If you live in Illinois, get the hell out before unions take every penny you have.
Illegal Vote Pandering
In Chicago, The Chicago Teachers’ Union is Pushing Students to Vote for Mayor Johnson’s Tax Hike.
The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) has announced a “Student Power Forum” taking place on Friday, March 15, which seemingly violates provisions of the Chicago Public Schools Code of Ethics.
In an email announcing the event, CTU Vice President Jackson Potter noted the union is “partnering” with Bring Chicago Home, culminating in a “Parade to the Polls, where students will march to an early voting site.”
Bring Chicago Home is the leading political advocacy organization campaigning in favor of Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s $100 million real estate transfer tax increase referendum, which appears on the March 19 ballot. The union has contributed at least $200,000 to Bring Chicago Home.
In his email, Potter writes, “to get involved, the only thing your school needs to do is provide the students!” He then asks teachers to “organize a group of voting age students…” to attend the event.
CTU Seeks $50 Billion
Please consider Cost? ‘Stop asking that question,’ says Chicago Teachers Union president Stacy Davis
“It’s gonna get a little hot in this city in the next few months” over contract negotiations with teachers. That’s from Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates’ address to the City Club of Chicago yesterday.
On that nasty subject of (dare I say this?) money, Gates was stridently indifferent. “They’re gonna say, ‘these are great proposals and can’t nobody pay for it and CTU with all of this, that and the other and who’s gonna pay for it, Stacy?’”
“Stop asking that question,” she said. “Ask another question.”This is in a city, mind you, that already spends an astonishing $29,000 per student, including all sources and money for the capital budget. And Chicago Public Schools already faces a $391 million deficit for next and nearly $700 million for the following year when “Covid relief” money will have run out.
The only way to stop this behavior is to eliminate the unions, totally.
Unless Chicago can rein in the unions they will suck the city dry.
Unfortunately, a corrupt Chicago mayor is in bed with the corrupt CTU. And the state is the most gerrymandered state in the nation. Springfield is in on the act.
There is really only one thing sensible you can do about it. Leave
To reiterate, there is no hope for Illinois. If you live in the state, get the hell out.
Public Unions Have No Business Existing: Even FDR Admitted That
To understand why public unions should never exist, please see Public Unions Have No Business Existing: Even FDR Admitted That
Democracy working its magic. The rot is fully secured and working its way through. The more we get, the more we want and to hell with the consequences. It’s worked so far so let’s keep going. Whether Illinois or California, it makes no difference. The system is doing exactly what it is designed around – human greed. Doesn’t matter whether socialist, capitalist or communist, greed rules and the system will be rigged to reward the greediest. Sit back with your popcorn because you ain’t gonna change it.
The overall education system in the US is a travesty and does not meet the needs of employers, parents, students, and society overall.
Comprehension, reading and writing ranks in the toilet per the below link nationally.
link to crossrivertherapy.com
It is not the teachers union that is causing this. It is endemic across the country. To argue that every local union is causing harm to the educational system is casting blame for every failure in an educational system that has multiple inputs. It is the fault of the national, state and local governments, the PTA, parents, teachers, school administrators, society, voters and the taxpayer.
This has been going on since the 1980s when the Reagan Administration published their study of student achievements. The study was called a “Nation at Risk”.
link to en.wikipedia.org
To solely blame teachers and their union for the lack of improvement in the US education system is akin to blaming the demise of the US manufacturing industry on the workers.
The blame starts with and in order every president, congress, governor, assembly, state senate, school board, school district, educator and bureaucrat.
This country started descending in 1973 and has continued since. We are now 50 years into this devolution. The US Empire is now a banana oligarchy governed by kleptocrats bought off by plutocrats and the sheeple have readily gone along with.
I am not blaming teachers although some are to blame. I am blaming teachers’ unions for protecting bad teachers and generally bankrupting the system
Got to disagree. You’re attacking the symptom, not the problem. You can demand whatever you like but who gives in to your demand and why? The union demands and the government caves because it has no financial incentive to reject. A company can go broke but a government can’t. (The regulations and laws don’t end – someone else has to enforce them.) The system whereby there’s no direct accountability is to blame and it’s not just in government and unions – it goes right to the top.
A public school education in Massachusetts is very expensive. Massachusetts ranks number 1 in the US by a number of measures including top math and reading scores, college admissions, SAT scores, low dropout rate, etc. Boston spends over $31,000.00 per public school pupil per year. Boston puts a very high priority on education. How does your state rank?
An innovative idea would be to turn Chicago into a laboratory to see how far an experiment can go. It would be funded by the NSF.
We got the hell out last month. The problem isn’t just Chicago. It spreads throughout the county (Crook County) and the suburbs. The property taxes are already outrageous. We had a small condo in IL. Our property taxes will be about the same for our new construction SF home in KS. Crook County taxes are also 10%. There is a tax and/or “fees” for everything. They charge $151 annually to get a sticker to renew your license plates.
seems like they can’t wait to turn this place into a waste land, I for the life of me can’t understand what’s the big hurry.
I live here now. Can’t wait to leave. I am going to leave as soon as humanly possible. It truly is the most corrupt state ever. And all the leftists in this state just keep going along like there is nothing wrong. Sort of like the USSR in the late 1980’s.
Like the USSR in the 1930’s.
This is why Islam flourish in Chicago and elsewhere in the US. Only Islam can save those mums and lift their kids. Chicago produced Obama’s most loyal and fearsome fighters. They spread all over the US. If elected they will wait for the orders to fight Trump again.
Those guys are sharpening their nails : robbing, stealing and killing protected and rewarded in the liberal enclaves.
Its not them. Recommend you review the HeyJackass site maps and addresses. They are not into special bathrooms, alphabet flags and costumed character story hours to kids, either.
The Muslims were in Bridgeview, Burbank, Worth, Oak Lawn, Chicago Ridge, Palos Hills, Orland Park, Justice, Hickory Hills, Tinley Park, Orland Hills, Oak Brook, etc. decades before Obama was mysteriously floated down the Chicago River in a basket. Surprised they have have not replaced Casten and Chuy with two of their own.
What also bothers me is that this person is in charge of such a large organization that is demanding a lot more money from taxpayers…..and her grammar is awful.
And the weather there is lousy, to boot.
Northern Haiti emerges.
Combat pay
If they linked the teachers salaries to the performance of the students on standardized tests the teachers would have to pay the taxpayers,
“To reiterate, there is no hope for Illinois. If you live in the state, get the hell out.”
It isn’t a simple matter for everyone to leave the state. At some point there will be an inflection. A Boston Tea Party moment, where enough is enough. Funny that Mayor Johnson’s first name is Brandon. He is already the “least popular incoming mayor in Chicago history…”
L.A’s KNX news radio just had a story about business owners threatening a tax strike in Oakland and mentioning that it could “spread down here.” Didn’t see final number, but Soros’s Gascon only had about 23% of the vote for D.A. in primary. No. 2 was right behind. In Pittsburgh, Defund the Police has resulted in a cut from 13,000 to 6,700 officers. Allegedly, there are only 22 on graveyard shift to patrol the city and there will be no officer manning the front desk at the 6 precincts during that time, till 7 am. Wake up call to residents.
Still, Gascon had the most votes of any candidate. Most of the population is dead from the neck up, they’ll trade their ballot for a $5 starbucks card.
This explains the incompetence in many of our institutions.
The Far Side comic strip by Gary Larson from Wednesday, March 13, 2024 | TheFarSide.com
That’s good advice. If the city goes bankrupt they’ll probably get bailed out by the Federal government, but it would be cool if they didn’t.
Poor
I have heard that for Chicago government workers to get their pensions, they have to live within the city. Maybe it is true or maybe it isn’t so perhaps someone here could inform me.
nawww….they move to Florida and vote blue!
Source?
Awww… my UBA not sufficient? 🙂
Here’s the CTU summary rules…doubtful we can find a statement “you can live anywhere to collect your pension”. Living in the city is sometimes required for PD/FD, aldermen, etc but for retirement … yikes, is that ever a requirement? I believe we do lose medicare and maybe SS by living overseas. Maybe a good idea to keep the $$ in the city!
link to ctpf.org
I had heard it was true but wanted someone to confirm it. In Florida I have never met any retired govt workers from Chicago.
The SSA will provide your benefit no matter which country you reside in – except probably Cuba, North Korea, now Russia (?), etc, etc.
You also don’t lose Medicare by being an expat. You simply have to come back to the US to be able to use it..
Not true for pensions.
Active cops and fire have to live in the city 😉 Teachers hired since a certain year as well.
The ignorant and poor can’t lift up the ignorant and poor. Only drag each other down further. The only real solution is never go in these communities and cities. If one is already there get out. No try.
link to youtube.com
The stupid people in power have a lot of things in common, but intelligence is not one of them.
Within a few years commodities traders will move elsewhere. Chicago is a liberal ghetto. It’s the epicenter of shingle mums. The teachers are the nannies. They are caregivers. They cannot do much for them. They save them from the streets.
If it wasn’t for Reagan’s budget cuts 40 years ago all of these ‘teachers’ would be in mental institutions.
s
To put this cost in context, I live in a high achieving suburban school district southeast of Cleveland, OH, where we spend $16,000 per student. Where is Chicago’s money going?
Let Chicago be Chicago. The outcome will be a cautionary tale to everyone else. I think the city is an excellent case study on the merits of progressive policy, and we need to watch and learn so everyone can ask the question.
Is that the kind of place I want to live
The problem is, progressives don’t learn. They just fled from the mess they create and then rinse and repeat.
Progressives don’t need to learn. Everyone else does.
Free money is an irresistible force. The voters may not agree with the teacher labor cartel, but they are addicted to the free money already given to them. They will never support anyone who promises less than free money.
They are progressing to “Idiocracy”.
I agree with your sentiment, but the word isn’t “progressing” but “degenerating.”
🙂
IL state has the lowest GO rating of any state at BBB. It has underfunded pension obligations in the tens of billions with little hope of closing the gap. I have seen an analysis that households ultimately to be tapped to fund such deficits will face funding requirements in the 7-digit range.
Ineffective state budgeting, poor educational results, high crime rates, business exodus and high tax rates seemingly place the state in a doom loop. But, no matter, state keeps electing Dems.
Are you suggesting union corruption and progressives who are owned by the unions doing nothing about it? Are you suggesting that the union cares about the union and not the teachers or students … say it ain’t so!!
Yes Unions and government employees are cut from the same parasitic cloth.
Sign of the times as the country moves closer and closer to socialism …
Imagine this woman was once a teacher.
Student- Who President of the United States in 1492?
Stacey Davis- Stop asking that question.
Given the costs, one should ask: what is the quality of the product being delivered by this well compensated bunch? From what I could gather, not so good. Only 26% could read at grade level and only 18% could do math at grade level. Perhaps their compensation should match their teaching ability. Seems like a massive reduction in wages and benefits is called for. Problem solved!
The quality of the students is not that good and getting worse.
Yes, there is that too. But one begets the other. It’s a chicken egg thing.
It is easier and quicker to make a fried egg than to roast a chicken.
This is a valid point. Nothing will get even a majority of these kids to perform at grade level.
Years ago a research project followed kids from Kindergarden to High School. Poor black kids tested at the bottom of the general population of kids.
They stayed there through out all the grade levels. If they got lots of extra coaching they reached up to the class average. When the extra attention stopped they slipped back to the bottom. You can’t blame the schools for the bad job their parents did preparing their kids for a school based education. It is the parents that are the root cause. But they vote so they nothing happens and they blame the schools.
I’m sorry but citing grade level is meaningless horse droppings. Even if kids meet grade level that just means that they have reached a mediocre low bar that the US education system sets. What is grade level in the US is a D minus grade in other countries that have far higher standards and kids are significantly more proficient on nearly every metric.For example the kids in many Asian nations have passed the grade level that 12 year old American kids are expected to meet at age 10. This is done with budgets per student that are a fraction of what is spent on US kids.
(Avoid splitting an infinitive. Try instead “For example, the kids in many Asian nations at age 10 have passed the grade level that 12 year old American kids are expected to meet two grades later.”)
Agreed. But the point still stands. The product sucks!
Whenever recruiters approach me with job openings in Illinois, I tell them, “NEVER!”
I had a couple approach me. I always said negotiations start at 500k a year plus benefits. I figured to live in Illinois I needed to make enough to retire and move out quickly. It’s California without the scenery.
Some years ago when I was somewhat willing to work in Illinois I vacationed across it, and stopped for the night at a motel on the highway south of Rockford IL. I discussed all this with the motel manager, and she said to not venture into Rockford west of the north-south road her motel is located on.
Not only are taxes bad most everywhere in Illinois, but race relations in Illinois cities are horrible.