Saturday coffee across the Big Lake.
Anne and I try to spend some time on the southwest coast of Michigan this time of year. It’s no longer Summer. Not quite Fall. This year we have rented a sweet house for a few days a few miles from Three Oaks and a few miles from Lake Michigan. We’re surrounded on three sides by farms and on one side by the Galien River. The current is fast and brown due to recent heavy rains. Hard to believe tha
The in box. Bev Johns: “Special ed class size proposal is dead for now.”
From Bev Johns, Chair of the Illinois Special Education Coaliton. The Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) took NO action today on the proposal to eliminate all State rules on special education class size, and on the 30 percent limit on students with IEPs in a general education classroom. Action could have been taken at their June meeting, or August meeting, but Board members had significant
SEP 19
If you’re running for IEA convention delegate you can’t be an activist.
In the IEA, I can claim to look like Brad Pitt, which I don’t. But I can’t claim to be an activist, which I am. I think I may have mentioned that I have been elected from my IEA local as a delegate to the state convention for over twenty years. The IEA and the NEA call their conventions the Representative Assembly. I don’t know why. What’s wrong with the word, convention? I think I may have men
Breaking: ISBE head withdraws special ed class cap from today’s meeting agenda. A win for the good guys. Don’t stop.
I just received word from Bev Johns of the Illinois Special Education Coalition that the Chairman of the State Board of Education announced that the elimination of special education class size limits was pulled from the agenda and will NOT be voted on today. Thanks to everyone for all your work on this. The emails and phone calls were overwhelming. We are not done. Here is what John’s would have s
Life in Rahm’s Chicago. Walter Payton High School has plenty of toilet paper and is about to get more. Cut to Les Miz.
As parents on the West Side collect toilet paper for their schools – the schools that Rahm has still left open – the selective admission Walter Payton High School near the Lakefront will be given a $17 million annex by the mayor. Payton is one of Chicago’s four highly selective schools which also include Northside Prep, Whitney Young and Jones. Last year WBEZ’s Linda Lutton reported: We found tha
SEP 18
LIfe in Rahm’s Chicago. We’re collecting toilet paper for our schools. Did you know the Koch brothers own Quilted Northern.
They’re holding toilet paper drives in the Galewood neighborhood. Budget cuts have meant no toilet paper. Let other cities fight over the Core Curriculum Standards. We’re fighting over Scott. Did you know the Koch Brothers own Quilted Northern? This must be a connection somehow. Ben Joravsky: Mayor Emanuel had just finished another press conference in which he lauded himself for building new scho
Chicago teacher pensions on the air with CTPF Executive Director Kevin Huber and the next governor, Ralph Martire.
CTPF Executive Director Kevin Huber and Ralph Martire. Chicago Teachers Pension Fund Executive Director Kevin Huber and Center for Tax and Budget Accountability Ralph Martire will be on WBEZ public radio this afternoon at 3:35 CDT. Chicago area listeners can find ‘BEZ at 91.5 FM. Listeners can also go to http://www.wbez.org for internet streaming. CTPF Executive Director Will
There are days like today when I miss it.
I can’t tell people what to do or how to spend their lives. I taught for 30 years and when I hit 64 I retired. I liked teaching a lot. I think I was good at it. I can’t say I made every student and parent happy. But with 400 students a year and with 800 or so parents, what are the odds somebody will be unhappy. A couple of years I traveled to different schools and was evaluated by more people tha
The race for governor and local primaries.
Back in the Spring we were once again engaged in a fight to protect our contractual and constitutionally guaranteed pension rights. In the Illinois House legislators, mostly Democrats, were voting for Senate Bill 1. It was a bill that would break our pension contract and would violate the pension clause of the Illinois Constitution. As an electoral response many of us were hoping for two things:
SEP 17
The in box. Jim Keating on our state legislators and life-long learning
Jim Keating is a retired teacher and member of the Du Page chapter of the Illinois Retired Teachers Association. He writes a column for their publication on political issues of concern to retirees. Here’s his latest: By Jim Keating We have well educated state legislators who cannot solve the state’s revenue problem. They need to learn how to do this. Hey, that’s our job! We are educators, righ
IPI hucksters issue scare ‘em reports about pension debt and the media buys it.
If the IPI is non-partisan, than I look like Brad Pitt. Once again the hucksters at the Illinois Poliicy Institute issue a report full of bunkum and the media buys it. The IPI is a Republican front group dressed up as a think tank. There’s not much thinking going on there. Mostly Tea Party talking points. The latest (ahem) IPI report: Total pension, retirement-related and other debt across
Daley in. Daley out. Not a pension friendly candidate among the bunch of them.
I was watching Chicago Tonight on WTTW last night and Carol Marin was freaking out over Bill Daley dropping out of the governor’s race. She had the usual panelists of pundits pundisizing their punditry over the meaning of it all. Who it helps and who it hurts. Anne and I discussed it. And based on our pundisizing, we figure it helps Quinn in the primary since he is the only one now running. Among
Sun-Times editors call for pension COLA cuts. Tell them why that’s wrong.
The editorial board of the Chicago Sun-Times today calls on the Gang of Ten legislative pension committee to recommend cuts in state cost of living adjustments to retirees. That’s just wrong. Constitutionally. And morally. It’s time. A group of Illinois lawmakers has had all summer to drum up a new plan to cut public employee pension costs. They’re close, with the outlines of their plan already p
UNO’s teacher pension scandal erupts.
Head of the Chicago Teacher Pension Fund board of trustees, Jay Rehak. Photo: Substance. A day after Martin Cabrera who was the Chairman of the United Neighborhood Organization (UNO) resigned, there is a new scandal involving the largest Chicago charter school operator. Cabrera served only three months. He was installed to clean up the scandal-ridden organization headed by Rahm Emanuel’s camp
From Glen Brown on Constitution Day: The Constitution.
Glen Brown posts at teacher/poet/musician. “Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties” –Abraham Lincoln “No State shall…pass any…ex post facto law or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts…” (The Constitution of the United States, Article 1—Limitations on Powers of States, Section 10). “No ex post facto law, or law
SEP 16
Illinois schools’ supt. wants to lift the cap on Special Ed students in a classroom. A real bad idea.
To those who can, please attend the ISBE hearing on Thursday, September 19th, 8 AM (sign in to comment) at the Marriott in Bloomington-Normal . If not, send an e-mail to the ISEBE–best if you give reasons or examples why you OPPOSE the lifting of SpEd class size restrictions. IEA website: The Illinois State Board of Education will be voting Thursday on a proposal that would eliminate all speci
Life in Rahm’s Chicago. Resignations abound. And parents on the east side have some questions for the Mayor.
Rahm went to the east side of Chicago yesterday to announce that he’s building a new public school. Parents and teachers at the existing over-crowded Gallistel Language Academy had some questions for the Mayor following the photo op. But the Mayor was out the door in a flash. “He wasn’t here to answer our questions, he left before ask the things we wanted to ask,” said teacher Andrea Porth. Ga
The in box. The pension committee Gang of Ten is offering a plan with slim chance of passing.
Republican, pension bomber and ALEC member, Representative Darlene Senger. Rich Miller in the Southtown: Several members of the Illinois General Assembly’s special pension reform committee told me last week that they believed a final proposal would emerge within the next week to 10 days. The conference committee has been working since June on a solution to the state’s nearly $100 billion long-
SEP 15
Rainy Sunday reads.
Mourners outside funeral services for Carol Robertson, one of four girls (also killed were Cynthia Wesley, Denise McNair and Addie Mae Collins) who died in the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. Fifty years ago this week. I guess the NY Post doesn’t like Diane Ravitch. They accuse her of everything but killing puppies. Are we about to end the Reagan-Clinton era in electoral politics? Life
SEP 14
Saturday coffee.
Damn, it a beautiful morning in Chicago. The sky is blue. The temperature is in the 60s. The coffee is strong and hot. Trainer Mike had me focused on lower body strength building on Thursday. My legs still feel it today. He kept adding weight to the leg press machine. “Uh, Mike?” “You can do it.” And, I could. But I’m still feeling it today. Thursday I also started getting Special Education alert
Ode to Danielson. “I was good, but now I suck.”
H/T: Jersey Jazzman.
Chicago teachers: A letter from CPS Chief Talent Officer, Alicia Winkler.
CPS’ Chief Talent Officer, Alicia Winkler. Got talent? Imagine. If teachers had not fulfilled our job responsibilities, what would our “REACH” evaluation say? Dear CPS Teachers, One year ago, CPS launched REACH (Recognizing Educators Advancing Chicago) Students, a fair and transparent evaluation system that was developed in large part with the input of teachers from throughout the District.
Here’s a smart piece about the very different circumstances in which rich and poor students find themselves when they go to school every day. This was written by the Rev. John Thomas, the former general minister and president of the United Church of Christ, who is now a professor and administrator at the Chicago Theological Seminary. This appeared on