Totaling the unsustainable tax increases and windfall revenue during Pritzker Administration – Wirepoints
May 26, 2026
10 Comments
With $162 billion more from taxpayers, couldn’t you deliver a few bond upgrades, too
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A largely unasked question is becoming glaring: Is Illinois doing all it should to use artificial intelligence to make government cost less and work better? So far, the evidence says no.
In retirement I’d gladly try my hand at teaching math, metal machining, woodshop, computer programming, electronics engineering, or arduino / raspberry pi robotics, basically making things, all subjects I know. But I’m not putting up with the bull$hit of licensing, unions, etc. I think I’d be a fun teacher. Call me.
What your studens want more than anything else is to be entertained. Is that part of your resume? If so, emphasize it. Having knowledge and experience are desirable qualities, but the ability to mesmerize the majority of your students for most of those 180-or-so is a different matter unless you are truly magnetic personality. Don’t forget no one is holding up cue cards for you, and there is no editing-out your bad moments since you only get one try for every thing you do. Its a do-it-now kind of job with no rerun rights for selling your best performances or… Read more »
There is a movie showing Monday March 14th for one day only nationwide named, “Whose Children Are They?” – “Exposing the Hidden Agenda in America’s Schools.”
http://www.fathomevents.com/events/Whose-Children-Are-They
http://www.cnsnews.com/article/national/michael-w-chapman/new-documentary-exposes-critical-race-theory-radical
http://www.discovery.org/education/2022/02/23/whose-children-are-they-exposing-the-hidden-agenda-in-americas-schools
No clue how the movie will be distributed after March 14th.
Perhaps the movie will shed light on why there might be some teacher shortages.
The state and Federal legislators, JB Pritzker, the woke, transgender and race mania, utopian ideals, Ponzi Scheme TRS, COVID fear, and authoritarianism ruined public education. There have been radical changes in the last 10 years. Browse the new book section in the school library and local public library. Be sure to hit the elementary, middle school, and high school stacks. Take pictures with your phone because you have to see it to believe it. Heaven help all the garbage kids encounter on a daily basis on the internet and social media. Feminine hygiene products in the boys room to appease… Read more »
There is not enough information in the article to make a judgment about how to fix it. Is there a shortage of high school math and science teachers? That would be very different from a shortage of 2nd grade teachers. I suspect it is the former, which is why the article is so vague.
This is not brain surgery. Don’t allow them to collect a pension until 62, 65 or 67. Just like every other person that’s not a state of Illinois employee and has to wait to collect social security. And if their teaching position is so horrible they can find another job until they reach 62, 65 or 67. My guess is when they see what the private sector pays they’ll decide to teach a few more years. Some people have much crappier jobs than teachers and they don’t get a pension.
“Don’t allow them to collect a pension until 62, 65 or 67″
This has already been done for tier 2 teachers. You can’t do that for tier 1 teachers and you can’t go back and change their contractual rights. This has been covered for years. it’s not brain surgery.
If the private sector pays so poorly compared to teaching then I would imagine that we will see a flood of people switching careers. Since that’s not happening, teaching must not be as lucrative as you’ve been led to believe.
The grass is always greener elsewhere.
The benefit for Tier 2 teachers can be enhanced at any time.
As for Tier 1, clearly subtracting six years from achieving full vesting (4 years from the 2.2 upgrade plus another 2 years for unused sick days) has finally caught up to us. If you shortened the tenure of every profession by 15-20% like we did for teaching, we’d have shortages everywhere.
Or, maybe, there is no teacher shortage.
About 88% of all teachers leave the profession without ever maxing out their pension. Teachers are leaving well before the 35 year mark. The shortage is caused from the job itself not from the 12 out of 100 teachers that are able to retire after 35 years of service.
You don’t need to teach for 35 years for full vesting. 32 + 2 years of accrued sick days will get you to full vesting. And everyone leaving before full vesting, especially those under 20 years) have pensions 25-30% larger than they would have been otherwise had it not been for the 2.2 enhancement. Early leaves used to be penalized. Not anymore. Makes it a lot easier to leave. According to USDOL, teachers (public education) are the least likely profession to leave their jobs across all sectors of the economy. And it’s probably even less than reported because they lump… Read more »
My teacher friend used sick days and a settlement over a workers comp claim to get full vesting with 31 years (on paid leave of absence for two years while the workers comp claim). As PPF says, it is all in the contract. By all accounts, she was a great teacher and a rigorous U of I grad. But bridging to full years apparently is not uncommon.
PPF – you are correct, even if it is a pain to repeat. I mentioned the son of a retired teacher friend of mine. Not sure she understands his predicament. She retired at 55 with an 85k per annum payout – certainly much more than that now after 7 years. Tier 2 is really a mediocre, if not worse than that, deal for him. He has a young family (twin boys), and has to endure Illinois taxes and low economic growth for years while, given diversity initiatives, having little chance to move to administration (he was an assistant superintendent at… Read more »
For most, most, many, lots the definition of a substitute teacher is overly paid babysitter. I know several people who have found the sub path in education. 1st hour, physics, 2nd hour, French, 3rd hour, honors chemistry, 4th hour Spanish, etc. Different subjects multiple times a day and they are experts or degreed in none of them. Take attendance, read notes from real teacher for students, sit back and play on phone or tablet. Another tough day at the office.
Its much like being a sub for any other job where a particular ongoing agenda and area of expertise applies but impossible to accomodate without a cadre of such people applying. You act as if its an easily solvable problem. It isn’t in most cases, so you get what you get.
“Take attendance, read notes from real teacher for students, sit back and play on phone or tablet. Another tough day at the office.” If it’s so easy and the pay is right then we should have an over abundance of substitute teachers. Yet, 96% of the school districts report a substitute teaching shortage problem. Very confusing. Maybe all the people on this site that think teaching is so lucrative and easy need to step up and collect some of that easy money. These same people complain constantly about taxes and gas prices so I’m sure they could use the money.… Read more »
I’d give the majority of them a “career” of less than 10 days! Talk is cheap.
I agree the job is tougher than it appears. Not sure if absorbing misery is a great job skill but it is real.
Pensions are so lucrative now (especially in suburban districts) that you’re not going to attract retired teachers. The side money isn’t worth it. In other words, pension enhancements have had a detrimental effect on the substitute teacher market.
Sure, someone that has properly saved for retirement won’t need to take whatever peanuts you throw at them. What a concept.
Maybe substitute pay will need to increase to make it worth it. That’s how our economic model works.
Didn’t say sub salaries should not be increased. But that is the direct byproduct of increasingly lucrative pensions.
“increasingly lucrative pensions.”
Pensions have been reduced from tier 1 to tier 2. Not sure what you mean increasingly. The more generous pensions are baked in. You can’t do anything about them. It is their money. It’s time to get over it and move on.
I get your point though. If we had paid these employees less and didn’t allow them to have a retirement, then they would take whatever low wage we offer. Unfortunately, these pensioners have a choice so society will need to offer more money.
A pension is not officially reduced until a Tier 2 employee retires and that pension is less than their Tier 1 equivalent. Until then, which could be decades for some, it’s all just paper.
They’re maybe even toilet paper eventually in the world of evolving laws and rules where governments work.