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Monday, October 1, 2012

The Illinois Constitution guarantees our pension but not the funding. « Fred Klonsky

The Illinois Constitution guarantees our pension but not the funding. « Fred Klonsky:


The Illinois Constitution guarantees our pension. But not the funding.

In a previous post I said that it was my understanding that while the Illinois Constitution guarantees state employee pensions and guarantees that they may not be diminished or impaired, it does not guarantee that the state provide the funding. This is the basis for Democratic State Representative Elaine Nekritz and Governor Pat Quinn to advocate shifting the pension obligation from the state to local units of governments.
Since this is a difficult concept to wrap my head around, I suggested that if I was wrong about this, my pal Glen Brown would correct me.
Glen writes:
1975 People ex. Rel. Illinois Federation of Teachers v. Lindberg
…can’t force the Illinois General Assembly to fund the pension systems at a specific percentage
1996 McNamee v. State
Vested Case Issue: an employee acquires a “vested” right when he or she enters the pension 

Home | Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg

Home | Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg:

Senator Darrell Steinberg
OCTOBER 2012 E-NEWSLETTER
 

 
Dear Neighbor:
Summer is officially over, and the change in season brings with it positive changes for Californians.  Most notably, I have brought about reform to California's accountability system for public schools with my SB 1458 signed by the Governor last week.  This measure improves the Academic Performance Index (API) by relying less on standardized bubble test scores and more on other important factors such as graduation rates, and student readiness for higher education, technical training, and entering into a globally competitive job market.  Test scores alone are not a complete indicator of the success or failure of our students, and SB 1458 will lead to fundamental changes in what we teach and how we measure school accomplishment. 
Other key legislation I authored which has been signed into law includes:
  • SB 1052 and SB 1053 which will dramatically decrease the cost of textbooks for many college students. These bills establish development of open source digital textbooks for 50 lower division courses which college students can access electronically for free, or for a modest cost of $20 per printed textbook. 
  • SB 1070 is the very best kind of economic and workforce development, giving high school and community college students more opportunities to pursue career-oriented education. By increasing partnerships between high schools, colleges and emerging technologies and industries, California has the opportunity to invest in developing the workforce needed for high-growth and emerging economic sectors such as healthcare, biotechnology, information technology and clean energy. 
  • SB 1186 is a strong bipartisan effort to improve full and equal access for the disabled while protecting California businesses.  The bill bans the abusive practice by some attorneys of issuing "demand for money" letters to businesses with alleged minor access violations and prevents the "stacking" of multiple claims for the same alleged violation to increase monetary awards.  Before now, it was often cheaper and quicker for business owners to settle out of court than to remove disabled access obstacles.  This law now provides more incentives to fix the violations and enhance accessibility. 
  • SB 1193 takes California a step forward in the fight to end human trafficking. Establishments including bars, strip clubs, truck stops, and bus and rail stations will be required to post specified notices at their facilities with two anonymous telephone tip lines for human trafficking victims seeking help or for members of the public who suspect human trafficking activity. For victims who don't know where to turn, this information about individual rights and who to call for help provides a lifeline for exploited workers and children to escape this form of modern slavery.
I look forward to sharing more updates on bills and community events with you in the months to come.
In this e-newsletter, please read about:
Sincerely,
Darrell Steinberg, Senate President pro Tempore
6th Senate District

Fund and Games: Inside Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee's official schedule - Washington City Paper

Fund and Games: Inside Michelle Rhee's official schedule - Washington City Paper:


Fund and GamesInside Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee's official schedule




What does a chancellor do all day?
Visit schools? Interview principals? Confer with top aides? “Chancel”?
D.C. Public Schools chiefMichelle A. Rheecertainly does all of those things. But in between workaday concerns, Rhee has become part of a vast network of education-oriented charities, think tanks, business interests, and “venture philanthropists.” Her talks with and wooing of this educational-industrial complex have both enmeshed her in the for-profit and nonprofit sectors of her new city and have taken her across the country to speak to grad students, corporate functionaries, and masters of the universe.
LL’s examination of the chancellor’s official schedule through November—obtained through a public records request—reveals the degree to which Rhee’s official duties 

Fund for Teachers Grants Encourage Teachers to Pursue Learning Around the World and Inspire Students Back Home

Fund for Teachers Grants Encourage Teachers to Pursue Learning Around the World and Inspire Students Back Home:


Fund for Teachers Grants Encourage Teachers to Pursue Learning Around the World and Inspire Students Back Home

Fund for Teachers’ 2013 grant cycle opens today, offering teachers the opportunity to design and experience their idea of professional development. Individuals receive up to $5,000, teaching teams $10,000, to hone skills and seek new knowledge that directly impacts student learning and personal/professional growth.


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Fund for Teachers
Quote startI grew as a teacher and a person...and broadened my perspectives on education, learning and life - all of which continue to shape and influence my classroom.Quote end
Houston, TX (PRWEB) October 01, 2012
Give us your motivated, your curious, your standardized test rebels yearning to learn free – these teachers make ideal candidates for Fund for Teachers fellowships.
A nonprofit dedicated to supporting and respecting teachers, Fund for Teachers awards grants to teachers who design, and during the summer, pursue their ideal professional development. The organization invites preK-12 teachers to consider what’s missing in their teaching, to ask themselves “If I could just learn ______________, I would substantially impact my students’ learning.” By submitting the answers on an online applicationavailable today, teachers’ could receive $5,000 per individual or $10,000 per teaching team to fund their odysseys.
“With my Fund for Teachers grant, I grew as a teacher and person,” said Patricia Greenleaf, teacher at Alief Learning Center in Houston, TX. Patricia used her grant to study the influence of Galilei and Ptolemy on math and science at the Scientific Cultural Organization in Venice, the University of Padua, and in Rome. “I conversed with international curriculum writers, teachers and students, researched Italy’s complex history, rode a subway for the first time, and broadened my perspectives on education, learning, and life – all of which continue to shape and influence my classroom.”
Fund for Teachers puts virtually no limits on what teachers learn or where they learn it with the grants, trusting each teacher to best determine relevant learning gaps and/or student needs. Literacy workshops in one’s hometown, robotics conferences in Tokyo and service learning projects in India merit equal consideration. Since 2001, 5,000 teachers have leveraged $18M in grants into fellowships in 124 countries on every continent.
"There’s no way – with the state’s budget shortfalls – that six of our teachers could have attended a reading/writing seminar in New York City without their Fund for Teachers grant,” said Susanne Smith-Stein, principal at Arroyo West Active Learning Center in Moorpark, CA. “The teaching team’s implementation of learned knowledge and skills they gained during their fellowship changed the lives of our teachers and their students.”
Guidelines, eligibility requirements and tips for crafting a successful Fund for Teachers grant proposal are available at fundforteachers.org. Completed proposals are due by January 31, 2013 and teachers awarded grants will be notified by March 31, 2013. For more information, call 800.681.2667 or visit the organization's Tumblr orFacebook sites.
About Fund for Teachers
Fund for Teachers enriches the personal and professional growth of teachers by recognizing and supporting them as they pursue opportunities around the world that make the greatest impact on their practice, students and school community.

"Tired of ALL the Bullsh*t" Barry Commoner Dies at 95 - NYTimes.com

Barry Commoner Dies at 95 - NYTimes.com:


Scientist, Candidate and Planet Earth’s Lifeguard

Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times
Last Word: Barry Commoner: Dr. Commoner, an early environmentalist, warned of the dangers of nuclear weapons testing. He was an early champion of recycling, organic food and reducing fossil fuel use.



Barry Commoner, a founder of modern ecology and one of its most provocative thinkers and mobilizers, died Sunday in Manhattan. He was 95 and lived in Brooklyn Heights.
Liz O. Baylen for The New York Times
Barry Commoner, senior scientist at the Center for the Biology of Natural Systems at Queens College, in a portrait made May 16, 2007.

Readers’ Comments

His wife, Lisa Feiner, confirmed his death.
Dr. Commoner was a leader among a generation of scientist-activists who recognized the toxic consequences of America’s post-World War IItechnology boom, and one of the first to stir the national debate over the public’s right to comprehend the risks and make decisions about them.
Raised in Brooklyn during the Depression and trained as a ...


....His own favorite moment of the campaign, he recalled many years later, was when a reporter in Albuquerque asked, “Dr. Commoner, are you a serious candidate, or are you just running on the issues?”

Schools Matter: Empty of Fact: Rachel Brown's Bellwether Propaganda

Schools Matter: Empty of Fact: Rachel Brown's Bellwether Propaganda:


Empty of Fact: Rachel Brown's Bellwether Propaganda

I asked Doug Martin, my colleague at The Common Errant and a dogged investigator of politico-corporate-educational malfeasance, to help us interpret the misleading graphic presentation offered by Rachel Brown for The Atlantic's Reform Pamphlet.  Ms Brown seems to responsible for page 87; I don't think it's appropriate to say she wrote it as it is primarily a presentation of "content" I would compare to what Netflix offers as a selection screen for the under-7 "latch-pc" crowd (this is exemplary of what is actually being learned by children).  That is I would compare both the content and the presentation with "Just for Kids."



Page 87 is called "New Advocates, New Ideas" in the print version but online it's titled "The Education Upstarts."

Let me just say that I applaud the online title as being interesting if not entirely apt.  Perhaps definition number 

'Life isn't always fair', Mayor Bloomberg says of NAACP suit that claims blacks and Latinos are shut out of top city high schools - NY Daily News

'Life isn't always fair', Mayor Bloomberg says of NAACP suit that claims blacks and Latinos are shut out of top city high schools - NY Daily News:


'Life isn't always fair', Mayor Bloomberg says of NAACP suit that claims blacks and Latinos are shut out of top city high schools

He insists tough entry test is fair and that if some can afford tutors and some can't, well, too bad

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 Mayor Mike Bloomberg (c.) announced plans to build the World's Tallest Ferris Wheel in Staten Island in 2014 to be named The Wheel. Here with Staten Island borough president James Molinaro (R.) and Seth Pinsky (L.). I will be built next to the Baseball stadium on Bay street on what is now a parking lot for Staten Island Ferry riders.Thursday September 27, 2012 (Debbie Egan-Chin/New York Daily News photo)

DEBBIE EGAN-CHIN/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Mayor Bloomberg said he has no interest in changing the admissions process to the best city high schools, insisting, 'It's done strictly on merit and it's one of the bright lights in our school system.'

GIVING A LESSON about a cruel world, Mayor Bloomberg showed zero sympathy for minority children who are denied entry to the city’s elite high schools.
“Life isn’t always fair,” he snapped on Thursday when asked about an NAACP complaint that slams the schools for admitting few black or Latino students.
He insisted that the entrance process is perfectly fine: Students with the best scores get invited to learn at the top schools.
“We’re not here about equal results. We’re here about equal opportunity,” he said. “Look, an awful


Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/life-fair-mayor-bloomberg-naacp-suit-claims-blacks-latinos-shut-top-city-high-schools-article-1.1170106#ixzz285DAsch0

"Won't Back Down" Might Make Debate - LA School Report

"Won't Back Down" Might Make Debate - LA School Report:



“Won’t Back Down” Might Make Debate

Reviews of the new release “Won’t Back Down” vary widely and tend to conform with pre-existing views on education reform issues.
Viola Davis and Maggie Gyllenhaal
Critics like The Nation’s Dana Goldstein describe it as a mean-spirited caricature of classroom teachers funded by a conservative millionaire who wants to destroy public schools — a 2012 version of  ”Waiting For Superman.”
Supporters describe it as a heartwarming depiction of parents and teachers getting together to say, “We can do