4-9-14 Perdido Street School Week

Perdido Street School:

Cuomo Gets Beaten Up At WFP Teleconference

From Dan Janison at Newsday:Without being present, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo became something of a piñata during a town-hall style teleconference call hosted tonight by the Working Families Party in which the organization’s officials from around the state took part. Cuomo ran in 2010 with WFP support but that is far from assured this time out after the party, which made comprehensive public campaign fi

by reality-based edu... / 2min 

Howie Hawkins To Seek Green Party Line To Run Against Cuomo

My sense is the Working Families Party functionaries are talking a good game about getting a candidate from the left to run against Cuomo this year but in the end will not do so.Howie Hawkins, who ran on the Green Party line against Cuomo last time around, may be the best third party candidate/protest vote we're going to get against Cuomo this time around:Howie Hawkins today announced he will seek

by reality-based edu... / 25min hide  //  save

NYSUT President Magee Strikes Conciliatory Note In First Conversation With Governor Cuomo

Here's your tough-talking new NYSUT president from that tough-talking Revive NYSUT slate that ousted not-so-tough talking Richard Iannuzzi for not talking or acting tough enough in the face of attacks from Governor Cuomo and the state's education reform establishment:Gov. Andrew Cuomo today called the new president of the state’s teachers union after she was elected to the post over the weekend. K

1 by reality-based edu... / 6h 

4-8-14 Perdido Street School Week

Perdido Street School: Is Chris Christie Toast?It has been fairly quiet on the Chris Christie scandal front since Christie crony David Samson resigned from the Port Authority a while back and Christie is going around the country raising money for the Republican Party like nothing's the matter, that all is on schedule for his 2016 run for president.Jeff Smith at Politico says pay no attention to wh

by mike simpson / 4h 

The Koch Brothers Are Part of What’s the Matter with Kansas | janresseger

The Koch Brothers Are Part of What’s the Matter with Kansas | janresseger:

The Koch Brothers Are Part of What’s the Matter with Kansas

Posted on April 9, 2014 by janresseger

Since when does school funding legislation have to come with a quid pro quo legislative tidbit for the Koch Brothers?

Here is some background for what happened in Kansas last weekend.  The legislature had been warned by the state’s supreme court that the state’s school funding had slipped far from parity.  The Court gave the legislature until July 1 to allocate more state money to the poorest school districts in Kansas.  After all, one of the primary functions of a state school finance formula is to produce at least some movement toward equity—to ensure that funding in property-poor school districts doesn’t fall so far that poor children are denied basic services.

The formulas are rarely generous, which is why Stanford University education professor Linda Darling-Hammond pointed out that in 2010, the ratio of spending between property rich and property poor school districts was over 3:1.  Darling-Hammond wondered, “what we might accomplish as a nation if we could finally set aside what appears to be our de factocommitment to inequality, so profoundly at odds with our rhetoric of equity, and put the millions of dollars spent continually arguing and litigating into building a high-quality education system for all children.” (The Flat World and Education, p. 164)

Today in Kansas, they are still arguing and fighting, and it’s not just in Kansas.  In the four years since Darling-Hammond published her book, the rhetoric across our states has retreated from the idea of equity.  Today we talk about school choice (privatization) and we punish teachers, which is what the Kansas legislature just did as a condition for raising the state’s distribution of funding to poor school districts to the bare minimum.

At issue in Gannon v. State of Kansas was a 16.5 percent cut in Kansas education funding since 2008, “accelerated” according to a recent op ed in the NY Times, “by a $1.1 billion tax break, which benefited mostly upper-income Kansans, proposed by Governor Brownback and enacted in 2012.”  Just over a year ago, a trial court found for the parent-plaintiffs, declaring that cuts 

What’s The Evidence on School Devices and Software Improving Student Learning? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

What’s The Evidence on School Devices and Software Improving Student Learning? | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

What’s The Evidence on School Devices and Software Improving Student Learning?

The historical record is rich in evidence that research findings have played a subordinate role in making educational policy. Often, policy choices were (and are) political decisions. There was no research, for example, that found establishing tax-supported public schools in the early 19th century was better than educating youth through private academies. No studies persuaded late-19th century educators to import the kindergarten into public schools. Ditto for bringing computers into schools a century later.

So it is hardly surprising, then, that many others, including myself, have been skeptical of the popular idea that evidence-based policymaking and evidence-based instruction can drive teaching practice. Those doubts have grown larger when one notes what has occurred in clinical medicine with its frequent U-turns in evidence-based “best practices.”

Consider, for example, how new studies have often reversed prior “evidence-based” medical procedures.

*Hormone therapy for post-menopausal women to reduce heart attacks wasfound to be more harmful than no intervention at all.

*Getting a PSA test to determine whether the prostate gland showed signs of cancer for men over the age of 50 was “best practice” until 2012 when advisory panels of doctors recommended that no one under 55 should be tested and those older  might be tested if they had family histories of prostate cancer.

And then there are new studies that recommend women to have annual mammograms, not at age  50 as recommended for decades, but at age 40. Or research syntheses (sometimes called “meta-analyses”) that showed anti-

Almost 70% of teachers are not engaged. Here’s why that matters so much | Digital

Almost 70% of teachers are not engaged. Here’s why that matters so much | Digital:

Almost 70% of teachers are not engaged. Here’s why that matters so much

Wedbesday Gallup released a major report on the State of American Schools. Their data paints a picture of schools performing as a complex ecosystem, with the wellbeing, engagement, and performance of teachers, students, and principals all intertwined.

The report combines decades of surveys of 5 million American teachers and principals with the results of the Gallup Student Poll, now billed at the largest survey of American students with 600,000 5th through 12 grade participants, and several large follow-up studies. Gallup’s also drawing on its background developing the Employee Engagement Survey, which has been administered to a total of almost 30 million people in all professions.

The Gallup polls ask students, teachers, principals, and other professionals about their levels of hope, emotional engagement, and wellbeing at work or school. While these qualities may seem like frills, they’ve been demonstrated over time to have powerful correlations with harder metrics, like a company’s profits or a school’s test scores. For example, in 2009, Gallup studied 78,000 students in 160 schools in eight states, finding that a one-percentage-point uptick in a school’s average student engagement was connected to an average six-point increase in reading achievement and eight points in math. Similarly, Gallup researchers have found in peer-reviewed studies that their “hope” measure was a better predictor of grades in college than SATs, ACTs or high school GPA. In a third study, students’ levels of hope accounted for almost half of the variation in math achievement and at least one-third of their variation in reading and science scores.

Brandon Busteed, the executive director of Gallup Education, says that in some ways, the point 

There's Nothing Especially Educational About Factory-Style Management :: Frederick M. Hess

There's Nothing Especially Educational About Factory-Style Management :: Frederick M. Hess:

There's Nothing Especially Educational About Factory-Style Management

by Frederick M. Hess  •  Apr 9, 2014 at 8:33 am
Cross-posted from Education Week

Reform critics dismiss efforts to rethink leadership practice, recruitment, and training as an effort to import "business" thinking into K-12. Meanwhile, it's easy for reformers to sound as if they're just saying we need "better" school and system leaders. In reality, today's leaders struggle with professional norms, training, and circumstances that aren't of their making--and which offer precious little calculated to help forge great schools and systems.

In the early 1900s, influenced by education psychologist Edward Thorndike and scientific management guru Frederick Taylor, proponents of progressive education worked to bring the same standardization and routine to education that they admired in industry and business. The problem, explained Ellwood Cubberley, dean of the School of Education at Stanford University from 1917-1933 and, in many ways, the father of modern school administration, had been that, before 1900, schools had been like "a manufacturing establishment running at a low grade of efficiency."

In short, progressives worked hard to import the best practices of private industry to American education. (This is why the familiar school model bears such an uncanny resemblance to the early-twentieth-century factory.) That model made some sense at the time, helping to manage a massive expansion of schooling in a world lacking modern data tools and communications technology.

Since that era, though, K-12's routines and rules have been largely preserved, as if in amber. Intrusive regulation, petty bureaucracy, and balky decision making have bizarrely come to be treated as part of the schoolhouse culture.

In the private sector, meanwhile, old giants like Univac, TWA, and Xerox have given way to Google, JetBlue, and Apple. These new ventures had the freedom to build brand new cultures, staffing models, evaluation systems, and delivery models that took full advantage of evolving talent, tools, and technology.

In schooling, this passing of the baton is absent. Instead, leaders inherit long-standing schools or school systems. As successive generations of entrepreneurs and thinkers in other sectors have revisited basic There's Nothing Especially Educational About Factory-Style Management :: Frederick M. Hess:

Day of Silence (April 11, 2014) | GLSEN

Day of Silence (April 11, 2014) | GLSEN:

Day of Silence (April 11, 2014)

Silence can create change!

That’s why every year hundreds of thousands of students across the world take a vow of silence on a Friday in April. This quiet but powerful, student-led action raises awareness about the silencing effect of anti-LGBT bullying, harassment and discrimination.

Anyone can organize a Day of Silence activity or event, and it can be a powerful way to band together and take a stand. Learn more about how to register, organize, what your rights are, and what to do if those rights aren’t being respected.

Strength in numbers. Solidarity in silence.

 LEARN MORE & GET INVOLVED 

Why Mark Gleason Likes an Unaccountable, Unelected SRC | WeArePCAPS

Why Mark Gleason Likes an Unaccountable, Unelected SRC | WeArePCAPS:

Why Mark Gleason Likes an Unaccountable, Unelected SRC

Posted on April 9, 2014by wearepcaps

“

… I just want to offer two thoughts on the governance question. One is, while it’s imperfect, I think the current state and city hybrid appointed School Reform Commission is probably the best model. Here’s what’s wrong with an elected school board. If you’ve been in Philly lately you know we are engulfed in a huge scandal right now about elected officials taking cash payments. There is a lot of evidence of that in Philly’s history and in urban politics in general. The smaller the race the more opportunity there is for abuse”. 

Philadelphia School Partnership Executive Director Mark Gleason 

No surprise here.   The present form of governance with no public accountability and minimal transparency suits Mr. Gleason fine.   PSP is free to maneuver behind the scenes, using money as a lever, to advance its privatization agenda. 

The irony of Gleason holding up corruption as a reason to reject an elected school board is rich.   The PSP, while operating legally, represents a profound form of corruption of democratic institutions.   The monied few are calling the shots, elbowing out the public. 

The antidote to corruption is more democracy and transparency, not less.   This month we will be circulating petitions to place a question on the ballot to return our schools to local control and abolish the SRC.   Join the fight!

Deal in L.A. Unified designed to protect 37 high-needs schools from layoffs | EdSource Today

Deal in L.A. Unified designed to protect 37 high-needs schools from layoffs | EdSource Today:

Deal in L.A. Unified designed to protect 37 high-needs schools from layoffs

April 9th, 2014 | 1 Comment |
By John Fensterwald

The parties in a 4-year-old lawsuit challenging mass layoffs of teachers at low-income middle schools in Los Angeles Unified announced a settlement Tuesday that an attorney called a potential model for creating a stable work force in schools beset by teacher churn.

The deal in the Reed v. the State of California lawsuit will provide $25 million for additional administrators, mentor teachers and teacher training in 37 middle and high schools where there had been low student performance and high turnover of inexperienced teachers. The extra resources will provide a consistent corps of “highly trained teachers you can count on to be there year to year,” said Mark Rosenbaum, chief counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, which represented students filing suit. Higher teacher retention rates and specialized training, in turn, will shield both the staff and students at those schools in the event of another wave of layoffs, he said.

When filed by attorneys on behalf of students at three Los Angeles Unified middle schools in 2010, the lawsuit challenged the state law mandating teacher layoffs based on seniority. That case preceded Vergara v. the State of California, the lawsuit filed by the nonprofit group Students Matter in 2012 that targets the same statute, along with legal protections establishing teacher tenure and due-process dismissal procedures. The Los Angeles County Superior Court will rule on the Vergara lawsuit by mid-summer.

With the settlement, the Reed case ended up taking a different tack, switching from an effort to overturn the layoffs-by-seniority law to a negotiated agreement to protect vulnerable students from the existing law’s potential impact. Plaintiffs’ lawyers in the Reed lawsuit had argued that the disproportionately high percentage of layoffs at the middle schools – 70 percent of teachers at one school – violated students’ constitutional right to an equal opportunity for an education. The layoffs created turmoil and instability, demoralized the staff and led to a staff shortage filled by substitute 

Assembly subcommittee pledges to fight for career technical education - by Michelle Maitre

Raising alarm about the future of programs that help prepare students for jobs after high school, a key Assembly budget subcommittee signaled Tuesday it intends to fight to restore dedicated funding for career technical education ... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit the Edsource Today website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

by Michelle Maitre / 8h 

Parents & Educators Protest Eviction Of Special Needs Students For Charter Schools | PopularResistance.Org

Parents & Educators Protest Eviction Of Special Needs Students For Charter Schools | PopularResistance.Org:

Parents & Educators Protest Eviction Of Special Needs Students For Charter Schools

RESIST! EDUCATION, NYC 
By Lauren McCauley, www.commondreams.org
April 9th, 2014

Select LanguageAfrikaansAlbanianArabicArmenianAzerbaijaniBasqueBelarusianBengaliBosnianBulgarianCatalanCebuanoChinese (Simplified)Chinese (Traditional)CroatianCzechDanishDutchEsperantoEstonianFilipinoFinnishFrenchGalicianGeorgianGermanGreekGujaratiHaitian CreoleHausaHebrewHindiHmongHungarianIcelandicIgboIndonesianIrishItalianJapaneseJavaneseKannadaKhmerKoreanLaoLatinLatvianLithuanianMacedonianMalayMalteseMaoriMarathiMongolianNepaliNorwegianPersianPolishPortuguesePunjabiRomanianRussianSerbianSlovakSlovenianSomaliSpanishSwahiliSwedishTamilTeluguThaiTurkishUkrainianUrduVietnameseWelshYiddishYorubaZulu

  Powered by Translate

Parents and public school advocates staged a dramatic protest outside the New York City Department of Education on Tuesday against a bid, backed by Governor Andrew Cuomo and financed by Wall Street lobbyists, to evict special needs students in order to make room for charter school expansion.

The demonstration is the most recent development in the battle against corporate education reform in the city, where ”strong-arm” tactics by Cuomo and the charter school lobby have overriden an attempt by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to curb the growth of privately-funded charters.

Calling out Eva Moskowitz, CEO of the Success Academy charter chain, the demonstratorsblasted her for “strong arming” the expansion of her charter schools, adding that she is “stealing classrooms from 102 special needs students.”

On March 31, New York legislators approved a budget deal that provides New York City charter schools with “some of the most sweeping protections in the nation,” the New York Times reported last week. Among other provisions, the deal forces public schools to offer co-locations, or rent-free building space, to charter schools.

At the rally, outraged parents and supporters of the Mickey Mantle School P.S. 811—a special needs education program that shares space with P.S. 149 in Harlem—railed against New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for pushing the charter-friendly budget, overriding a move by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to block the expansion of three of Moskowitz’s Success Academy schools.

“Governor Cuomo is brokering a deal for charter schools that will have a huge negative impact on students in Harlem with special needs,” said Julian Vinocur, NYC Campaigns & Parents & Educators Protest Eviction Of Special Needs Students For Charter Schools | PopularResistance.Org:

NYC Educator: Arwen Questions the UFT-Unity Loyalty Oath

NYC Educator: Arwen Questions the UFT-Unity Loyalty Oath:

Arwen Questions the UFT-Unity Loyalty Oath

-->

By guest blogger Arwen E.

I urge cooperation between my sisters and brothers of UNITY and MORE. 

I plead for the sake of humanity that tomorrow at the D.A. meeting in Manhattan one Union brother or sister stand up and ask for a justification of the LOYALTY OATH.   More adamantly, I plead that this brave soul not be silenced. And, I ask that reason, not tempers control the debate. 

I have read through our UFT 50 Years anniversary book and I have found deep inspiration.  Yet, nowhere in its pages do I find any justification for a LOYALTY OATH.  To the contrary, I find only disdain for loyalty oaths.  One might argue if everyone votes as one, the voice is stronger.  I argue the opposite.  And, I will tell you why.

The LOYALTY OATH stifles both sides of the political aisle.  It silences all chapter leaders who cannot for reasons of conscience sign the oath.  Despite their election, in some cases repeated election, by their constituencies, they are blocked from exercising their duly-elected voice at NYSUT and AFT conventions.  They are blocked from lucrative positions in union offices.  The doors of advancement have shut before their eyes.  It is shameful. 

The LOYALTY OATH stifles UNITY members as well.   They are not allowed to freely express their ideas in public, lest they conflict with that of the leadership.  If they freely express their views at the DA and they run counter to leadership, they risk raising the eyebrows or ire of leadership.  They may risk losing potentially very valuable jobs in union offices.  They may risk seeing the doors to advancement shut before them as well.  They may risk losing the privilege to attend assemblies and conventions across the country.  Some run scared.  They supposedly have freedom of speech, but they all know their words may cost them.    You know this, too.

I have heard a few defend the OATH.  They state that they agree with all leadership positions and their membership is aligned with them; so, they have no 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Florida's Testing Freaks

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Florida's Testing Freaks:

Florida's Testing Freaks

Florida's test-crazy Gov. Rick Scott and his ed adviser, Michelle Rhee.

If you want to see the depths to which Florida's Dept. of Ed. testing freaks can sink, see Valerie Strauss' story in today's WaPo about a Florida mom Andrea Rediske’s fight to help families of children with severe disabilities. Warning -- it's not a story for the faint of heart.

MORE...And now their raising the testing bar to cut the number of recipients of the state's Bright Futures scholarships from 1 in 3 to 1 in 8 qualifying students.

"There's only so much money to go around for education. If you're giving a merit-based award, it should be to the top students in the state," said state Rep. George Moraitis, R-Fort Lauderdale.

But according to blogger, Deep Purple Musings,

 Moraitis never misses a chance to propose legislation which lines the pockets of 

BREAKING!! MY FIRST HAND ACCOUNT OF MICHELLE RHEE'S CULT southbronxschool.com

http://www.southbronxschool.com:

BREAKING!! MY FIRST HAND ACCOUNT OF MICHELLE RHEE'S CULT

Bear with me here as I put into context the audacity, the hubris, the obfuscation I witnessed today of hacks representing Students First.

As many of you know, I am incarcerated at 4360 Broadway which happens to be PS 48 in Manhattan. Coming in this morning there were a phalanx of talking head media congregated outside the school yard at 8 AM this morning. Curious as to what was happening, I asked a camera man fromTime Warner Cable News (The new name for NY1) to fill me in. He told me that the the two trailers for Kindergarten students were full of mold and the parents of the community had had enough.

Parents and community members were being interviewed through the morning by all the big stations of NYC. There even were a smattering of print journalists. Some of the trucks and reporters stayed throughout the morning to go live on their respective noon broadcasts. But it didn't end there.

I guess when news hits like this the cockroaches come out of the woodwork and feel that this is an opportunity not to miss an opportunity to take advantage of those that are day in and day out being taken advantage of by the DOE. An opportunity to put themselves front and center and wrap themselves up in the guise of altruism when all they think about is how can they get over and further their cause.

As I was leaving today and walking south on Broadway past the school yard I saw several women 

Arne Duncan Plays the Common Core Distancing Game | deutsch29

Arne Duncan Plays the Common Core Distancing Game | deutsch29:

Arne Duncan Plays the Common Core Distancing Game

April 8, 2014

On April 2, 2014, Louisiana has witnessed the lame demonstration of “Common Core distancing” from the governor (Bobby Jindal) who signed the state onto “the standards” (CCSS) in 2009– before they were written.

In 2010, US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan accepted Louisiana’s CCSS MOU (memorandum of understanding) despite the majority of Louisiana school districts rejecting the idea.

Like Jindal, Duncan has begun playing the CCSS Distancing Game. He first did so when when Indiana appeared to be the first state to drop CCSS, in March 2014.

On March 15, 2014, Duncan publicly stated that “states are free to completely discard Common Core.”

This is the same Duncan who told newspaper editors in June 2013 how to favorably report on CCSS.

This is the same Duncan who insulted “White suburban mothers” and blamed them for CCSS resistance in November 2013, then offered no apology.

Now, on April 8, 2014, Duncan has told the House Appropriations Subcommittee that he “just likes high standards”:

“I’m just a big proponent of high standards. Whether they’re common or not is secondary,” he told members of the House appropriations subcommittee that works on health, education, and other related issues. [Emphasis added.]

And at this point, Duncan falls back on the “or other common standards” clause included in the Race to the Top (RTTT) application. You see, the House 

The Opt-Out Update | Seattle Education

The Opt-Out Update | Seattle Education:

The Opt-Out Update

In some New York (Long Island) school district, organized Opt Out movement families are providing their children with a lanyard indicating that they are opting out of the “ELA” tests (see above). In addition to informing the schools that they want to opt out their children, the parents are making double certain that the schools and others get the message.

The opt out movement is gaining momentum as more parents are opting their students out of standardized testing.

Here are a few actions that are occurring across the country made up of many voices.

OPT OUT NEWS: More than 6,000 Long Island students Opt Out of New York State Tests

More than 6,000 students in the public schools of Long Island have opted out of the New York State testing program that began on April 1, 2014. The exams, called the ELA tests, are part of New York’s launch of the Common Core. The Common Core has become so controversial now that the actual testing programs are in place in most states that several states are trying to “rebrand” it, with Florida and Arizona giving the testing associated with Common Core new names. The New York tests this year require four hours of “reading” and four hours of “math.”

The number is at least 6,000. The Long Island students opted out of the “reading” portion of the tests, according to Newsday. “Forty-one school districts in Nassau and Suffolk [counties], in response to a Newsday request sent to 124 districts island-wide, said about 5,575 students refused to take the test,” Newsday reported. “An additional district lumped together 224 refusals and absences. Other districts did not The Opt-Out Update | Seattle Education:

CORRECTION – TODAY: House and Senate approve teacher pension pillage in Illinois – as campaign contributors are awarded tax monies | Reclaim Reform

TODAY: House and Senate approve teacher pension pillage in Illinois – as campaign contributors are awarded tax monies | Reclaim Reform:

CORRECTION – TODAY: House and Senate approve NON-TEACHER pension pillage in Illinois – as campaign contributors are awarded tax monies

Posted on April 9, 2014by Ken Previti

Originally posted on Reclaim Reform:

CORRECTION: THE LEGISLATION PASSED TO CUT TO PENSIONS IN CHICAGO WAS FOR NON-TEACHING EMPLOYEES (such as paraprofessionals).
I apologize for my error. 
Read the Tribune article HERE and Karen Lewis’ statement HERE.

—————————————————————-

In spite of state and federal constitutional protections, active teachers will pay more into their pension funds (going from 9.4% of gross income to 11.4%) they are assured will not be there for them when they retire. Retired teachers will also be pillaged in the latest Corporate Education Reform attacks against scapegoated teachers and all things related to public schools.

Chicago teachers are the target as the teachers in the rest of Illinois were targeted a few short weeks ago.

THERE ARE NO PARTY POLITICS INVOLVED. This ALEC driven, Tea Party plan was introduced by Chicago Democratic Mayor Rahm Emanuel and passed by the supermajority Democrats under Illinois Speaker of the House Mike Madigan and supermajority…

View original 235 more words

TODAY: House and Senate approve teacher pension pillage in Illinois – as campaign contributors are awarded tax monies

Posted on April 8, 2014by Ken Previti

In spite of state and federal constitutional protections, active teachers will pay more into their pension funds (going from 9.4% of gross income to 11.4%) they are assured will not be there for them when they retire. Retired teachers will also be pillaged in the latest Corporate Education Reform attacks against scapegoated teachers and all things related to public schools.

Chicago teachers are the target as the teachers in the rest of Illinois were targeted a few short weeks ago.

THERE ARE NO PARTY POLITICS INVOLVED. This ALEC driven, Tea Party plan was introduced by Chicago Democratic Mayor Rahm Emanuel and passed by the supermajority Democrats under Illinois Speaker of the House Mike Madigan and supermajority Democrats under Senate President John Cullerton. Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn plans to sign it. Republicans who opposed this wanted more severe cuts, according to their leadership. Read the anti-teacher coverage by CBS News HERE

As pension cuts are made, tax money is being diverted to corporate campaign donors. Be assured that there is NO truth in the propaganda that passes as news from major corporate owned media. The lies about tax savings and ensuring the long security promises for rescuing the ailing pension funds were exposed days ago by David Sarota HERE.

Excerpt: “A new report being released this morning shows that the supposedly  TODAY: House and Senate approve teacher pension pillage in Illinois – as campaign contributors are awarded tax monies | Reclaim Reform: