Baine Capital. So Squeezy gives him a state contract. Shaking up Springfield?The Better Government Association is reporting this morning: Bruce Rauner, the Republican challenger for governor, stands to profit from a lucrative state contract awarded last year by the administration of h