-- 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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I can certainly understand a shortage in the Chicago School District but in the Naperville not so much. Perhaps the shortages are due to the behavioral issues of the students that make up the student body populations and or the parents of said students. Teachers want to teach; not referee an assortment of misbehaved individuals with a lack of home training..
The teacher shortage will self-correct if we eliminate students who are unmotivated and/or disruptive. The next step is to stop promoting students who aren’t at grade level in their studies. Schools are to educate learners. They shouldn’t be used as child-care centers that enable parent(s) to work. Similar rule: Libraries are for those who read, research and study. Libraries are not homeless shelters or warming centers (or, for that matter, cooling centers)! I get that the disruptive and the stupid and the poor and the sick may not be personally “at fault” for their circumstances. And I generally believe that… Read more »
I agree with you, but with regard to your first two paragraphs I have to say you are dreaming for a U. S. A. long gone and likely never to return. Tax supported education in the U. S. has become a whole set of responsibilities and priorites well beyond academics and even to the point of placing academic achievement as an “also ran” among them, a matter of lesser importance if truth be known. All you have to do is listen to the sentence structure of notable “successful” people to realize they often are not truly well educated in the… Read more »
I agree, but the teachers unions and their politics have been a primary cause of this situation. Just read the list of demands the CTU submitted as conditions to be met this year. The teachers are the ones who veered far off the mission. It was not imposed on them; in fact, they have done everything in their power to bring about the state of affairs we see today.
I do agree to some extent, but don’t forget that local school boards, mayors and state officials also weigh forth with their own polically inspired pressures and rules. Ultimately the schools get what the communities either want or are pressured to happen.
I’d qualify your “long gone” as being true in major cities from which those who value education have fled. And notwithstanding the labeling of those people as racists, much of the flight was because of the schools. “Schools” can be a buzzword for disorder, crowding, racial prejudice, and there are many who continue to throw stones at those emigrating parents. However districts that have good schools continue to attract parents. And those districts exist. Good schools increase demand for housing in the district and that pushes housing values up so the association of good public schools with wealthy white people… Read more »
Libraries also should not be used as a baby sitting service.
Yes, I agree. But, really baby-sitting is really one of the most basic—although generally unspoken—functions of the libraries and public schools, isn’t it? Courts have long said that students have a “right to receive an education.” That supplanted the earlier notion among the more educated citizenry that receiving an education at oublic expense was a priviledge rather than a right. Soon educational excellence started hitting the skids big-time with courses watered-down for the slowest students present. There are exceptions as you’ve mentioned, places where the students and parents truly strive. Most parents and students elsewhere don’t care to put forth… Read more »
Our baby-sitters never earned $80K per year plus benefits.
I think they ought to get a stronger union, don’t you?
Multiple reasons for the shortage of teachers. Funny they don’t list allowing them to collect a pension at 55 as one of them.
Not anymore, the Tier II teachers get shafted, they’re paying for Tier II to retire at 55. They all know that too.
Tier 2 can retire at 58 after 20 year vesting
I think its well known that most college students seldom think about retirement benefits as a high priority when thinking about a prospective career. That implies there are more pressing reasons they choose not be teachers. You’re ignoring that and focusing on something that’s of lesser concern at that age. There are other higher prioroity reasons at play here for their career decisions. Those need to be addressed.
Maybe those with the capability and interest in teaching STEM subjects prefer not to surrender themselves to the world of the insane left wing woke AKA teacher unions.
Is it any surprise that our education system is not producing qualified math and science teachers? Too busy looking for systemic racism, white supremacists, and the root causes of gun violence.