Latest News and Comment from Education

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

10-1-13 Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.

Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.:





The in box. “The state’s objective, according to CMS, is to save on insurance costs and satisfy an agreement reached by Governor Pat Quinn with the employees’ union, AFSCME Council 31.”
The Illinois Observer: (Chicago) ­– Extra: UnitedHealthcare has won a $3.6 billion contract to provide health care insurance benefits for retired Illinois state employees. As the Affordable Care Act went live today, the Illinois Department of Central Management Services todayissued a notice that it will award contracts to UnitedHealthcare and two other companies to provide Medicare supplemental co

Life in Rahm’s Chicago. Toilet paper for the schools
  36th Ward Alderman Nick Sposato, member of the Chicago City Council’s Progressive Caucus. He had to ask the community for toilet paper because the Mayor spent the money on a new stadium for De Paul University. Photo: Alderman Bob Fioretti.


Archer Daniels Midland. The very picture of capitalism at work.
. The veto session of the Illinois General Assembly takes place in about three weeks. Will there be a pension bill? Will they vote to give millions in tax breaks to Archer Daniels Midland. ADM is shuttering their Decatur offices. Decatur has among the highest unemployment rates in Illinois, which has among the highest unemployment rates in the U.S. ADM is a mega-agribusiness. The very picture of


Illinois is broke? Cut teacher pensions and give millions to Archer Daniels Midland.
Remember the phony front group that Civic Committee president Ty Fahner set up called Illinois is Broke? He wanted you to think the state was broke because of huge pensions to teachers, firemen and cops. Y’know. That $43,000 a year average teacher pension is a real budget buster. Meanwhile Archer Daniels Midland, the giant food processing corporation is leaving job-starved Decatur, Illinois. But
An insult to turds.
Fear, loathing and audits for Illinois retired teachers.
In the legislature they are debating whether to cut our meager 3% cost of living adjustment on our average $43,000 a year pension – a pension that you never failed to contribute your 9.4% a paycheck to, but into which the state regularly failed to pay their share. To make matters more threatening and confusing, we have heard that the supplemental insurance, the part we pay for to go along with yo

9-30-13 Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.
Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.: The NY Times wants to refight the Sixties?You’ve heard the old joke. If you say you remember the Sixties, you weren’t there. Funny. But not true. I was there. And I remember it. At sixty-five I sometimes forget where I put the keys. Or where I left Ulysses. But the Sixties? I remember it vividly. Bill