In Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s budget cuts, the ax fell most heavily on teachers of the arts, physical education, bilingual education, foreign languages, special education, and librarians.
The next time the Chicago mayor goes on a national television talk show to boast of his dedication to children and education reform, remember his priorities and if you have the chance, ask if he would want this kind of bare-bones education for his own children.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Of course they wouldn’t. That is the plan. One education for the few; another for the masses. The few are the rich.
An interesting article on pensions in Chicago in today’s NYT.
Even better comment:
Unlike in many cities, the pension crisis in Chicago is real. But keep in mind that the blame here lies not with public servants, but with the City which has failed to make adequate contributions to those pensions for years.
The Chicago Public School pension fund is a perfect example. CPS teacher retirees don’t receive Social Security. Instead, they pay 9% of their salary into the pension fund. The average retiree paid into the system for 28 years and receives an average pension of $42k per year. 27% get less than $30k per year.
The problem is that starting in 1995, CPS was allowed to divert its annual pension contribution to its operating budget. Over the next decade, $2 billion was diverted, and from 2010 through 2013, another $1.2 billion was diverted. All this happened at the same time that Chicago gave away billions to developers and sports team owners through TIF funds and other subsidies, while undermining revenues through scam privatization of the city parking meters and the Skyway. $387 million went to Soldiers’ Field, $200 million went to the White Sox who pay no property taxes, and now $125 million is proposed for a new basketball stadium for DePaul University.
The City wants to privatize Midway Airport. That’s a bad idea, but if it goes through, the money should be used to protect pensions for public employees, not to more wasteful corporate subsidies.
I was curious about the range of pension payments reported in the article. Your figures seem lower than those in the article, but you are reporting the average of current pension recipients. Is it possible that the NYT article is reporting future pension obligations?
The comment I clipped has a web link.
Here’s another take on pensions versus bankers:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/08/06/fleecing-pensioners-to-save-the-banks/
Given the figures you quoted, I was wondering if you had some insight into this passage of the NYT article:
A change in pension benefits could affect more than 70,000 people who worked as Chicago police officers, teachers, firefighters and others, and who now receive average annual benefits ranging from about $34,000 for a general-services retiree to $78,000 for a former teacher with 30 years of service.
Any ideas about the differences in the figures?
here’s the original article for all to read:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/06/us/chicago-sees-pension-crisis-drawing-near.html?pagewanted=all
And here is the author of the comment:
http://bpicampus.com/2013/08/06/morning-feature-comments-on-public-pensions-janet-yellen-neoconservatives-and-voting-rights/
These are the things parents said they wanted most while being railroaded into Rahmpulstiltskins’s longer school day. “We were promised a better day, not just a longer one, and that’s out the window,” Potter said. “And that means you’re seeing 98 art programs either very much reduced or eliminated.”
Sick that Emanuel, Pritzker, and Obama sent their kids to the University of Chicago Lab School, with arts, music, sports, foreign languages, and an excellent library. For our kids they want nothing but math and reading drills for standardized tests.
Matt Farmer gave a great speech comparing the Lab School to public schools:
And the Lab School treats teachers with dignity:
http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/uofc-university-lab-schools-respect-teachers-ucls/Content?oid=9579479
That was awesome. Thanks for posting.
I keep saying that when it is election time, be it for President, Governor, Mayor, State Superintendent, State School Board, local superintendent or local School Board, we’ve got to get to know the candidates and vote for those who are education friendly. We also need to encourage education friendly people to run for the various offices which have an effect on education. Also, those who are in the know about a candidate’s position regarding education have to help educate the rest of the people. Any pink slipped art teacher in Chicago interested in running for office?
A pox upon them!
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Emanuel’s candidate of choice in the upcoming governor’s race is one of the Republicans, Bruce Rauner. who cut Emanuel in on the investment banking racket years ago and who stands to benefit from the massive move to charter schools in Chicago. Ironically, Rauner got his daughter into Walter Payton College Prep, one of the elite public schools in Chicago, by buying a second apartment in the City to use as an address (he lives in the suburbs) and then calling in a favor from Arne Duncan, then head of the Chicago Public School system, because her test scores were subpar. Different rules for the elite.
In my township the retired superintendent’s pension was figured after adding his vacation pay and sick days was added to his total salary. The pension was figured on this new salary total. And you wonder why the pension system is broken.