Monday, February 17, 2014

2-17-14 Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher

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



#2



Todd Mertz. IEA endorses Dillard for Governor. A desperate move.
- Todd Mertz is a teacher, union and political activist. Friends and Colleagues Illinois teachers and administrators have taken too many blows in the last couple of years.  We can’t afford another. The passage of SB7 in April of 2011 was a blow to Illinois teachers’ job security, attacking both tenure and seniority. It also diminished collective bargaining rights. It also tied teacher evaluations


Ten minute drawing. Presidents Day.





Tom Tully. “I for one am 100% behind the Dillard endorsement.”
  Teacher and NEA Director Tom Tully. - Tom Tully is a teacher and member of the Board of Directors of the National Education Association.  He notes that he is speaking for himself and not for the IEA or NEA. After some discussion with Tom about the Dillard endorsement, I offered him the opportunity to be a guest blogger and promised I would post it without comment. The following is my personal o

Dillard resigned from ALEC in October. Did he tell ALEC?
I received word today that the IEA has a letter from Republican State Senator Kirk Dillard saying he resigned from ALEC in October. That’s October 2013. Just four months ago. Does ALEC know? He’s still on the ALEC website as Illinois Chairman. But it’s tough keeping those websites current. Do a Google search for any public announcement that he resigned and you come up bupkis. I asked IEA Director


From the CTU: The Great Pension Caper.
From the Chicago Teachers Union: CHICAGO – The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) today released a report examining the true impact of pension cuts on the public sector workers living in our city’s neighborhoods. Three of the top four employers in Chicago are the City itself, the Chicago Public Schools and Cook County. These three entities employ over 90,000 people, all of whom depend on public pension


Some IEA – Rauner history. A history of being pragmatic.
. The Illinois Education Association and the Illinois Retired Teachers Association have a long and rocky history together. But since I have become active in both, I have argued for reconciliation and common efforts where our interests converge. And respect for each other where there are differences. I am kicking myself this morning. Be careful what you ask for. The IRTA will be joining the IEA in
Retired Teachers Association pours more of our money down the black hole of the Kirk Dillard campaign.
There is no question that Bruce Rauner would make a terrible governor. The sad truth of the matter is that we will not elect a good governor in November. None is running. We will elect a very bad one because very bad candidates are running. Our chance to elect a good governor passed when the state’s labor leaders sat on their hands this past couple of years. They could have been organizing a pro-
2-16-14 Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher
Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.: What will the people think of us if we tell them lies?In a post on the IEA’s Kirk Dillard endorsement, Glen Brown comments and quotes from something I wrote: “It’s a plan that will fail. In the 2010 Republican Primary there were about 750,000 voters in Illinois. We can expect roughly the same in March