-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
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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Yup 5 year plan rape the taxpayers
A five year plan for Chicago Public Schools? Are they calling it GOSPLAN? It will probably be just as successful.
Without even reading the article I felt somehow it was going to be about money. Then when reading it there it was in the very last line “[next year] the district faces a more than $500 million deficit.” So, cutting all through all that rhetoric and, getting to the root of it all, Chicago schools need more money.
They always do. They have never had a funding problem. Always a spending problem and the spending is on themselves!
If the achievers make the underachievers feel bad, then by all means bring the achievers down, don’t bring the underachievers up.
Chicago Public Schools is an oxymoron.
In other words, we want to make sure that the children of the people who vote for us are as uneducated and unemployable as their parents. We acknowledge that these children cannot be educated so we will change the definition of educated. That way, we can all continue to keep our phoney baloney jobs while at the same time, continuing to do nothing. After all, its for the children. If you think any of this benefits the children or education, please call yourself and idiot and save the rest of us the effort.
How about student achievement based teacher pay?
So, teachers who have been assigned Honors classes or simply the occasional higher-than-average-intelligence class automatically receive higher wages while those who almost always have to struggle with low-intelligence and/or continually disruptive students surely will never do so. I don’t think your simplistic pay plan—while maybe popular here— is nearly as desirable as you do. It’s one that might well appeal to adults generally and certainly “bottom line” factory managers who can hire and fire at will. Educational systems have to deal with students of all kinds of mindsets other than their own academic progress as the one of most concern… Read more »
What if they were paid on improvement? Are you suggesting certain groups of students are incapable of improvement? If so, you might be right, but it sure blows the education shibboleth of all students are learners out of the water.
I’m suggesting some young people don’t easily fit into the norm of white middle class America’s expectations. They haven’t the same sets of priorties and behaviors as students of those kinds of parents. Educators are like soliders going to war in a sense: its been said you have to go to war with what you have rather than what you want. Pound on the disadantaged lower socioeconomic students all you want; they’ll largely ignore all of that and go through life as they see fit. Its similar to trying to pound a post hole in into the ground with a… Read more »
Your bad apple analogy is a good argument for school choice. Get your kid out of the school that has all the bad apples. When I went to school there was always a bad apple, but usually only one. They were usually put in the hall or sent to the principals office. I can see how that wouldn’t work when it’s several bad apples. Maybe CPS needs to start dividing these kids up, kids that want to learn and have the ability, kids that want to learn but have less ability and kids that don’t want to learn and have… Read more »
As I’ve said at times on earlier postings much of the problem occurs because of pressure brought to bear upon children as to what courses to take at the high school level in particular in order to be successful. That’s because of college entrance requirements and state high school graduation requirements that say that students should have passed courses x, y and z to enter the freshman year at college. What if the student has no interest in such courses? Well, the reality is that high school counselors bring pressure to bear upon that student and the parents such that… Read more »
Is the same James that usually posts here? This must be a new James, because this makes so much sense, articulated in a way I’ve never heard the old James say it.
The Bible says two blind men encountered an elephant. Each described the elephant from their brief encounter with it to the other making it seem as if there were two different animals. Get the drift, Bubba?
I failed to respond to your first sentence, and I apologize. I think that’s likely a good idea. But, what shall we do to measure it? I have a simple way which sometimes can be done by a long-term teacher: give the final exam twice, once at the beginning, then at the end. At the first attempt it’s primarily going to be guess responses at best and random at worst. At the end, knowledge plays a better role and improves the results presumably. But it has a major flaw if it’s known in advance by the students as a factor… Read more »
Your input is appreciated. A real glimpse into the education complex. Your job strikes me as a bit odd – but odd in the sense it is really difficult. If I recall you have a very good education and considerable experience. So with the cohort of “good students”, my guess is those students are fortunate to have you and in a sense you know it because they learn and objective measures support it. No need to deflect the compliment- I would bet money on your effectiveness. However, with another group, it appears that progress is limited no matter your competence.… Read more »
I know about equity only vaguely and have never had to deal with it in a formal high-expectation sense. Surprising as it may seem to some here basically I tend to agree with most commenters’ views on that time and think while the end results seem desirable getting there will take decades of effort in getting society as a whole to buy into it. What do we do with kids who can’t master the basics? That’s the great unsolvable, it would seem, or somewhere a school system would be doing it to great fanfare, although somewhere there may be a… Read more »
How about they skip all the woke gibberish and teach students to read, write, and do math?
Pity the children!
I blame the parents. Skip the new car, expensive vacation and latest smart phone. Demand school choice or move to a state with it if you can. Send your children to a private school and stay involved. At a minimum move out past the Fox Valley where the schools are a bit better and stick to STEM recognized schools. Your children will be much further ahead in life.
Private schools are expensive and many are equally as bad, especially the fancy ones. The entire educational industrial complex is poisoned and toxic. The ‘Always Vote Blue No Matter Who’ libtards will almost always outvote parents at school board elections. I swear every parent in my town showed up to try and vote out several libtard members of the chool board but they had 50% more turnout, and won 60/40 over actual parents. There’s been a number of issues in my town, once recently, where the school paid for a study about a certain school related issue and most parents… Read more »
They will close “the equity gap” by making the white kids dumber. Like true socialists they want everyone to be equally poor and equally dumb.