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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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Yep, typical education discussion. Always broke. Never enough funding. Increased spending and no change in the students performance. But hey, that’s Ok, we can’t really expect actual measurable Performance and results. No no, we don’t want to be measured or evaluated in any way…No…just shut up and pay mr tax payer. As an added scam, lets have the funding for “education” – “all about the Kids” come from a variety of sources…but, all from the tax payer Lets make up a bunch of other programs to send money to schools to make it more difficult to trace – like this… Read more »
If you are willing to have every low performing school’s children set free to roam the streets at will each day instead there will be heavy prices there for all taxpayers to pay as well. There is no free lunch here!
Did you intend that as a threat of what pain will be inflicted on us if schools aren’t given exactly what they demand? Because it sure sounds like one.
I remember taking my kids to Navy Pier Winterfest when they were little. It was a great way to let the kids have some fun indoors with all kinds of bounce houses and activities. We would usually go on a school day as to avoid crowds. In the early afternoon a large number of police officers started showing up and I asked them why the large show of force? They simply responded that once school gets out this type of environment becomes much less safe. I don’t believe James was threatening as much as he was just stating facts. If… Read more »
Nope. I was merely pointing out at least one obvious problem to your glib remark. Solutions that seem easy usually come with costs that offset the advantage anticipated. Life isn’t always so easy in the fast lane after all is said and done.
Nope James, Not at all suggesting they get turned loose to roam the streets. All these kids should get a real education – we absolutely agree on that. The value for the dollar spent just isn’t there. The quality for the amount of money spent isn’t there. In other businesses, the quality of the product would get evaluated and improved if it was low quality, but that evaluating and improving just doesn’t seem to happen in the education business. The industry keeps doing the same things and thinking more cash is the answer. Clearly it is not.
Okay, that’s nicely said. But, it never seems to occur to the nay-sayers that the process of “educating” people and doing so in group situations is harder than it seems to those who never had to do it. First, what does “educating” someone really mean in practical terms? It means changing that person’s point of view or observable behavior somewhat permanently. Now, tell me, how many times in your life have you been able to do that? Have you done it with your siblings, for example? Mostly it’s a failed mission. You are lucky if you have anyone in your… Read more »
James, you seem like a nice person. Do you really not understand that explaining that teaching is too difficult is not gaining sympathy from those of us who pay the salaries? It only makes us wonder why we keep paying people who clearly tell us they can’t do the job. And it makes us wonder why we cannot look for other people who can teach these kids.
Sure. Good luck at finding any who will take on that job for your idea of a good wage while teaching things that many of your students will think as irrelevant now or ever in their lives. Whatever your job is it’s got to be easier!
Well, I get what you are saying, but I truly believe that school districts are trying to do too much. They are trying to become all things to all people, providing services and taking on responsibilities that are just not something they should be doing. Teaching English, Math, History, Government and other old time mundane topics is all school should provide. The curriculum has changed to a point that teachers are trying to “change a persons point of view.” I get what you are saying, connecting with the student is difficult and seeing a student get it and be excited… Read more »
You seem to get the general aura of public education these days—school personnel being involved in the totality of students’ lives. Superficially it seems laudable, but that’s such an encompassing view as to make focusing on the basics only one mission rather than superior to the others. Students are supposed to feel good about their lives somewhat automatically rather than having to work towards it as is the case in adulthood. When a a school has multiple honor rolls the vast majority will find their names there easily enough on occasion, for example. Who needs to learn about Chaucer, Archimedes,… Read more »
Ha! Oh…Come on you picked a topic that has a super limited level of interest, but valuable learning non-the-less. I am just talking about making sure we teach English skills, how to write a sentence, public speaking, math, History and government. Make sure the students know about the geography of their Country and the world, how many stars and stripes are on the US flag and why….how many states are there and can name them…who is president and vice president and how elections work, how government is funded and how laws are made, etc. They may not care about any… Read more »
A good perspective on the program from a teachers standpoint
As a Naive College Student, I Fell for the Mission of Teach for America
https://www.edsurge.com/news/2023-02-15-how-teach-for-america-crushed-my-passion-for-teaching#:~:text=Unsustainable%20Practices%20Lead%20to%20Burnout%20and%20Turnover&text=But%20TFA%20schools%20often%20experience,teacher%20turnover%20administered%20by%20Dr.
Representative Wilhour your comment “ funding, like a lot of education funding, doesn’t go to the classroom” seems to make a good point to me. One might think that the funding should go to directly hiring teachers and aides in the classroom. My guess is though that the funding has to support multiple layers of administrators and their support staff first and whatever is left over hits the classroom meaning when the funding pie is divided up the classroom gets the smallest slice. . We so often hear the statistics of pupils per teacher but for once I would like to… Read more »
To fund the lavish retirements of former teachers now living in red states. Old Joe has two of them (husband and wife) now living in Florida on about 175K annually courtesy of Michigan taxpayers.
I once complained and they told me I didn’t choose wisely!
They told you the truth, and you didn’t want to hear it. So you now suffer the consequences. Next time around you’ll be smarter. Generally speaking you only get no more than you demand from your employer.
James, I couldn’t agree with you more. Can’t blame the teachers for seeing an opportunity and jumping in to a great program. Tax payer’s beef is with the rocket scientist legislators who when along with the pension program. Where a school board can pay a superintendent as much as they want, that drives the pension costs through the roof…but then doesn’t have any responsibility to pay the pension…the state has to pay the high pension. So, there is no incentive for the Local School boards to care about their high end salary decisions…no down stream problem for them… Pretty sweet… Read more »
Yes, they are the epitome of ignorant arrogance.
Most of us chose professions in which we had to produce results in order to be compensated. We didn’t whine that we couldn’t be expected to do our jobs. If we had, our employers would have found somebody else who could perform.
They are proud of themselves for having held children hostage in order to extort their taxpayer parents. In that goal, they have given a stellar performance.
175k? That seems low for a couple. But yes, life is filled with choices. These teachers dedicated their careers to teaching and they joined a union to collectively bargain to get the best compensation package. Others spend their time railing against unions and living their life with regret and jealousy. Choose wisely!
And they have a special corner in hell awaiting them. Long time no comments PPF. Welcome back.
Awesome. A special place just because they negotiated a fair wage. At least they won’t have to spend time with the every day residents of hell.
Negotiated behind closed doors with no input from the people footing the bill is NOT negotiation. It is extortion. Plain and simple. And the worst part is they use CHILDREN to extort money. Disgraceful.
Couldn’t we say that any other workers who demand better wages for a commonly needed product such as clothing or cars also are guilty of extortion? It seems to me the net you are casting captures far more fish than you had sought. When does wage negotiation become extortion in such cases?
Your definition of extortion doesn’t matter in the real world. The voters elect representation to negotiate on their behalf and the members of the union vote for their representation. These are fairly negotiated contracts that the people of Illinois support through our own constitution. Plain and simple.