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
Hinsdale’s Richard Skoda will do anything except bargain a contract. The Facebook Axe redux.
- Hinsdale High School Teachers Association Under the leadership of Skoda, Corcoran, Manley and Casini, the first tool of choice is threats and intimidation. But this time, these aren’t vague threats. Teachers’ careers are on the line. If you’ve been following this, over the summer the HHSTA Facebook page linked to a news story on Patch Publications regarding the Board giving teachers one hour du
Glen Brown. Beware of shifting the normal cost of pensions to the local school districts.
- Glen Brown is a retired high school teacher, current professor, pension activist and blogger at Teacher/poet/musician. If Illinois policymakers pass a bill to shift its responsibility of paying the “normal costs” to local school districts, many school districts would not be able to afford to pay these costs, even if they are phased in for 10 years. “A shift would create a new and large financia
Keeping retirement weird. Disrespecting your elders.
When I retired in 2012 I gave up my six-year old orange convertible Mini Cooper. Frankly, it was a terrible car. It was expensive to maintain. It was in constant need of repair. God. I loved it. I even teared up a little when they drove it away. There was no excuse for Anne and me to have two cars. We are trying to live making a smaller foot print and the monthly payment on a new car would be les
YESTERDAY
Outlaw Rahm must go. He tells retirees to drop dead.
The ruling of the Illinois was unequivocal. The Illinois Constitution’s pension protection provision covers retiree health care benefits. A year ago when Rahm tried to end the promised subsidy to retiree health care. Rahm and the city were taken to court. In a precedent setting ruling in another but similar case, the Illinois ruled in the employees favor with only one judge dissenting. Not surpri
What happens when anti-public school ideology meets low voter turnout. Why you should care about Hinsdale.
Hinsdale District 86 is a suburban Chicago school district with two high schools and a history of high quality teachers and support staff. Last year a group of right-wing extremists were elected to a majority of the school board due to low voter turnout. This happens way to often in suburban and rural districts. Contract bargaining with a mediator has gone badly due to board obstruction. Teacher
GAO report. Arne Duncan garnishes pensions of 22,000 seniors over 65 years old.
The Huffington Post. The Education Department is demanding so much money from seniors with defaulted student loans that it’s forcing tens of thousands of them into poverty, according to a government audit. At least 22,000 Americans aged 65 and older had a part of their Social Security benefits garnished last year to the point that their monthly benefits were below federal poverty thresholds, acco
Slavery. A new school value.
The Economist declares that efficiency is a new school value. “Higher teacher pay and smaller classes are not the best education policies.” Ha! Says who? Maybe Rahm. And GEMS Educational Solutions, a consulting firm that looked at PISA scores, an international comparison of 15-year-olds in core subjects. GEMS then correlates those scores to class size and teacher salaries and comes up with an eff
The first teacher strike in the history of Highland, Illiinois.
. Members of the downstate Highland Education Association are on strike for the first time in their history. The board has offered little in the way of compensation, freezing teachers at step and lane.
Lunch with the candidates.
State Representative Nekritz speaks to retirees. Every election season my chapter of the Illinois Retired Teachers Association invites local candidates for state House and Senate races to speak to our group. Yesterday’s luncheon was the first time we’ve had the opportunity to vote for or against them since they voted for pension theft. Every one of the local incumbents voted for pension theft. It
Bev Johns. For the first time in my life I will not be voting for one of the candidates for Governor of Illinois.
- Beverley Holden Johns is a Special Education activist, advocate and frequent contributor to this blog. Supporters of Public Education face a horrible choice for Governor of Illinois: Republican Bruce Rauner versus Democrats Pat Quinn and Paul Vallas. I cannot bring myself to vote for Pat Quinn/Paul Vallas. Our current Governor is completely willing to act unconstitutionally, not only on teacher
SEP 11
John Dillon. The 401K scam.
- John Dillon is a retired teacher, pension activist and blogger at Pension Vocabulary. On the heels of the latest WTTW Chicago Tonight debate – a contretemps which found Illinois Policy Institute spokesperson John Tillman promoting the need for public workers’ being forced into 410 k programs to (1) save the Illinois pension system, (2) give Illinois public workers the opportunity to control the
Chicago Tonight. Pension debate goes AWOL in the governor’s race.
Click here for link to WTTW Chicago Tonight. There were Ralph Martire, Dan Montgomery, Bruce Dold and John Tillman to talk about pension reform and the Illinois Governor’s race on WTTW’s Chicago Tonight. Host Carol Marin laughingly called them the Alumni Club because they have been on the show so often to discuss the issue. It was Marin who pointed out that the issue has been absent from serious
Gina Raimondo’s pension reforms in Rhode Island
On Tuesday, Rhode Island’s Democratic voters nominated state treasurer Gina Raimondo to be their candidate for governor. - Glen Brown blogs at Teacher/Poet/Musician. Before becoming the controversial General Treasurer of Rhode Island, Gino Raimondo ran a venture-capital firm in Providence, Rhode Island. Raimondo’s remedies for her state pensions were echoed at the “Fixing Illinois’ Public Pension
SEP 10
Rahm tries to slip the cops a brown bag full of money.
Back in the 70s when Anne and I first moved to Chicago we loved eating at this Italian place over on Southport and North Avenue. The food was old-school red sauce Italian. The lasagna was six inches deep, full of ground meat and provolone cheese. The Chianti came in woven baskets. There was a flag on the wall with a black hand. Seriously And if you were there at the right time a couple of cops wo
On a shoestring Teachout gets 35% of the vote in NY. Good morning Rahm.
In yesterday’s New York’s Democratic Party primary election for governor Zephyr Teachout received nearly 35 percent of the vote against the incumbent governor, Andrew Cuomo. For my Illinois friends, Zephyr Teachout was the progressive candidate in the race. Cuomo had $40 million dollars in his campaign coffers. Teachout spent $200,000. She won in half the counties in the state, including Albany
SEP 09
Ken Previti. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) is actually doing things to support education, teachers, seniors, public health safety and more.
- Ken Previti is a retired Illinois teacher living in Florida and blogs at Reclaim Reform. During this period of shock and awe attacks by legislators who serve the interests of corporations and don’t give a damn about the needs of the people they were elected to serve, U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) is actually doing things to support education, teachers, seniors, public health safety and more.
Outsourcing Vince.
I hope I’m not getting Vince in trouble by praising him this morning. I was reading the AAPLE report on the results of outsourcing custodial services at CPS and what a disaster it has become. Filthy school buildings have become the Chicago norm. Reading this made me think about Vince. Vince was the custodian at my school the year I retired. He’s still there. You can’t outsource Vince. He is as int
Privatizing custodial services. Chicago schools are filthy.
Latest report from AAPLE, an organization of Chicago school principals. Catalyst: Principals say the cleanliness of their buildings is integral to students learning and note that they are naturally held accountable for it. However, under the new contract, principals do not supervise the custodians at all. Some principals say the custodian managers turnover on a regular basis. “The person who supe
Local union prez Gus Morales wins one.
Local union president and teacher Gus Morales (right). Gus Morales is the local union president in Holyoke, Massachusetts. He is an outspoken critic of corporate school reform. So the district fired him. And the Massachusetts Department of Labor says they believe that Morales has shown probable cause following a complaint by the Massachusetts Teachers Association. Agustin Morales, a former teache
Phil Kadner. Quinn whiff’s on pension question.
- Phil Kadner is a columnist for te Southtown Star. It seemed like a simple question for the governor of Illinois. Tony Denovellis, market president for Midland States Bank in New Lenox, said his wife is a retired schoolteacher and is worried about her pension. Could the governor say something that would make her stop worrying so much? Gov. Pat Quinn, speaking at a Chicago Southland Chamber of Co
SEP 08
Retirement and fine dining. More bologna than pâté.
My Logan Square neighborhood has become a Chicago dining destination. It seems that every week brings the announcement of another new restaurant for the twenty-somethings and thirty-somethings that have discovered the place we have called home for the past 40 years. The Sunday Farmers Market across from the Centennial Monument is another foodie destination, drawing visitors from far outside the n
NYC Educator. A time for every purpose under heaven.
- NYC Educator is a teacher, local UFT leader and union activist. I was pretty surprised to read a story in the NY Post with a picture of a few dozen white teachers wearing NYPD shirts. Apparently they’d triumphed over the insidious UFT, which had somehow advised them against wearing said apparel. There was talk of appropriate apparel, and vague threatened consequences for wearing things deemed i
SEP 07
Sunday reads.
Whitney Young High School alums Bill Drew, Carlos Rosa and Sam Spitz canvassing my 35th Ward for Carlos. Mary Mitchell: Last week, (Chicago police officer) Evans was charged with two felonies for allegedly shoving his service revolver down a suspect’s throat and holding a Taser to the man’s groin. But thus far, Emanuel has yet to issue a public statement that reflects any outrage over these shock
SEP 06
Hinsdale’s Richard Skoda also causing trouble at the College of Du Page.
Hi Fred, He’s not just trying to screw up D86, he’s also spearheading the effort to bring down COD. He’s going to meetings with his old buddies Roger Kempa and Dianne Barret and disrupting the meeting, heckling the board and speakers, and just making up any kind of charges he can. The guy is a sociopath. First a link to the Preisdent of COD’s response which is pretty good, then some info from a p
Running.
If you are a member of IEA Retired you should have received your nomination form in the mail for IEA Retired delegate. The IEA Representative Assembly will be in April of 2015. We are back in Rosemont. This year we retirees only get 20 delegates out of the over 1,000 delegate seats. To be heard, we need loud voices. To run, your IEA membership must be current AND you must be a member of an IEA Re
Keeping retirement weird. Civility.
Me and State Rep-elect Will Guzzardi being more than civil. Some people say that I have mellowed in my retirement years. I’m not sure. And I’m not sure it’s a compliment. Is it kind of like someone saying I’m not as fat as I used to be? Reader writer Ben Joravsky called me Fred “The Hammer” Klonsky after I yelled at Representative Christian Mitchell for voting to cut our pensions. I admit that I