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Free Speech Surprise in District 158

The Illinois School Code requires school districts to provide the opportunity for the public to speak at school board meetings. (Note: The wording in the citation below includes the word “shall.”)

So you can imagine the surprise of Huntley based District 158 School Board Member Aileen Seedorf when she asked to make a public comment at the June 26th meeting, and was not allowed to do so by District 158 Board President Shawn Green.

Apparently Mr. Green wants Mrs. Seedorf to have fewer rights to speak as a board member during Public Comments than she did as just a resident. Why would it be undesirable to have elected officials able to speak during the public comment section of a meeting?

ABC News: Six-Figure Public Employee Pensions

This website was featured on the local ABC News on May 16, 2007, and website contributor Bill Zettler was interviewed. Here is an excerpt from the report:

Bill Zettler started compiling pension stats five years ago after he questioned how his suburban school district was spending money. What he found stunned him.

"There are over 1,100 teachers who have pensions of over $111,000 a year and they can retire at age 55," said Zettler.

Zettler's findings, drawn from public records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, are posted by The Champion Foundation that fights public spending abuse and works for educational system reform.

The Untold Story Continues: The School Accountability Project Analyzes its 100th District

CARPENTERSVILLE, IL -- The Champion Foundation's "School Accountability Project" has now analyzed 100 of the 930 public school districts in Illinois and the findings remain consistent: for full time staff the average pay increases and estimated pensions are excessive and far above those seen by private sector workers.

As talk continues in Springfield about passing an enormous tax increase, the School Accountability Project is giving Illinoisans a good idea of what will happen to the money once more tax dollars are sent to the schools. The Project is revealing in dramatic terms the fact that the schools have a spending problem and not a revenue problem.

Chris Jenner's Education Bill Digest, March 2007

Government officials at all levels have totally lost the idea that if there's no problem, no law is needed. They think and act as if their full time job is to come up with new laws to propose. Our children are taught that the purpose of the legislative branch is to make the laws, but not that "making the laws" need be a constant activity. The Founding Fathers believed that making all laws "necessary and proper" for carrying out the authorized actions of government was such a small task that they wrote into the Constitution that "The Congress shall assemble at least once every Year…" (Article I, Section 4).

Oh well. As what's become usual, in a short period of time, the 95th Illinois General Assembly has introduced several thousand bills. Committees are sifting through the bills, identifying those that correlate most to campaign contributions, which will be sent to the House and Senate floors. Many of the bills relate to education, and I list a sample here. Even if bills are destined to die in committee, the proposals and intent are interesting, and in many cases, appalling.

The Need for Public School Financial Transparency

The Illinois government-run school system continues to resist financial transparency. Instead of fully disclosing how it’s spending $20 billion dollars of taxpayers’ money, they cry out for more.

In the private sector there’s something called GAAP accounting practices. GAAP stands for “Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.” In the government-run school system in Illinois we see PAAP – “Politically Accepted Accounting Principles.”

We’ve got a simple question: how can anyone not support full disclosure of all government revenues and expenditures? Yet when it comes to the public school spending crisis in Illinois, those who stand to personally profit from increasing taxes resist transparency.

What to know about Illinois Public School Teacher and Administrator Pay

School researcher Jay Greene wrote last year about what he called "the teacher pay myth":

"The common assertion that teachers are severely underpaid when compared to workers in similar professions is so omnipresent that many Americans simply accept it as gospel… But the facts tell a different story."

In a study released in January 2007, Greene reported that –

"When considering teacher pay, policymakers should be aware that public school teachers, on average, are paid 36% more per-hour than the average white-collar worker and 11% more than the average professional specialty and technical worker. They should be aware that the higher relative pay for public school teachers exists in almost every metro area for which data are available..."

Bad News for Faux Reporting: Jurors side with justice in libel case

Back in July we noted that Chief Justice Bob Thomas' libel lawsuit against the Geneva-based Kane County Chronicle had implications for government watchdogs and school reformers.

That case has now been decided - the Courier News reports that "The jury found that columns written by former Chronicle writer Bill Page were false, and that they were published recklessly by Chronicle editors." Read More

Are the Unions in it "for the kids"?

By Chris Jenner

In the private sector, "sick days" are a benefit an employer provides so that if an employee is sick or contagious, they can stay home without sacrificing pay. Sick days aren't something you save up over your entire career to use for retirement or pension benefits. Only in the parallel universe of government schools are "sick days" an additional retirement benefit. Read More

"IASB Conference Sessions I Would Attend"

TheChampion Editor's note: Former State Representative Cal Skinner has written an article worth reading about the upcoming Illinois Association of School Boards (IASB) conference. Read More

Cary Grade School District 26 Board Ends "Pay to Play"

From the McHenry County Blog:

At the initiation of Cary Grade School Board member Chris Jenner, the board passed a resolution last night saying it will not do business with any company that “has contributed to political campaigns that directly affect the district.” If you don’t think that is a problem, please take a look at arpentersville District 300... Read More