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
The Illinois Policy Institute. The moral relativism of the corporate class.
For some reason having to do with Facebook algorithms, the FB page of the Illiinois Policy Institute – a right-wing stink tank – frequently appears more often on my status page than do actual friends. Maybe Facebook just enjoys seeing my blood pressure rise. They posted this morning: There’s nothing courageous about telling people that you’ll temporarily raise their taxes and then, a few years af
Keeping retirement weird. In the drink and in a pickle.
. It is a beautiful morning in Brooklyn. There’s a Spring chill. But the sun promises a warmer day. Later we will take the kids and head off to the the 69th Regiment Armory on Lexington Avenue between E. 25th & E. 26th Street for a comic book and graphic novel art show. My kids and grand kids make fun of me since I refuse to watch animated movies. Even the ones that are allegedly for adults.
YESTERDAY
David Sirota. Chicago’s pension theft and Rahm’s slush.
Chicago slush. - David Sirota Chicago is the iconic example of all of these trends. A new report being released this morning shows that the supposedly budget-strapped Windy City – which for years has not made its full pension payments – actually has mountains of cash sitting in a slush fund controlled by Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Indeed, as the report documents, the slush fund now receives more money e
Straight out of Brooklyn. Like I never left Chicago.
Flying from O’Hare to La Guardia was easy. We left on time and arrived 25 minutes early. And half the seats were empty. Easy if you don’t count the massive turbulence for most of the flight. The flight assistant handed me my little styrofoam cup coffee with care. “Anything to eat?” It was Delta. So I asked for those tasty Biscoff cookies. “As many as you can spare.” She came back with an armful a
Rahm’s pension theft. Republicans run. Quinn hides. SEIU splits with CTU and We Aren One.
The State Senate went home yesterday. Madigan tried a rewrite of Rahm’s pension theft. The Republicans weren’t buying it. Meanwhile Squeezy went all amnesia, saying he didn’t know anything about the bill. And SEIU local 73 continued sellout of pension rights and their split from the position of the We Are One Coalition of city public employe unions. They raised the stakes with some sharp words di
Beverly Johns. Rewarding schools for not identifying students with special needs.
- Beverly Holden Johns is an Illinois special education advocate and activist. Amendment 1 to Senate Bill 16 would eliminate the $9,000 Illinois pays for each special ed teacher, and instead fund Illinois special ed with a flat block grant no matter how few or how many students a local school district identifies as needing special education. This would punish some school districts appropriately se
APR 03
Not capitol facts. Mid Day report.
Who knows what will happen by the end of today. Early reports yesterday were that Rahm’s pension theft, which made its appearance late in the morning, would be on Squeezy’s desk by sun down. I was told that by veteran Springfield observers. But a few hours later it became clear that was not going to happen. Madigan didn’t have the votes. Not enough Republicans would agree to the property tax comp
The value of the Jay Travis run and who gets to sit next to Christine Boardman at the next WAO lunch meeting.
Jay Travis. We wil see today if Michael Madigan twisted enough arms, as a Springfield observer said to me yesterday, to give Rahm his pension theft. If it did we will see another court battle. Wasn’t it fascinating to hear the Sun-Times Springfield reporter Dave McKinney on Chicago Tonight last evening? … Some legislators are nervous about voting for Rahm’s pension-busting bill because of Jay Tra
APR 02
Breaking: Rahm’s pension cuts will be signed by the governor by sun down tonight.
Only in Illinois. Rahm’s pension cutting bill was introduced this morning. I am told by those in Springfield that it will be signed by the Squeezy before the sun sets tonight. It will have passed through committees in both the House and the Senate. It will pass both houses. It will become law in less time than it takes to cook a turkey. And then this anti-constitutional turkey will join the other
Amazingly, the Democrats in Springfield are ready to cut pensions again.
I would have thought that the last thing Squeezy, Cullerton and Madigan would want is another public pension cutting bill on their resume prior to the November election. Squeezy will be a hard enough sell to 800,000 Illinois public employees already – thanks to SB1. And why not wait until the courts rule? But I thought wrong. That’s why nobody will confuse me with a Springfield insider. Greg Hinz
What the hell is wrong with SEIU’s Christine Boardman?
Chicago Teachers Union Vice President Jesse Sharkey. The union response to Rahm Emanuel’s attack on public employee pensions was swift and tough. At least from most of the union leadership representing affected pension members. Bill Dougherty of the Fraternal Order of Police: “I would never agree to something like this. The Lodge has always been willing to sit down and solve problems with the cit
APR 01
CTU. Outrage at Rahm’s pension proposal.
Dear Fred, In carefully examining the pension “deal” put forth recently by Mayor Rahm Emanuel, we have found that the plan does not, in any way, solve Chicago’s pension problem. As we have said many times before, over and over and over again: This is a revenue problem. Our members are rightfully enraged, as the cuts that the mayor is proposing are just more of the same—more of the same burden bein
More on Rahm’s pension deal.
I posted earlier today about Rahm’s claim he had a city pension deal. He claimed a few days ago through the Sun-Times reporter Fran Spielman that a pension deal with the CTU was “hours away.” The CTU quickly shut that nonsense down. Back before the elections Senate President John Cullerton declared that passing a bill cutting city pensions was job one when the General Assembly got back in session
Mark Stefanik. I’m sorry.
- Mark Stefanik is a middle school Language Arts teacher and frequent contributor to this blog. I am so sorry for all of the name-calling that I’ve promoted and enjoyed on this blog site. I regret surrendering to my wicked Irish tongue. In the future, I will write to collaborate, not excoriate. I have learned a fundamental truth: elected representation, whether union leadership or statehouse memb
Rahm is not waiting for the courts to decide. He announces an unconstitutional agreement.
When I spoke with my State Senator Iris Martinez last November about her vote on pension theft, her answer was a strange one. “I’m against the bill, but I’m voting for it. We should let the courts decide.” Senate Bill 1 passed. Unions and organizations representing the state’s public employees and retirees have filed suit. Those suits have all be consolidated and will be heard in Sangamon County
I’m endorsed by Reclaim Reform’s Ken Previti. “He’s not just another pretty face.”
Ken Previti’s Reclaim Reform.
Conventional wisdom is often not wisdom at all when it comes to retired and active teachers.
SORE members hold a soup kitchen and serve half a cola outside Representative Robyn Gabel’s Evanston office. Our chapter of IEA Retired, the Skokie Organization of Retired Educators, met over lunch yesterday with Will Lovett from IEA Government Relations. Among other things, Will is our IEA Springfield pension lobbyist. It was a full room at Ruby Tuesdays, down the street from Old Orchard Mall -
MAR 31
Rauner “pro-union” like a fox is “pro-chicken”.
- Rich Miller in the Southtown Star: t didn’t take long for Republican gubernatorial nominee Bruce Rauner to drop the word “unions” from his vocabulary. After bashing public employee union leaders for months as corrupt bosses who buy votes to control Springfield, Rauner and his campaign have assiduously avoided the use of the “u-word” since his victory March 18. Instead, he’s switched to a line a
Weingarten Rights. Our Miss Brooks never got in trouble with the principal or central office administrators.
. For all the many years that I was Grievance Chair, union local Vice President and President I always made a big thing about our members’ Weingarten Rights. Weingarten Rights don’t just apply to teachers, by the way. They apply to all union members covered by National Labor Relations Board rules. “If this discussion could in any way lead to my being disciplined or terminated, or affect my person
MAR 30
Sunday reads.
“When it comes to the news, the corporate view is `objective,’ all else is `propaganda.” – Studs Terkel No Mo Cuomo. “We didn’t know that we had the right.” Walmart. A business model that depends on poverty. Who is kissing the ring of Sherman Adelson? CPS board members caught on camera mocking a parent. Watch her testimony. Cubs’ fans. Don’t blame Billy’s goat. Blame racism. BILL MOYERS: We’re
MAR 29
Keeping retirement weird.
This is the story I tell. I went to college originally in the 60s in California. There were a lot of diversions back then and I was diverted by all of them. After two years at Los Angeles City College, I dropped out. I was active in the Student Movement. I was head of my chapter of Students for a Democratic Society. When Martin Luther King was killed in 1968, we white students in SDS and the Blac