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*** UPDATE *** * This is the announcement that I was told was coming today. Turns out, it’ll be later this week…
Gov. Pat Quinn says he’s going to appoint a new head of the Illinois Department of Corrections.
Quinn refused Tuesday to divulge who he would name, but he said an announcement was likely later this week.
[ *** End of Update *** ]
* Gov. Pat Quinn has taken some heat for hiring lots of white males to top administration and agency jobs. That begins to change today with this appointment and possibly others…
Ald. Billy Ocasio (26th) is resigning from the Chicago City Council to accept a job as a senior adviser to Gov. Quinn.
Ocasio, chairman of the council’s Human Relations Committee, is recommending that Mayor Daley appoint Rev. Jesus DeJesus to replace him.
Ocasio has been an occasional thorn in Daley’s side, so while Daley probably doesn’t relish him getting a nice job, he’s probably thankful that Ocasio is now out of the way. Progress Illinois posted this video today from Ocasio’s opposition to Daley’s last budget…
[A report in this morning’s Capitol Fax about a different minority hire was apparently premature.]
* And speaking of budgets, SEIU has a new TV ad which promises to be as ubiquitous as its last one…
Rate it?
* The Illinois Federation of Teachers is also running a radio ad calling on legislators to approve more state revenues. Audio, script and stations running the ad are at this link. Excerpt…
No one’s getting rich being a teacher. That is why we pay into the pension. We count on that just like the kids count on us. If they don’t fund schools, our children don’t have a chance. If you don’t fund our pensions, teachers don’t have a chance.
* Related…
* Present Versus Future Salaries for Teachers
posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 10:12 am
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“No one’s getting rich being a teacher. That is why we pay into the pension. We count on that just like the kids count on us. If they don’t fund schools, our children don’t have a chance. If you don’t fund our pensions, teachers don’t have a chance.”
If you have maxed out on your 401K(from your private sector job) you’d have no where near the money teachers get in a pension.With today’s interest rates(you’d have to have 2 million dollars set aside) to pay yourself a $40,000 a year from a 401K.The Teachers unions contribute money to politicians because there’s a payoff.It’s just that simple.In economics it’s called rent-seeking.
Comment by Steve Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 10:34 am
===you’d have to have 2 million dollars set aside) to pay yourself a $40,000 a year from a 401K===
Only if you planned to live forever.
Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 10:35 am
A teacher who pursues advanced degrees after hiring (like most professionals need before getting hired to begin with) can end up paid $100,000towards the end of teh career, during which he or she has almost iron clad job security, and retire in teh late fifties to a $70,000 pension.
Most people these days would see that as a pretty fair deal as is.
Comment by doc Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 10:38 am
What the teacher union leaves out is 1) how they fight tooth and nail to keep unqualified teachers in schools (everyone bashes the No Child Left Behind Act, but look who pushed for exemptions to the HQT (”highly qualified teacher”) provisions. And HQT is one of two school reforms that has any real strong statistical data behind it to show that it works (the other, to a lesser but still meaningful extent, is reducing class size).
2) Illinois is one of the most difficult states for people with college degrees to get certified as a public school teacher. The unions forced through a ridiculous set of undergrad requirements. People with engineering degrees need to go to back to community college to take science classes before they can take education classes for –grade school– certification.
Comment by lake county democrat Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 10:44 am
Sorry, should have added this: In contrast, states like New Jersey allow qualified individuals to become teachers before even completing their education studies, which they take part-time while teaching and in the summer. At least as of the late 1990’s, 20% of their teachers came from other career paths. Illinois has huge barriers to entry for anyone who didn’t do an education degree as an undegrad (where they were advised which classes to take to fulfill the maze of requirements).
Comment by lake county democrat Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 10:48 am
Addendum, please… “Public” school teachers.
Parochial school teachers don’t see any of that “golden parachute” (yes, I’m kidding) $..
Don’t lump them all together.
(This isn’t a slam, I have the most respect for all of them.. I’d like to see some of the 8-4:30 desk jockeys commenting in this blog try a week in a teacher’s shoes.)
Comment by Anonymous Coward Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 10:50 am
@Doc
100K?? Maybe in Niles school district…
Head down to Southern IL and try to find some 100K salaries. You’ll have to stack them 2 and 3 high to get that.
Comment by Anonymous Coward Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 10:52 am
“I’d like to see some of the 8-4:30 desk jockeys commenting in this blog try a week in a teacher’s shoes.”
This is by far the most ridiculous thing teachers say to defend their position within the education system. They make it sound like every classroom is full of well-armed hooligans bent on wreaking destruction at any time. Of course some schools/classrooms are exactly that, but others are full of delightful students and pristine teaching conditions. Teaching has its challenges and rewards, same as any other profession. Teachers stay late to help students the same way realtors show homes on saturdays or other salaried professionals that don’t clock out at 5pm either.
Comment by Gene Parmesan Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 10:59 am
===others are full of delightful students and pristine teaching conditions===
Where?
Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 11:00 am
The sacred cows worshipped by the party in power are mooing and demanding fealty. They, along with dozens of other special interest groups coddled by the party in power, believe that today is the day to demand even more ridiculous amounts of their neighbor’s and their neighbor’s children’s wages and future wages. Thanks to the party in power, even the unborn has bills waiting for them.
Comment by VanillaMan Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 11:01 am
The home care spot is very good, I think.
In an era when many people have seen their “wealth” melt away in real estate and 401ks, and as they stare at ridiculous credit card balances while worrying about their jobs, there’s not an over-abundance of empathy out there, as the teachers are certainly discovering.
But home health care seems to me have efficiencies and it’s certainly the right thing to do. I know my family has been grateful for it over the years.
Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 11:06 am
New Trier? Winnetka? Are you suggesting there aren’t delightful students and pristine classrooms to be found in Illinois? The education system is weak, but it ain’t that weak. There are lots of great teachers with excellent classroom management skills that really do exceptional work and have resources afforded them to be able to produce quality results. There are also kids that want to go to school and actually learn. It’s easy to focus on the terrible schools in CPS, and ignore some of the high quality schools, most of which are found in the richest areas of state.
Comment by Gene Parmesan Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 11:06 am
I wonder why Ocasio is quiting as alderman for a job with Quinn.
In regard to his current position, his ward has changed and he may run into some opposition, but I don’t think he is that threatened. So why quit?
The second part of the equation is he is taking a job with a governor who will have a very tough re-election campaign in the near future. So he is not signing on for a 4 year sure thing. I’m sure he will make a decent salary, but for how long? I guess he has Guiterez as his clout so he will be able to land somewhere. But it still strikes me as odd.
The other issue is what is Quinn thinking? Ocasio and Guiterez aren’t known as “reform” candidates. And Ocasio wasn’t ever known for his public policy expertise.
Comment by Objective Dem Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 11:08 am
CORRECTION- I think the Fran meant to say Wilfredo De Jesus.
Comment by Anon Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 11:09 am
Yes, there are great schools with high-performing kids, which also have overly demanding parents who insist that their children must get into Harvard or it’s the teacher’s fault.
It’s not an easy job whatsoever. I’ve seen the toll it can take close up via my mother and two aunts. And pointing out two extremely wealthy districts to justify a theory is not an exceptionally valid argument.
We ask the impossible of teachers then too many want to dump on them. I find it appalling. Go spend a year in their shoes first.
Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 11:10 am
Vannie,
While you are squeaking about fairness and taking other peoples money maybe you can asnwer a question for me. How it is fair that some guy with a large brood of kids pays the same taxes for education as a single person who owns property of the same value and makes about the same income and never uses the schools? Isn’t that some form of the dreaded redistribution of wealth? I know that you must be against someone else having to pay to educate your kids.
Comment by Bill Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 11:16 am
A lot of people want to work in the public school system.That’s why there’s an excess of resumes at these places.There’s plenty of people in the private sector that work long hours and don’t have tenure.Teachers work less hours per year than most private sector workers.Plus public school teachers have great benefits.More and more companies don’t even provide health insurance.
Comment by Steve Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 11:22 am
Rich, I grew up with family in teaching as well, with a mother as a teacher and later administrator. I absolutley respect what teachers do. I’m just saying that not every classroom is full of wild animals, that’s all.
You’re absolutely right, it’s not an easy job. I really wish we could rework the system somehow and create a meritocracy where the best teachers are rewarded, and the worst teachers are canned. I wish we had a system where we paid Math and Science teachers more than Phys Ed teachers. I really think people would dump on teachers less if we implemented some professional reforms, like getting rid of tenure, lowering the barriers to entry, and changing the pay scale to reflect our desire for more quality math, science, and foreign language teachers.
Comment by Gene Parmesan Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 11:23 am
===That’s why there’s an excess of resumes at these places.===
Where?
Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 11:32 am
Teachers work less hours per year than most private sector workers.
Source?
Comment by dave Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 11:34 am
“Jesus DeJesus” is on the all-time all-name team.
Comment by paddyrollingstone Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 11:40 am
How it is fair that some guy with a large brood of kids pays the same taxes for education as a single person who owns property of the same value and makes about the same income and never uses the schools? Isn’t that some form of the dreaded redistribution of wealth? I know that you must be against someone else having to pay to educate your kids.
I don’t squeak, but you obviously favor the “vote yourself rich” social programs sold to you by the party in power.
The single childless loney bachelor eating Banquet Chili-Mac dinners in his boxers while sipping Wild Turkey from a measuring cup benefits from his real estate investment in a strong school district. Paying school taxes are part of his real estate investment.
After he retires and needs someone, now paying taxes on one of your “vote-myself-rich” schemes to wipe his drooling lip in a nursing home, he will be benefiting again from the taxes he paid to keep his real estate desirable, and benefiting from the schools educating some of those kids who are wiping his lips and nether regions.
The sacred cows are mooing and demanding fealty from their enablers at a time when families are struggling to live within their own means. The sacred cows’ timing is off, but they believe that with their enablers in power, they can make ridiculous demands. This always happens regardless of which party is in power. The difference between the parties is that when the GOP is in power, the sacred cows are demanding that they keep their own money, and when the Democrats are in power, the sacred cows are demanding other people’s money.
Now say, “MOOO”, Elsie-Bill!
Comment by VanillaMan Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 11:42 am
If you have 2 mil in your 401K then you should be able to live forever at $80,000 / yr( thats 4% and you probably won’t touch the principle) and when you die your kids will get the 2 million. The problem many had was that they were in their 50s and heavy into stocks when they should not have been. My wife will retire next year after 35 years of teaching in Joliet and her pension will be $54,000 and when she dies our kids will get nothing , now you tell me which is the better case. Oh and all the news clips I see and from what Quinn says teachers pay 4% towards their pension, no thats wrong she pays 9%.
Comment by ispretired Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 11:50 am
ok, MOOOO!
The money owed to public pensioners IS their money. The state borrowed their money and spent it on other stuff like schools for your kids, cops to keep them safe, museums and historic sights for them to visit, jails to lock up the boogie men and women, etc.. it IS their money and now is the time for the state to pay THEM back. NONE of your so called sacred cow organizations ever supported the people of Illinois stealing their members pensions. Most of the money was stolen under Republican governors. Pay up, deadbeat Vannie!
Comment by Bill Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 11:51 am
Really, the discussion about pensions is the wrong one. The challenge is how to ensure that all Americans have access to defined benefit pensions or to retirement income that is as secure as same.
Part of the resentment many citizens feel is having to pay into the sure fire pensions of others in addition to saving for their own uncertain futures.
I believe some members of the Obama administration are working on this but it seems unlikely he’ll get to it in a first term. But if
Social Security doesn’t cover it (it doesn’t), something else is needed for all workers regardless of workplace.
Comment by Cassandra Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 11:58 am
Go spend a year in their shoes first.
The attrition rate for teachers, like nurses is quite bad.
However, it is also true that most suburban systems have plenty of applicants for their jobs.
Its only the less desirable schools who have openings.
I know one person who was trying to get a job as Math and physics teacher. Only Aurora East was interested.
Illinois barriers
Yes and no. That person above had a BS engineering, and needed 1.5 years and about 10K to get a teachers cert. And a semester of student teaching, on their own dime.
Comment by Pat Collins Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 11:58 am
Anyone here know what the day to day cost of the pension systems is? I’m not talking about the debt that was built up.. what’s the normal cost today? Is that cost going up or down? How does it compare with what private sector employers pay for Social Security?
Comment by DC Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 12:12 pm
Pat,
That sounds about right because that engineering degree, while really important for an engineer, means little or nothing for a teacher. Teaching is an art and a science that is partially learned in college classrooms and learned through experience in the field. Subject matter mastery is crucial but not sufficient to be succesful teacher. Teahcers, the ones who stay in the field, get better every year through experience and continuing education. Putting an engineer or an accountant or soldier or journalist into a classroom without the proper training is the same as letting a biology major be a doctor without requiring medical school.
Comment by Bill Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 12:15 pm
“No one’s getting rich being a teacher.”
If you want to get rich be a doctor or a successsful business owner or play the lottery.
If you choose to teach our children then teach. It appears that a % of teachers are 8-3 and out the door, enjoying the weeks of holiday breaks and summers off with little regard for the purpose of the job. I recognize burnout and parent fatigue is an issue.
However, the more $$$ dumped into the education system seems to only increase pay for teachers & unions (AND POLITCAL CONTRIBUTIONS) but does not increase test scores. I know people making $60 -$90k who who have NO passion for their intended purpose. Is the kids and our taxpaying wallets that suffer. I think on whole teachers make good money & beni’s for a 8-9 month gig each year.
Comment by Larry Mullholland Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 12:16 pm
L.A.,New York,and Chicago will not even take resumes for substitute teaching because there’s an excessive supply.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-03-10-substitute-teachers_N.htm
Comment by Steve Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 12:19 pm
That’s for subs, not fulltimers.
Comment by Rich Miller Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 12:20 pm
Rich and Steve, here’s the 2008 Supply and Demand report from the ISBE. Seems to indicate there is a ‘fairly robust’ supply of teachers.
www.isbe.state.il.us/research/pdfs/ed_supply_demand08.pdf
Comment by Gene Parmesan Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 12:32 pm
The Teaching Penalty: Teacher Pay Losing Ground
http://www.epi.org/publications/entry/book_teaching_penalty/
An analysis of trends in weekly earnings shows that public school teachers in 2006 earned 15% lower weekly earnings than comparable workers, a gap 1 percentage point larger than that reported for 2003 in our original study. The teacher disadvantage in weekly earnings relative to comparable workers grew by 13.4 percentage points between 1979 and 2006, with most of the erosion (9.0 percentage points) occurring in the last 10 years (between 1996 and 2006).
Comment by DC Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 12:44 pm
A common argument seems to be “I don’t get a pension, health insurance or a decent salary, so why should anyone else? Where unions have failed is in allowing the majority of workers in this country buy into the wrong-headed belief that they should not be fairly compensated for their contributions and the sacrifices that they make towards the success of the organizations that they work for. Thirty years of loyalty to any employer - not just teachers and public employees - should count for more in the way of retirement security than a Hallmark card that you can’t even fold into a decent hat.
Comment by Courser Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 12:45 pm
Thanks for posting the stunning video of Ocasio voting no on Daley’s 2009 budget. It was a strong, honest statement from an alderman who has changed his rhetoric, significantly, in the past year. We’ll miss his voice in the City Council.
Comment by curly Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 1:05 pm
How Much Are Public School Teachers Paid?
http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cr_50.htm
” * According to the BLS, the average public school teacher in the United States earned $34.06 per hour in 2005.
* The average public school teacher was paid 36% more per hour than the average non-sales white-collar worker and 11% more than the average professional specialty and technical worker.
* Full-time public school teachers work on average 36.5 hours per week during weeks that they are working. By comparison, white-collar workers (excluding sales) work 39.4 hours, and professional specialty and technical workers work 39.0 hours per week. Private school teachers work 38.3 hours per week.
* Compared with public school teachers, editors and reporters earn 24% less; architects, 11% less; psychologists, 9% less; chemists, 5% less; mechanical engineers, 6% less; and economists, 1% less.
* Compared with public school teachers, airplane pilots earn 186% more; physicians, 80% more; lawyers, 49% more; nuclear engineers, 17% more; actuaries, 9% more; and physicists, 3% more.
* Public school teachers are paid 61% more per hour than private school teachers, on average nationwide.
* The Detroit metropolitan area has the highest average public school teacher pay among metropolitan areas for which data are available, at $47.28 per hour, followed by the San Francisco metropolitan area at $46.70 per hour, and the New York metropolitan area at $45.79 per hour.
* We find no evidence that average teacher pay relative to that of other white-collar or professional specialty workers is related to high school graduation rates in the metropolitan area.”
Comment by Steve Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 1:09 pm
It seems as if the Speaker has lit a fire under GQ to start putting his people in.
Comment by Phineas J. Whoopee Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 1:22 pm
Full-time public school teachers work on average 36.5 hours per week during weeks that they are working.
I know very few, if any, teachers that only work 36.5 hours per week. BLS is only looking at “normal” hours (i.e. classroom and designated prep time) and ignores the many hours that teachers spend outside of that time.
And to use an hourly rate for teachers is pretty silly anyway.
Comment by dave Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 1:44 pm
Antecdotaly, my kids teachers have ongoing phone conferences with the parents to discuss how the kids are doing in the evenings. This has to make for some crazy long days given how chatty I percieve parents tend to be about their kids and school.
Comment by Ghost Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 2:06 pm
The two teacher unions never pushed for pension funding until the last few years. They preferred their education money allotment go to the schools instead. Now they have ads on the air blaming the legislators for years of underfunding their pensions.
The unions never rated any legislators on whether they did or didn’t vote for funding pensions. This was not a priority of theirs until now. The union leadership should admit thier failure to protect their members pensions.
Comment by Tom Joad Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 2:10 pm
I guess the problem is that the state said it would pay its share into the pensions, but hasn’t yet since our current Constitution was created in 1970. Then in 1995 they said they will make the pensions 90% funded by 2050. Then Blago balanced the budget by taking money he needed to pay into the pensions and spent it elsewhere.
So if you are a teacher, you pay 9.4% of your salary into the pension. I think Social security is 6.9%? Quinn then wanted to have teachers pay 11.4% of their salary into the pensions.
So now the government will blame teachers for the pension problems, reduce future pensions of future teachers and still use the money on pet projects.
When are we going to have a government that you can believe in….maybe never.
So teachers don’t want sympathy, they just want ethical people in government to say one thing like fund pensions at 90% by 2050 and then take actions to make it happen.
Comment by Public Teacher Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 2:31 pm
Wow the her is mooing so loud, it is hard to choose which voice to answer first.
Chicago and its collar counties (where the population is) has a plethora of 100K plus teachers and administrators. Pension costs are simply unsustainable when you consider an expectation of 20 years worth annual CoL bumps.
Working hours? the professionals I know work 55 to 65 hours a week 52 weeks a year. When they go out of town to meetings, they lose their weekends and work harder to keep up. There are zero percent teachers or public sector workers who have that kind of work schedule.
I know i and a ton of other people who would be willing to pay the 9% or even more of their paychecks to get an inflation adjusted (tax exempt in Illinois) 70% of their salary forever. Do you realize that if you are fortunate enough to collect your pension starting at 54,000 for 20 years, you will be getting nearly 95,000 per year?
Public sector pension obligations are simply unsustainable. They are also unjustifiable when you consider how much better than the average worker’s they are.
We now see the puppeteers hard at work, pulling the strings of their bought and paid for politicians. Balanced budget? teee heeee
Comment by Plutocrat03 Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 2:34 pm
We all value children. We all value education. We all value what teachers have taught us in the past. What we are discussing is not these things.
What we are discussing is how much are we willing to give to a giant education bureaucracy that has evolved from a local one-room school, into a mammoth, national, unionized and closed, shop.
Everytime we have a budget crisis, which has been nearly every year we overspend what taxes are collected, voters are forced to once again confront what has been ignored - crappy schools that are not educating. And nearly every year, we watch this mammoth education bureaucracy surround themselves with children and remind us how we would destroy their lives by not giving the bureaucracy more of their wages. Then they talk about how selfish are those who question the costs of education. Then they tell us how important education is. And the entire charade continues until next year without improving education, but with increased tax bills.
Citizens are aware that with every dollar they are taxed for schools, they receive less than a dollar’s worth of results. They are usually OK with that, up to a point. When they discover children that are unable to read, cipher, or speak in a civilized manner, they are confronted once again by the failure of this giant educational bureaucracy to do it’s most basic tasks.
An earlier poster included the salary figures for Detroit teachers. These are the same schools with the lowest graduation rate in the nation. These are the schools that were requesting that parents send toilet paper with their children to supply the schools. This is the same school district that cannot locate $60,000,000, yet were handed another $420,000,000 by President Obama. To believe that this money will be wisely spent on the children of Detroit, is more than hope and change - it is downright foolish. It empowers the wrong people and educates a school district that regardless of massive failure, they will get their bailouts at other’s expense.
Browbeating those who question the costs of today’s public schools will not solve the problems we face together. Trying to shame critics with catcalls claiming that opponents are heartless misers doesn’t address the reality we face together. Allowing unions to run our schools to the point where there are not held responsible for the declining quality of public education is the proper thing to do.
It is time to teach the teacher’s union a thing or two.
Comment by VanillaMan Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 2:43 pm
=== Working hours? the professionals I know work 55 to 65 hours a week 52 weeks a year. ====
This sounds like a mythical group of people. How many people is this that you know that have never ever taken a week off year after year their entire work carreers?
=== There are zero percent teachers or public sector workers who have that kind of work schedule.====
I know a number of public sector employees who work 70-80hr weeks when the legislature is in session then fall back to a mere 60 hrs a week when session ends.
=== I know i and a ton of other people who would be willing to pay the 9% or even more of their paychecks to get an inflation adjusted (tax exempt in Illinois) 70% of their salary forever. ===
This is the line that confuses me the most. If teacher jobs are so great and lucrative, and the benifis so juicy, why are these tons of people you know not becomeing teachers? They can get this very thing you claim they so desire, just take up the job. ALso the logic here seems to be, if I can not have it, then no one is entitled to it.
So all teachers should earn the salary and benfits that you personally can obtain? or do we pay them based on some other class of worker. I know an investment broker who works 20hrs a week or so and earns millions a year. Since She can work half time and make seven figures, does this mean its now ok to pay teachers a seven figure salary?
I never understood the idea that teachers should be the people unable to earn a good living elsewhere.
What if we paid great salaries and benefits, and thus had the best and the brightest competeing for the job to teach our children and shape the future of our country.
Comment by Ghost Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 3:31 pm
But wait….isn’t there somebody already in the DOC job.
Doesn’t it seem a bit clunky to make the announcement while the incumbent is still sitting there? Or did they give him a chance to resign first and he decided to let them fire him.
Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 3:44 pm
Well removing Walker is a good start but Rick Orr the Democrat County Chaiman from Pike County who is hiding in the DOC transfer Coordinators Office needs to be removed as well. Good job Quinn!!!!
Comment by Plorhanda Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 6:00 pm
Orr was one of the Blago appointees for corrections who passed out the termination letters once Scott Doubet (who was working for Blago’s office at the time) approved the termination and sent the letters down. I agree he also has to be removed.
Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 6:59 pm
Rumor is that GPQ will name the Asst. Director of the Ohio DOC as the new director. His last name is Randle and he has 19 years experience in corrections. Maybe bringiing in outsider is a good move. But there is a lot of top level administrators that need to go with Walker. The question is how many do you have to keep to make sure the department can function. I guarantee that there is not a lot of mid-managers will to move up in this environment.
Comment by southern illinoisan Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 8:04 pm
Not to be a killjoy on the pleasure everyone’s having getting exercised about the relative workload of teachers versus those in the so-called “real world,” but just to refocus:
1. No former teacher or state employee has ever missed a pension check, and it’s always been at the promised level.
2. No current teacher or state employee will ever miss a pension check, and the promised benefits never will be reduced. It’s one of those obligations, like GO bond debt, that must be paid before anything else, every year.
3. To the taxpayers, the current pension obligations will be paid at the level promised. It’s a double-secret probation obligation covered by the state and U.S. constitutions. The more you put off now, the more pain later.
4. It would be crazy not to seek to reduce the pension obligation for new employees as they enter the system.
Comment by wordslinger Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 8:50 pm
Some day there needs to be a recognition that each job has a value. Workers in the public sector do not deserve more or less than those in the private sector for the same kinds of work.
The nature of politics has been to sew fear and harvest money from the sheep. It is time for a reset
Comment by Plutocrat03 Tuesday, May 12, 09 @ 9:22 pm