Latest News and Comment from Education

Monday, November 18, 2013

11-18-13 Fred Klonsky | Running for our pensions. | VOTE 4 Fred Klonsky

Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.:






Ten minute drawing. Clumsy phrases.


The in box. Richard Ingram. If you know are an Illinois teacher retiree affected by yesterday’s storms.
Just received from Teacher Retirement Director Richard Ingram: Sally Sherman, TRS Director of Member Services has confirmed with the US Postal Service that all the areas affected by yesterday’s tornados have operational postal facilities.  If individual members  have issues with receiving mail, they should be able to contact their local post office to determine if their mail has been held, which


Adenia Linker sent her photo to me after seeing this morning’s Sunday Reads.
Curie banner at Chicago’s Neighborhood School Fair. Photo: Adenia Linker.


Bob Lyons: “You should know.”
  From Bob Lyons, retiree representative on the Teacher Retirement System board of trustees: I went to the post office Saturday to mail TRS my selection for health care insurance and, as has been reported elsewhere, the envelope required a 66 cent stamp.  TRS suggests that the need for a registered letter is only if you are mailing your selection in the very last days.  If you have an email addre

The in box. “I feel betrayed by the system.”
Fred, Thank you for all that you have done on our behalf. I have a husband with Alzheimer’s. I am wondering how I am going to afford my health insurance as CMS does not include our doctors in any of our plans. I am pretty much felling very betrayed by the system. Medicare and insurance pays for skilled nursing, not Alzheimer’s. My husband was a teacher and our pensions are no where near the $50,00


There is only one political party in Illinois. It is meeting in Springfield on December 3rd.
The state’s pundits are enamored with the concept of getting something done about pensions. It doesn’t matter who it hurts. It doesn’t matter who is paying for getting it done. It doesn’t matter if it is constitutional or not. If you own a computer and work for what passes for a newspaper in Illinois you can call yourself a journalist or a columnist. After all, you’re not a blogger. The only poli

The in box. Jose Vilson. “I’ve been mad. Perhaps you should have been angry with us, back when the levees broke …”
First They Came For Urban Black and Latino Moms (For Arne Duncan) 11/17/2013     A few months ago, I walked past a “successful” charter school here in Harlem, NY, speed-walking to get my school supplies for the coming school year. I noticed a huge crowd of mostly Black and Latino families all waiting to pick up their children when a taut, pony-tailed White man came out with a c


11-17-13 Fred Klonsky | Running for our pensions. | VOTE 4 Fred Klonsky.
Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.: The in box. CMS is pleading with retirees to help them reach out to those who have infirmities and/or live out of state.From SORE member Robert Zahniser: Saturday’s Illinois Central Management Services meeting at the Buffalo Grove Performance Center hosted by Senator Morrison and Representative Drury