Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Two items on the pension obligation cost shift. A disaster for Illinois’ working class towns. « Fred Klonsky

Two items on the pension obligation cost shift. A disaster for Illinois’ working class towns. « Fred Klonsky:


Two items on the pension obligation cost shift. A disaster for Illinois’ working class towns.

Let me point you in the direction of two items on the topic of the Madigan-Quinn cost shift proposal.
The Governor claims this will be painless to the local school districts and municipalities.
From the Springfield Journal Register:

The governor’s office estimates that, depending on how quickly a pension-cost shift is phased in, the cost to the district during those years will total between $1.84 million and $3.06 million.

“That’s why all the districts are crying horror of horrors,” said Leonora Beck, 



The in box. Candy in the classroom.

When I wrote about candy in the classroom the other day, I was targeting the bureaucratic and dishonest way in which some administrators deal with issues. The issue of food allergies and the issue of childhood obesity, on the other hand, are real.
A friend writes:
Hi Fred,
I live in fear that the school will give a peanut type candy to my child. It already happened once. In a “nut free” classroom, my boy was given candy with nuts to put in his backpack. While driving the couple of blocks home, he got to it, ate it and had a severe allergic reaction. His lips started cracking, throat started closing and his eyes bulged huge. In the emergency room, I watched as he was given epinephrine  and monitored his breathing. This has to be one of the most frightening