-- 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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Jimmy can’t read because: 1. English is difficult to read and 2. requires lot of consistent practice. Kids in CPS aren’t spending enough time at school or at home reading then then basically stop learning to read. English is really just a jumbled mess of several languages mashed together, which has gone through several massive changes in the past 1,500 years. We went from the mostly unwritten west Germanic language of Old English, which had latin letters imposed upon it. Old Germanic lost its most of its cases (me, my, mine) and all of its genders, and most of its… Read more »
So English has been a difficult language for several hundred years. Somehow we all learned to read. Until the last few generations.
Not everyone learned to read and write English until about the industrial revolution when it reached over 50% of males. Some theories suggest that widespread literacy in England is what may have brought about the industrial revolution itself. It wasn’t until modern times, with compulsory school attendance, that universal reading and writing came about. https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Literacy-in-England-1580-1920_fig3_228553349 My theory is that is they just aren’t teaching kids to read or write well in school. They aren’t reading at grade level because they aren’t being taught at grade level. These kids need extra help reading and writing because they don’t get help at… Read more »
How many Jimmy’s are going to school at CPS? A few dozen maybe?
Great article, thanks for posting.
So it turns out that memorizing words, cueing, and guessing don’t work at teaching children how to read? Who knew? Apparently not those with masters and doctorates in education.
Why Johnny Can’t Read was written in 1955. 68 years is a pretty long learning curve. Maybe we could try to improve on that?