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
Jonathan Pelto. Beware of the “don’t let us become Wisconsin” phony pro-labor candidates.
- Jonathan Pelto is running for Governor of Connecticut. To the unions, public employees, and the voters of Connecticut – Let’s take a moment to set the record straight… While preventing me from even speaking to the union members responsible for endorsing candidates, the leadership of the Connecticut AFL-CIO and AFT-CT were among those claiming that voters must choose Governor Dannel “Dan” Malloy
Is the Mayor running scared. Or is enough never enough?
Becky Carroll of Chicago Forward Super-PAC and former CPS lying liar. So far Rahm Emanuel’s main mayoral opposition is a progressive woman with good ideas and little money in the bank. That would be Amara Enyia. While others with more traditional clout have hinted at a run, nobody else is stepping up. Yet Rahm appears to be running scared. He has 7 million dollars in his campaign coffers. And he
Secret Rahm memo to Clinton: Step up attack on immigrants. Be Nixon on crime.
The twelve-year limit on secrecy in the Clinton White House is over. Now we get to see what Rahm told Clinton in the privacy of the Oval Office. It’s not the image he probably wants to have out there leading up to the 2015 election for Chicago Mayor. But here it is. In a Nov. 20, 1996, memo from Emanuel to Clinton after he won his second term. “This is great,” Clinton wrote on the memo Emanuel ca
1.9 million visitors.
Last night we received our 1.9 millionth site visitor. We should hit two million by the middle of August. I’m glad this blog is helpful to those who are teaching, organizing and making things change for the better.
JUN 19
Why should you care about Hinsdale?
Every year there are anywhere from three to a dozen teacher strikes in Illinois. I was President of the Park Ridge Education Association back in 2003 when our members voted 94% to strike. It lasted four – very long – days. It was painful for many of our members. But necessary. Lately I have been writing about contract negotiations between the Hinsdale High School Teachers Association and their bo
My suggestion is to call Dyett High School an “incubator.”
The three-day community vigil at Dyett High School. For the past couple of days parents and members of the Bronzeville community have been holding a vigil at the neighborhood’s last open admission public high school. That would be Walter H. Dyett High School. CPS plans to shutter it. But community and school activist Jitu Brown and others have developed a proposal for the Dyett Global Leadership
JUN 18
Wall Street and public pensions. A license to steal.
North Carolina has the 7th largest public pension fund in the United States. It has one trustee. She is the State Treasurer Democrat Janet Crowell. Before becoming State Treasurer she was the marketing director for the tech-focused firm SJF Ventures. Crowell has moved up to $30 billion of pension money to managers in high-risk, high-fee Wall Street firms. North Carolina could soon be paying $1 b
JUN 17
Bunkum on teacher quality from the corporate reformers.
“Arghhh!” “What,” says Anne as we are driving to get some coffee at Peets this morning. “Are you having a heart attack?” Not quite. But I was listening to NPR do a story of teacher preparation programs based on a report from the National Council on Teacher Quality. Most programs, the report said, were failures. Colleges of education were sending out fools, incompetents and clowns into America’s c
A CPS principal’s resignation letter.
Inter-American’s Principal Vernita Vallez announced in November she would not renew her contract after four years at the school because she didn’t think she was able to fully do her job. She cited the top-down and constantly shifting district priorities with little principal input as the reason. In my vision about student achievement, a principal needs to be proactive and have autonomy in makin
Are Rahm and reform driving steep increase in absences and truancy at CPS?
According to CPS data obtained by Catalyst, student absence and truancy is at a three-year high. This was not information that CPS administration or the Mayor wanted Catalyst to have. This is not surprising on two counts. As a general rule, CPS does not believe in transparency and chronically stalls on FOIA requests. And, the steep increase in absence and truancy does not exactly reflect well o
JUN 16
Bill Menendez explains the value of teacher tenure to a principal.
Dear Sir, For twenty four years I was an elementary principal at one school. One of the reasons that we were an effective school was exactly what the nation seems so happy to dispose of, that being tenure rights. Over the years there were many instances when wonderful, intelligent people on the staff saved me from making huge mistakes simply by being willing to talk to me. Without tenure rights th
James Crandell. Hinsdale teachers and board posturing.
- James Crandell’s blog appears in the Darien Patch. Like everyone else, you’re probably getting weary of all the controversy taking place with the school board of Hinsdale High School District #86, the latest of which is the increasingly contentious contract negotiations between the board and the teachers’ union, the Hinsdale High School Teachers Association (HHSTA). Most recently, teachers marc
The myth of tenure for life.
I received two comments from reader Joe Jeffrey this weekend regarding the suddenly hot topic of tenure. First, Joe writes: I suppose this will just convince everyone I’m a right-wing Republican, but I’ll ask it anyway: granted that teachers must be protected from unfair hiring & firing practices, such as being fired at the whim or personal feelings of a single principal, what is tenure is th
JUN 15
Ken Previti. My Grandfather, the Great Depression, and today’s teacher wage theft.
- Ken Previti is a retired Illinois teacher living in Florida, activist and pension blogger at Reclaim Reform. My grandfather, Joe Tagler, was victimized with wage theft during the Great Depression. He was a motorman (driver) of streetcars for the Chicago Surface Lines, later to be taken over by the CTA, the Chicago Transit Authority. He was hired on an hourly basis when needed; that is how it
Sunday reads.
Welcome to Rio. The myth of the bad teacher. Conjuring up memories of my father who was always there. The road to Juneteenth. I’m a nine year old who struggles with math. Rahm on pensions and property taxes. Don’t believe the hype. Harris v. Quinn. Pension fees are a profit center for money managers. Like Rauner. IF THE POLITICIANS who want to get rid of teacher tenure have their way, every schoo
John Dillon. Lisa Madigan blames the unions.
- John Dillon is a retired teacher, activist and publishes Pension Vocabulary. In the opening of A New Leaf, one of my favorite Walter Matthau films, an angry and non-repentant Matthau is castigating his financial advisor for a bounced check, one that has made the one-percenter Matthau look like “some kind of indigent.” His advisor tries cautiously to explain to Matthau that he has been overspend
JUN 14
Keeping retirement weird. Birthdays and other thoughts on a beautiful Saturday morning.
Marching in DC with millions of others around the world in 2003. We told Bush not to start the war in Iraq. That nothing good could come from it. He didn’t listen. I turn 66 today. I was a little grumpy about it, but I’m getting over it. It helps that we are out on the back porch. It is a beautiful morning and Anne made eggs, bacon and biscuits for breakfast. Thursday I was at the gym with my tr