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Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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It’s bad for the country to keep graduating students who have low levels of reading and math skills. A number of these people will become workers who contribute little to making the country better and more competitive among developed countries. Also, unless they become government (city, county, state, fed, etc.) workers, they’ll complain about their low pay and inability to move up in their organizations, and they’ll continue to be resentful of those with money.
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I think that’s the case for probably a majority of high school students in this country. Grades mean too little, and local politics trumps it. Parents and other citizens pay the bills, and woe follows the district superintendent and his administrative underlings who fail to realize it. Its like Lake Wobegon where everybody is above average. High school honor rolls have way, way too many to believe they are at that level of proficiency. Its primary purpose is to look good–the bigger the numbers there the “better” the school system.
That’s true. Here is an article from a few years ago from the Rockford school dist.
https://www.wrex.com/news/13-investigates/13-investigates-rps-205-teachers-say-failing-students-still-get-moved-on-to-next-
grade/article_8b8b9850-7042-52d4-8301-530f0b8293c2.html
My taxes here are sky high mostly to the school dist and this is what people get for their hard earned money.
Seems to me when they graduate they will be totally qualified to be the next gen Illinois politician. They only need to learn 2 words from K-12 Raise Taxes.
Sorry-Link does not seem to work
https://www.wrex.com/news/13-investigates/13-investigates-rps-205-teachers-say-failing-students-still-get-moved-on-to-next-grade/article_8b8b9850-7042-52d4-8301-530f0b8293c2.html
My attempt failed to produce that article. But, I think you’d agree that what was once a fairly decent attempt by American schools to produce classically well educated students has drifted off that path in favor of social causes of a different sort. That may well ave its place, but the time devoted to these other causes detracts from the basics of readin’, writin’ and arithmetic–hence the decline of truly educated students in the sense of it meant long ago. Just try to learn what your son or daughter of high school age is learning in school and and hope… Read more »
Supporting social causes and other components of the woke complex is much easier than school, no studying; just be a loudmouth!
CPS is the greatest driver of the “ school to prison pipeline “.
If your interested it’s http://www.wrex.com search 13 investigates dated May 9,2019 and scroll to RPS 205 teachers say failing students still get moved to next grade.
Teachers who were willing to be interviewed anonymously call it “Social Promotion”
Sorry about the link
Sure, teachers like most employee ultimately have to yield to pressures or risk the consequences, and administrators have no tenure in those better-paid positions–only having it if willing to return to a teaching position. Administrators have to please the next-level boss, and even the Superintendent has to please the public! The squeaky wheel always, always gets the oil. A good part of the “oil” in public education is an inflated grading system.
If a schools’ enrollment keeps shrinking like CPS, and it’s predominately under-performing students that are leaving the school district, you’re going to see an improvement in graduation rates regardless.
The scam is cps, using covid and equity as a justification, has basically dropped testing and almost all performance metrics so anyone can get a worthless cps diploma at +$28,000 a student
“District officials say the five-year graduation rate for high school students is now 83.8%…”
<checks math>
A 50% increase over the last 10 years as Chicago has lost about a million white residents and replaced them with a million third Worlders.
They must really be growing them smart in the third world.
Shameless. For covid cps has basically abandoned all performance/ test metrics. All students, k to 8, are now automatically graduated to next grade. High school standards have been slashed, almost every kid is gaurenteeted a degree. Somthing called ‘equity scores’ can now replace test scores. Will cps keep dropping all test requirements after covid, im sure ctu will be all in for dropping test scores? A complete joke at +$28,000 a student.
Being teacher in CPS one has to learn the first rule. LIE, LIE, LIE.
No, the first rule is that to survive all the slings and arrows coming your way you have to realize as a teacher you can’t control many things impacting the skills, attitudes, behaviors nor work ethics of your students while also realizing you will be scape-goatted by the public in many such cases. Teachers must work in the real world where the public can’t agree on a proper mindset thus making solutions difficult to find and exacerbating problems that will be ever present.
Only 24% can read at grade level, but 84% graduate. Congratulations to CPS.
I am equally appalled and frustrated, but wouldn’t it be even worse if they failed 84%? First, there would be hell to pay all around politically. Then, they’d either have to hold back all those “students” and employ even more staff to “educate” them, or ………? To those who want CPU dead and buried, the rebuilding of another system wouldn’t likely be much better long-term and would take huge amounts of time to get off the ground, too. The community has to WANT their kids to be educated. All far too many want is for the kids to have a… Read more »
Exactly, boggles my mind when you see the parents against standardized testing. I’d like to know how my kid stacks up. Although on second thought I can see why some parents wouldn’t want to see how their kid stacks up.
I agree that cultural values of some communities need to change in order for education to be successful. But the hypocrisy and duplicity of teacher unions in the problem is on full display here. As I’ve pointed out before, unions have for decades supported policies that got us to this point; not only supported, but have insisted upon them. Unable or unwilling to make the connection, they complain about the results. But as shown by this self-congratulatory press release, they continue to give themselves kudos for “success”. At the same time, they demand more and more money to “fix” the… Read more »
“It won’t stop until the teachers stop supporting liberals.”
This would require a conservative infiltration of the educational industrial-complex. It would take decades for younger republicans to replace the older entrenched liberals. And the barriers to entry are high too – young conservatives looking to become teachers would need to first feed the beast – liberal academia – $100,000 or more to obtain the credentials for a teaching job. Education is really no different than a medieval guild that sets up financial and ideological barriers to entry specifically to exclude deplorables.