NYT Ignores AFT Survey Results

The American Federation of Teachers conducted a survey of about 30,000 teachers nation-wide.  Survey results, which were recently published, indicate many teachers feel that teaching sucks:

• 86% do not trust their administrator or supervisor
• Only 1 in 5 feel respected by government and media
• 78% feel physically and/or emotionally exhausted by the end of the work day
• 87% say job demands interfere with family life
• Greatest workplace stressors: new initiatives without training, mandated curricula, standardized tests

The NYT recently published an article highlighting the nation-wide teacher shortage. In California, for example, the amount of people entering the profession has dropped more than 55 percent from 2008 to 2012. 

However, the NYT bungles the reason for the teacher shortage, describing it as "a result of the layoffs of the recession years combined with an improving economy in which fewer people are training to be teachers."  So there's a teacher shortage because fewer people are training to be teachers?  Wow. Insightful. 

If the NYT had talked to any teachers or to any unions that represent teachers, they might have realized that many teachers think that their current jobs suck.  We don't know any current teacher, at least in CPS, who would recommend entering the profession to their kids, their nieces and nephews, their younger siblings, their younger cousins or their friends' kids. Correct us if we're wrong.

CPS Engineers, Beware

From the comments:

"Rumor has it that CPS is planning on laying off all of the engineers in November, at which point, they will have to reapply for their jobs. Rumor also has it that Mr. Cawley is looking to eliminate 200 engineers, as per his "brown bag lunch" webinar (is this the correct term). The feeling that Mr. Cawley has, is, that 300 engineers can take care of some 600 buildings, based upon his suburban model. That model means that, according to him, the engineers who are rehired will be pulled out of their schools and report to the high schools, then fan out to the elementary schools for work orders.

It's funny that a company that hasn't been relevant since the mid-90s, Motorola, is suddenly the blueprint for an aging guy from Winnetka who does not live in the city, never really got out of middle-management, to implement changes for the school buildings."

CPS management, and Tim Cawley specifically, appears hard at work, yet again, dismantling any and all facets of a functional school system. In the process, they seem dead-set on destroying any vestige of union involvement in any part of our schools. Local 143 has been part of CPS since 1863, and if Tim Cawley has his way that tradition may be greatly altered. Time will tell...

CPS Debt: Cha-ching!

Floated quietly on July 4th, the Sun-Times outlines the minefield that is CPS borrowing and its associated fees. In the Spring, CPS sold $478,000,000 in bonds, and the $4,400,000 fee for such borrowing has been spread around to those with ties to mayors past and present.

Chris Fusco has connected all the dots for anyone who cares to see how the connected continue to make money while CPS and the city go broke:

• Law firm Katten Muchin & Rosenman's profit: $300,000. The connected: former Mayor Daley who made pension holidays de rigueur is Of Counsel at the firm, and the firm's attorneys have contributed $61,000 to Emanuel's campaigns since 2010. 

• Law firm Thompson Coburn's profit: $350,000. The connected:  John Cullerton, Mayor Emanuel's bro in the Illinois General Assembly.

• Finance firm Loop Capital Markets profit: $180,000 in underwriting fees. The connected: James Reynolds, Jr., firm founder who's also an Emanuel appointee to World Business Chicago and the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority. World Business Chicago has a sleek website but WCT is unsure of what they do to benefit citizens. IFSA is an ineffectual organization who does things like pay the debt on U.S. Cellular while not collecting the rent.

Going broke has never paid so well, at least for some. WCT thought Mayor Daley's continued profiteering from the mess he created was the big middle finger to the taxpayers, but it turns out the giant middle finger is:

• Finance firm Cabrera Capital Markets: A portion of the $2,300,000 in fees for this year's bond deal, plus half of the $18.1M in fees since 2011.  If the name Cabrera rings a bell it should: Martin Cabrera, Jr. was UNO Charter Schools chairman after the SEC probe of UNO's awarding of construction contracts based on best price nepotism. Cabrera Capital, not coincidentally, was one of the underwriters of the $37.5M in loans UNO received in 2011.

The list of the connected goes on and on. Don't be a-feared, citizens, Emanuel spokesperson Adam Collins reassures readers, "...there is no connection between the awarding of CPS bond work and contributions to the mayor's political fund." Thanks for clearing that up. If City Hall says it, it must be true.

Our political ruling class engages in financial malfeasance as its sole practice, and the constellation of cronies assembled in Chicago is continually enriched thanks to such deals. Meanwhile, Chicagoans are bracing for a slew of taxes ranging from increased property taxes to a tax on the cloud so our ruling elite can remain so.

Where did the money go?

With the usual poisonous comments about CPS teachers (pigs, whiners, swine) being posted in response to the CTU's announcement that contract negotiations have stalled, we turn our attention to one of the essential questions:  Where did the money go?

Background info:

• The teachers' pension fund was close to 100% funded in 2000
• Between 1995-2005, CPS collected more than $ 2 billion in tax revenue from CPS teachers, counselors and paraprofessionals (and paid none of that revenue into the pension fund)
• At the request of the School Board, CPS has been twice granted "pension holidays," periods of time during which CPS does not have to put any money into the pension fund
• Pension Holiday #1: 1995-2005
• Pension Holiday #2: 2011-2013
• Currently, Illinois has the worst unfunded pension liability in the U.S., at $85 billion
• Tax Increment Financing (TIF) districts were established under Mayor Washington in 1986
• TIF $$ comes from property taxes within each district that are diverted from government units, including public schools, for public and private inve$tment in community improvement projects
• Chicago's TIF program was greatly expanded during Mayor Daley's term

On 6/30, a $634 million pension payment is due from the city to the pension fund. The city's cry: BROKE!  Which brings us back to the question:

Where did the money go?

• Block 37 Development:  Over $50 million; paid from diverted TIF funds; still largely unoccupied
• Block 37 Underground Loop Train Station: $213.3 million; paid from diverted TIF funds; designed to connect Midway to O'Hare but currently non-functional
• Millennium Park: Over $280 million paid from diverted TIF funds
• Central Loop Public Improvement Projects: $365.5 million in TIF funds spent in 2008, with no obligation for Mayor Daley to account for the recipients 

Where else did the money go?

Cronies, kick-back artists, charter profiteers, Aramark big wigs, vendors, University of Chicago thought partners, number-crunchers, CPS Talent Office staff, CPS Network chiefs, and David Vitale and Deb Quazzo's banker buddies

Small brains?

In today's news, a Perspective section essay written by Chicago Tribune Editorial Board member Steve Chapman inadvertently reveals several items of truth that relate to poverty in Chicago. Chapman reminds readers of dangerously high levels of lead poisoning in Chicago's poor neighborhoods, and continues by pointing out that kids poisoned by lead show "less intelligence and less self-control."  More fumbles occur when Chapman mentions that "poor parents are less likely to read to and talk with their children"  and that "exercising self-discipline and using contraception are harder" for poor people.

The Tribune's accidental publication of unpleasant truths about poverty in Chicago stands in contrast to their usual reporting, which dutifully fulfills the city's requirement that non-charter teachers and labor unions are held responsible for poor performance in CPS.

Unpleasant truths are often difficult to present, we will concede.  But it's Mr. Chapman's reference to the "small brains" of poor children that is truly baffling, even to us.  How can charter school expansion remediate small brains?  We assume that the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board will be calling an emergency meeting in order to ensure that no more truth of this nature is reported in the future.

Rahm and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Tough Job

Woe is Rahm

Rahm Emanuel let everyone in on a secret at the St. Regis hotel today: being mayor of the third largest city in America is hard! But worry not, darlings, he loves it! After referring to D.C. as a crap town a few days ago, he sings all of his many accomplishments as mayor here: the longer school day he couldn't quite afford, the skyrocketing murder rate, the mostly functioning new Red Line renovation, and improving parks that were fine to begin with. Yes, Rahm's been busy!

Since Rahm is always talking tough about pensions, especially those of the CPD and CFD, we were surprised at his upbeat take on everything: "because while there's a lot of tough issues, you can actually move the needle significantly." That's the spirit!

A quick review of how he's "moved the needle" recently:

• An understaffed and overworked police department

• Closure of 50 schools

• Convention business leaving the city

• Out of control violence

We wonder if the crowd he was speaking to--the change loving Center for American Progress --knew that Rahm's "moving the needle significantly" means moving it in the wrong direction?

A true love, hate relationship

Hates the unions, loves the votes.

Rahm Emanuel is beginning to bear a striking resemblance to Al Pacino in his turn as Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice, the money and power hungry crime boss from Dick Tracy.

Nowhere is this more evident than in Thursday's Tribune lead story reporting his union and budget calculations. Last year, Rahm went down to Springfield and talked big about a "day of reckoning," in the hopes of dismantling the police and fire unions. This year, one of his aides must have opened up a calendar and pointed to the date of his looming re-election primary. Now, he's offered what may well be the contents of a fortune cookie: "Reform, revenue, and time all go together" as a way to untangle the pension mess the government has put unions in.

No city employee with a pension should leave their retirement up to the whims of fortune cookie finance. While Rahm is busy meditating on his next non-solution, Machine buddy John Cullerton calls for a delay in "big" pension payments until 2022, along with a "series of small property tax increases beginning in 2018." Let's see, delay property tax increases until after the 2015 election cycle (must get those votes!) and continue the habit of pension avoidance until the election cycle after that (must use the money for my pet projects!).

What Rahm meant to say was, "Reform, revenue, and time all go together to keep the unions nervous and me in office!"