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Friday, March 8, 2013

UPDATE this Fred: Illinois has one of the best funded public employee pensions + Chicago students boycott the NAEP to demand safety. | Fred Klonsky

Chicago students boycott the NAEP to demand safety. | Fred Klonsky:


Contest entry.

designall-dll
To celebrate one million site visits I am sponsoring a contest.
Submit a tweet, haiku or limerick on a topic covered by this blog.
The deadline is March 31 or the millionth visit.
The winner gets the orange t-shirt.
The decision of the judges (that’s me) is final.
Here is latest entry:
From Ken:
There once was a Fred from Nantucket
who carried his thoughts in a bucket, 
And when he did log
A million Madigan thoughts in his blog
His readers all yelled,
“Madigan can just go and f…”
Oops! Fred Klonsky is from Logan Square. Wrong Fred.
Never mind.


Ten minute drawing. Madigan has no fear.

madigan

Click on drawing to enlarge.


Stand up. The day the teachers said no.

Popout


Illinois has one of the best funded public employee pensions in the country.

What?
That’s what I said.
Illinois has one of the best funded public employee pensions in the country.
Of course, I’m not talking about any of the Illinois state public employee pension systems.
Rather, I’m talking about IMRF, the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund.
Public employees who work for local municipalities outside of Cook County draw their pensions from IMRF.
Like the state pensions, it is a defined benefit system.
Unlike the state pensions, most employees covered by IMRF contribute only 4.5%. The rest is covered by local 


Chicago students boycott the NAEP to demand safety.

From Anthony Cody’s EdWeek blog, Living in Dialogue:
Hello my name is Leslie Leon. I am an 18 year old senior at Gage Park High School on Chicago Southwest side. I was born in Chicago, Illinois but raised in Imlay city, Michigan. My parents only wanted the best for my family, therefore we moved to Michigan for a safer life. My parents decided to move back to my hometown in 2010. My life took a whole “U” turn. Everything was different, I couldn’t adjust to it. Before Gage Park I used to love going to school eager to learn and make the most out of my high school life. Coming to Gage Park I slowly started to feel fear to go to school because of the surroundings.
It wasn’t until this year that I began to feel alarmed being inside the school. I don’t like this feeling. When I walk


Latest entry.

designall-dll
To celebrate one million site visits I am sponsoring a contest.
Submit a tweet, haiku or limerick on a topic covered by this blog.
The deadline is March 31 or the millionth visit.
The winner gets the orange t-shirt.
The decision of the judges (that’s me) is final.
Here is latest entry:
From Mark:
The Springfield Dragon
Gorging with reptile hunger
Ashes on its plate


Who caused Illinois’ debt?

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