The in box. “Teachers do it for the children every day.”
Fred, The teachers in Chicago “do it for the children” every day! What do they do? Well, they buy supplies from pencils to copying machines and paper to make sure the children can spend more time practicing than copying the page from a book onto a piece of notebook paper so they can finally do [...]
TRS board tries to pour some water on the Ingram firestorm.
TRS Executive Director Richard Ingram either floated a balloon or sprung a leak. But his comments last week about the potential insolvency of TRS and the need to reduce benefits has caused an uproar. Nobody, from the leadership of the IEA to the legislators in Springfield, wanted this to be the topic of conversation among [...]
Life in Rahm’s Chicago. Strike support spreads to 150 schools.
Negotiating a teacher union contract in this town ain’t mumbly peg, to paraphrase the late Harold Washington. If Rahm thought he was going to roll over Chicago teachers, he must have the City confused with his more effete hometown of Wilmette. Votes of strike support have spread from two high schools at the beginning of [...]
Ed Rosenthal for IEA Retired Chair.
My membership in IEA Retired is in the mail. I’m not retired until June. I can’t vote for Chair of IEA Retired this time. But if you are a member of IEA Retired, you can vote. And I’m encouraging a vote for Ed Rosenthal. My colleague Bob Haisman, past IEA President and retired activist, says [...]
Elizabeth Catlett. The power of the image.
As a kid in the 50s and 60s, I could walk into any home of my parents’ friends, politically progressive and more often than not Jewish, and see two framed prints on their walls. Of course, my parents had them as well. One was by the African-American artist, Charles White. The other was by the [...]
The in box. Richard Ingram must go.
As retired teachers, we urge you to fire Mr. Ingram immediately. As executive director, Mr. Ingram’s duty is not only to protect the interests of TRS and its members, but also to defend the Illinois Constitution. Some think it is only the job of the Supreme Court to defend the Constitution. They are wrong. It [...]
Untitled
It seems lately that each day brings news of the passing of an artist who has touched my life in profound ways. Earl Scruggs was a banjo picker who became a master of a joyous instrument created by African slaves brought to country in chains.
A war with Canada?
Charter school boss Geoffrey Canada is part of the group raising $50 million to wage war on teacher unions and the parents who support them. Did you see the article in the New York Times about StudentsFirstNY? What a bunch. StudentsFirst is the corporate education mouthpiece that the disgraced, former Chancellor of DC Schools, Michelle [...]
Opt-in data base in now on IEA website.
A note from Tim Crawford of the IEA staff informs me that they have placed a link to the Illinois Teachers and Neighbors United site on the IEA Back Home Lobbying page of the IEA website. Illinois Teachers and Neighbors United database (Read below before entering) The Illinois Teachers and Neighbors United database offers users the [...]
The in box. False truths and scapegoating. IFT’s Montgomery responds to Ingram and Cross.
I am disappointed that Mr. Ingram has decided to advocate for diminishing the reasonable, Constitutional retirement benefits of tens of thousands of Illinois educators and retirees. For TRS this is, indeed, a new direction that embraces a politically expedient approach while providing significant cover to politicians determined to welch on the state’s decades-long promise to [...]
CPS teachers ready and willing to walk.
Stand for Children’s Jonah Edelman thought he had outfoxed the CTU with SB7 strike requirements. He never understood unions. When Jonah Edelman and Stand for Children came to Illinois, one of their main agenda items was to make our teacher unions impotent. He targeted Chicago teachers’ right to strike. He was helped by some of [...]
Life in Rahm’s Chicago. A problem with democracy.
From Rolling Stone: What Rahm seems to be doing is building a new machine for our age of union busting and austerity. His budget, which the City Council passed 50 to 0 like it was some Soviet Party Congress (maybe it had something to do with the hundreds of thousands Goldner’s PAC had to spend), [...]
The in box. What is good for teachers is good for the elite.
Fred, Lets see…i started teaching for 3,400.00 a year. worked/taught in education for 50 years…my wife managed to raise six children on the small increases we received each year..by the time i retired i was making a salary of 32,000.00 (after 50 years). i am now 80 years old and you want to take some [...]
The Ingram Shift
H/T to Bob Haisman whose Pension 101 emails provided most of the following information. A year ago, TRS Executive Director Richard Ingram was singing a different tune when it came to TRS sustainability. There were hints of a shift when he spoke to the IEA RA a few weeks ago. He began his talk to [...]
Pension Call Tuesday.
The seats are starting to fill up on the PREA bus to Springfield on May 2nd. Our schedule is to meet with Park Ridge Senator Dan Kotowski. Those of us who live in other legislative districts will also fan out to meet with their home legislators. Then we will picnic on the IEA headquarter’s lawn. [...]
The in box. Who does TRS Executive Director Dick Ingram speak for?
Richard Ingram The story that you see below appeared in the Springfield State Journal-Register this morning. When the executive director of an public body speaks, especially on a substantive issue, it is a logical assumption that he is speaking not just for himself but for the board that he represents. Director Ingram’s remarks having to [...]
The in box. Not a fan.
You make me sick. I have had the displeasure of following your blog only to find it self serving. Not once about the kids. My retirement, my fellow teachers, my unions, my education, blah, blah, blah, me, me, me. My backyard is the very school you “teach” at when not blogging during class time. My [...]
Join Illinois Teachers and Neighbors.
Here’s the new social network site that you should join up with if you are an Illinois teacher or neighbor. You can connect with folks like you who share legislative districts to organize joint lobby and political action efforts. And you can post, read other posts and check on sites that have importance to teachers, [...]
A local paper can’t afford a fact-checker.
Our Type 75 put in her resignation recently. And that’s fine. “Loss of 4th principal in 5 years troubles supporters,” said the local paper. I don’t want to quibble. But she’s the third principle in four years. And the first of the three was here eleven years. The last two were, as they say, good [...]
When and how did you learn about credit cards and credit scores? Did your parents teach you; did they lead by example; did you take a course; or did you learn by trial and error? What does just paying the minimum payment each month really mean in the long-term?