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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, that means, the majority of teachers are doing mostly nothing. Seems like they should have plenty of time to develop updated course plans to be used in a distance learning environment. Perhaps they could use their extraordinary knowledge and extensive training in education to explore new ways of teaching in a remote environment…given they have this time and opportunity and are, after all, being paid. Who am I kidding, if that work isn’t spelled out in their contract…it isn’t happening.
Its all about the kids.
Don’t give such a broad-brush negative attitude to this topic at this time. It depends upon the immediate district’s leadership, the general work ethic there and that of individual employees just as is the case for any other organization you’d care to name. Believe me that some are working furiously to do all of it while others likely are not. Such is life. You can’t dictate devotion to any cause. All you can do is hope to inspire it.
I totally agree. Yes, the ranks are dominantly freeloaders and their public unions are despicable, but some government workers and many teachers are true public servants, working hard under horrible circumstances.
“but some government workers and many teachers are true public servants, working hard under horrible circumstances. “
…that’s called doing your job, having a work ethic. We all sometimes work under bad circumstances. Don’t bother showing up for work unless you plan on doing it right and doing it well. Our puritanical work ethic is what differentiates Americans from, you know, the Greeks and Italians.
If you think “the ranks are dominantly freeloaders,” think I think you’re wrong. You’re likely right if you are thinking of major cities all over the United States, but that happens for a whole variety of reasons most people can’t begin to comprehend simply because they’ve never “been there, done that.” Its all to easy to carp about someone else’s efforts from the outside while not knowing the factors responsible, many of which are well beyond the scope of individual employees to even begin solving. If you think your statement applies to smaller districts from suburbia or even much smaller… Read more »
And I thought my posts were wordy! “but when the factors against education locally are so numerous and so powerful in the collective mindset that the odds of having a successful school systems elsewhere are far less likely.” Seriously? Democrats run the education systems in most major cities in America, they’ve had total control for decades, generations, in Chicago the CTU has been in control for a century, and all your ilk can say is that there are factors against education? No, when you have a century to get something right, and it still sucks: IT’S YOU, NOT THEM. Stop… Read more »
The dominating political party may well strongly influence who gets hired at the top levels of the entire school district and particularly so when such decision have to pass political muster as is true of Chicago. On the other hand, they don’t hold sway over the hiring of individual teachers except in the rarest of cases where some special reaons apply. In the era of the Great Depression it was more as you’ve stated where jobs were filled with local politics playing a major role even to the point of hiring and firing teacher who were then replaced by family… Read more »
Also, I have to say your argument is something essentially far more meaningful to those who make widgets. In those cases doubling the cost or amount of a resource has readily quantifiable and almost directly predictable doubling of the expected product-numbers outcome. In education you are dealing with the human psyche where input “a” might well produce output “b” in some students. But, just as likely it will produce the rest of the alphabet in numbers of outcomes just as well. In short, human behaviors are far from totally predictable even when then input is essentiallly the same from student… Read more »
How does or does cps track if are hero ctu teachers are logged-in or on the job?? Or just vacationing in Venezuela?
Curious. Are they teaching the LBGTQ required classes online? If they do it would be called- hint begins with P and ends with N.
100% of union-taught CPS students couldn’t calculate 60% of 100
I’m honestly surprised the number was that high.