Teachers in Wisconsin warn public sector workers in Illinois: Billionaire Bruce Rauner will be your Scott Walker.

Categories Illinois, Teachers

17 Comments Post your own or leave a trackback: Trackback URL

Liz Picone says:

October 28, 2014 at 11:13 am

I clicked on the link and it states the video has been removed…interesting!

LikeLike

Reply
Michael Fiorillo says:

October 28, 2014 at 11:40 am

Illinois and Chicago teachers face a terrible dilemma: if elected, Rauner will be their Scott Walker, and Paul Vallas will be their Paul Vallas.

LikeLike

Reply
George N. Schmidt says:

October 28, 2014 at 12:15 pm

This at first sounds plausible, but is nonsense. Scott Walker’s power in Wisconsin came from the fact that he had Republican majorities in both houses of the state legislature. When elected, Bruce Rauner will be facing Democratic majorities in both houses of the Illinois General Assembly. If there is truly a separation of powers in Illinois, then every predation of Bruce Rauner will be blocked. This campaign about how bad things might get under Bruce Rauner in Illinois is basically a cover up for all the things Pat Quinn has already done to betray Illinois and Chicago teachers (and retirees, of whom I am one). Pat Quinn didn’t even have the courtesy to talk with Karen Lewis or any of us at CTU before he saved Paul Vallas’s career by naming Vallas as his running mate. Unlike Rauner, Quinn has a record — of attacks on teacher (and other public worker) pensions, of collaboration with those who want to foist Race To The Top policies on schools across the state, and of course with the State Board of Educaition.

Pat Quinn not only selected Paul Vallas as his running mate, but appointed Vallas’s old buddy Gery Chico as President of the illinois State Board of Education (ISBE). Vallas and Chico were the pioneers of corporate “school reform” and mayoral control here in Chicago long before corporate America put it into New York City under Joel Klein and Michael Bloomberg.

A lot of serious people are believing the Big Bad Wolf stories about what Bruce Rauner might do when he is elected governor of Illinois.

Which is a great way to ignore all the things that Pat Quinn has already done to public schools, teachers, retirees, and others.

I guess anyone who believes the Big Bad Wolf stories going around as we near Election Day deserves to get eaten. We’ve already eaten so much _____ served up by Pat Quinn, what’s a few more flakes of that stuff…

LikeLike

Reply
- Victorino Verboten says:
  
  October 28, 2014 at 8:34 pm
  
  Rauner is best buds with a lot of neoliberal Democrats, including Chicago Democratic mayor Rahm Emanuel. They are on the same page on many issues, so it should not take much for Rauner to get Democrats in both houses of the state assembly onboard with his slash and burn policies.
  
  As much as I disdain Quinn and Vallas, I would urge people to vote for them instead of a billionaire Republican that made $60 million dollars last year, with no job, who has nothing better to do with his life than bequeath a scorched earth to working class people.
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply
  - Chi-Town Res says:
    
    October 29, 2014 at 1:21 am
    
    Our strength is in our numbers and if the working class would stop voting for people who only represent the 1% and started appreciating the value of labor unions, which seek to protect workers’ rights and assure livable wages, we might be able to have a thriving middle class in this country again.
    
    Do not vote for Rauner, who would like to see minimum wage abolished!
    
    LikeLike
  - George N. Schmidt says:
    
    October 29, 2014 at 6:01 am
    
    One of the reasons we don’t encourage anonymous bloggers and anonymous comments is visible here. Who is “Victorino Verboten” in the real world. If she he it existed, I’d ask, directly, the following…
    
    Maybe you could also explain why there is reason to fear a “Wisconsin” in Chicago when both the House and Senate are “Democratically” controlled? This “lesser evil” stuff has to be thought out, not mindlessly pursued with “as much as I don’t like Quinn and Vallas…” platitudes. And just to add to the notices, on Halloween the Chicago Teachers Union’s LEAD dinner will feature three speakers who have betrayed what the Chicago Teachers Union has fought for the past four years: Danny Davis (the Congressman who has spoken publicly in support of adding charter schools to the city’s West Side), Pat Quinn (who thrice as signed legislation screwing public workers pensions); and Randi Weingarten (one of the foremost national voices in support of Common Core).
    
    It looks like just two years after the Great Chicago Teachers Strike of 2012 the venerable CTU has become very very beholden to those who oppose what many of us thought were some of the sustaining principles of the union’s “progressive” direction.
    
    Big Bad Wolf stories like those being spewed around (my mailbox is full of them every day; apparently my union dues are being used to pay for these mailers and phone calls) about OMG BRUCE RAUNER! are supposed to be for keeping children frightened around camp fires their first time in the dark woods. Obviously Big Bad Wolf stories can also be used to suspend adult thought when told over and over and over and over…
    
    I’m looking forward to hearing from the three reactionaries who are being featured to speak on Halloween at the CTU LEAD dinner. As usual, I paid for my tickets and have a table for friends.
    
    LikeLike
  - Veteran Educator says:
    
    October 29, 2014 at 12:10 pm
    
    Don’t fall for the smoke and mirrors presented by George, folks. Rauner’s stance against minimum wage is well documented:
    
    “In a “gotcha!” story Thursday, the Chicago Sun-Times posted audio (embedded below) from a January 2014 radio interview in which Rauner ‘fessed up to having once proposed to wipe out the minimum wage in blue-state Illinois. Not just slash the state rate. Take it off the map. Void it. Bring it down to zero.”
    
    “Rauner Pulls a Romney In Minimum Wage Confession”
    
    http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/Bruce-Rauner-eliminate-minimum-wage-in-Illinois-radio-interview-273972331.html
    
    LikeLike
  - Victorino Verboten says:
    
    October 29, 2014 at 12:28 pm
    
    George has no appreciation of non-unionized workers, including teachers like me, who rely on minimum wage laws to get by –though that’s not enough to pay my basic living expenses today. We have no job protections and can’t afford to risk losing our jobs by using our real names when we express our opinions on education and politics. Just because George had a second income and job to fall back on doesn’t mean that others have those opportunities, especially in this economy. Diane understands this. No wonder George doesn’t and supports Rauner.
    
    LikeLike
- Laura says:
  
  November 1, 2014 at 2:24 pm
  
  Take nothing for granted. In NYS “Democrat” Cuomo not so secretly encouraged a caucus of democrats to cross the isle and vote republican for his purposes and they did. NYS Cuomo =Scott Walker too.
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply
Lloyd Lofthouse says:

October 28, 2014 at 12:16 pm

You Tube removed the video.

LikeLike

Reply
- Jim Realini says:
  
  October 28, 2014 at 12:39 pm
  
  It says removed by user.
  Does anyone know what it said or who the “user” was?
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply
Betty says:

October 28, 2014 at 6:22 pm

http://capitolfax.com/2014/09/03/afscme-rolls-out-new-video-comparing-bruce-rauner-to-scott-walker/

LikeLike

Reply
retiredbutmissthekids says:

October 30, 2014 at 3:12 am

George, I’m a big fan of yours–very much in agreement with all you’ve said in the past & have read Substance many times over. But I really must disagree with you here. We do not, generally, have much distinction between Democrats & Republicans in Ill-Annoy. Someone had written about loving to have a chance to see Rauner elected & get down in the dirt w/Madigan. Not gonna happen. We have neo-liberal Dems here, or Dems for Reform, but Dems who are DINOs–Democrats in Name Only. Madigan & Co. have The Combine–reach across the aisle to do the most for their friend, in the meantime, always–ALWAYS–screwing the 99%–the taxpayers, the middle class (which definitely would cease to exist in Raunerland) and–of course–the low-income populace which–again in Raunerland–will most certainly grow. As will The Combine.

LikeLike

Reply
- Reteach 4 America says:
  
  October 30, 2014 at 5:29 pm
  
  Retiredbumissthekids: Excellent explanation of the political dynamics in “Ill-Annoy” and “The Combine”!
  
  Why anyone with a brain and a heart would trust today’s greedy billionaires with being invested in anything more than their own interests is beyond my comprehension. It is readily apparent that venture capitalists like Rauner are only braced to protect their booty and have no concern for the struggling masses who are in dire need of livable wages to survive.
  
  It’s time for Americans to put a stop to government of the corporation, by the corporation and for the corporation!
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply
  - George N. Schmidt says:
    
    October 30, 2014 at 6:23 pm
    
    Thanks for the kind words aobout Substance. So… the logic is that unless we elect a Democrat who has already lied to our faces, betrayed us on a half dozen specific issues, and then picked the foremost personality in corporate (teacher bashing; racist; union busting; privatizationing) “school reform” (that’s Paul Vallas) things will get … WORSE.
    
    As I noted earlier. I spoke on behalf of our endorsement of Pat Quinn and helped sway the House of Delegates of the Chicago Teachers Union in October 2010. Karen Lewis asked me to do that, so I did. At the end of my speech, I said that when we elected Pat Quinn we would have a governor who would answer the phone when the President of the Chicago Teachers Union called. Right. Within a few weeks, Quinn was proudly signing a teacher bashing legislation at a ceremony Karen refused to attend.
    
    Within a few months, he was promoting “person reform” legislation that first screwed the teachers in the rest of Illinois, then municipal workers.
    
    And of course there was that day when all of us learned, via the media, that Quinn had picked Paul Vallas as his “running mate” (candidate for Lieutenant Governor of Illinois) without talking with any of us.
    
    Just how many lies and betrayals does it take before people realize that with these guys they are in an abusive relationship. I sat 25 feet from Pat Quinn while he tried to bullshit the House of Delegates of the CTU at the June 4 meeting. He went to far as to do one of those politician talks from the podium to “Roberta” — who was sitting in front with a sign asking him not to sign SB 1922 (the “pension reform” that was going to screw public workers in Chicago, including the teacher aides and clerks who retire from service after 35 or 40 years in our schools). Roberta, who is in her 80s, needs more than the pension she has earned, yet Pat Quinn and Rahm Emanuel are going to cut it, in part by gutting the health care assistance part.
    
    So thanks for reading Substance…
    
    But let’s not pretend there is a real difference between a bullshitting liar (Quinn) who has established a record of smiling to our faces and stabbing us in the back…
    
    …and a guy who says he is going to stab us in a fight from the front.
    
    It’s time we stopped making excuses for the back stabber.
    
    The choice is between a cynical back stabber with a Blarney Stone smile and a cynical rich guy who’s coming right at us. Anyone who stays with this “lesser evilism” is just going to keep having to put on the sun glasses and “makeup over the bruises” (as the Dixie Chicks sang in “Good Bye Earl…”). I agree with the Chicks. We should eliminate Earl — Pat, and anyone else of that ilk.
    
    LikeLike
  - CaresAboutKids&Teachers says:
    
    October 30, 2014 at 8:18 pm
    
    My roommy tried to post the following but her posts haven’t been going through and I totally agree with it so I’m posting it for her:
    
    “Similar arguments were used during the Romney/Obama election, when we also had a choice of two evils. Some of us chose to vote third party then and just prayed that wouldn’t assure we’d be getting the worst evil. I will only vote third party again when there is enough margin projected that my vote will not be going to directly support self-serving corporate America, because we already have enough greedy billionaires running this country and only they are better off for it. Enough is enough already!”
    
    LikeLike
  - Cosmic Tinker says:
    
    November 1, 2014 at 2:10 am
    
    I can’t stand Quinn and Vallas, but they are the minions, not the oligarchs who, by virtue of their riches, are able to call all the shots. Anyone who supports public education is misplacing their vote if they intend to support billionaire privatizers like Rauner, who has his own Noble charter school named after him and who bought his daughter’s placement in a selective enrollment high school in Chicago from Arne Duncan, even though he resides in the affluent, high performing (but progressive) suburban New Trier school district.
    
    It would behoove people inclined to vote for Rauner and other oligarchs to watch Bernie Sanders on Moyers this week, especially those in the Tea Party:
    
    http://billmoyers.com
    
    LikeLike