What Chicago Schools Need and Deserve

Power concedes ....

An Absurd Proposal
Last week, I listened to reports of a State attempt to takeover Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and pave the way for bankruptcy proceedings, the way one might listen to a report of UFOs spotted over Lake Michigan.  “Is this a joke?” I thought to myself.

While the Board of Education and Chicago’s Mayor have been reckless in their management of Chicago’s schools, the State has proven itself to be far more inept. Let’s not forget that it was the state that thought it would be a good idea to give control to the mayor in the first place. It is the state whose teacher pension system is in worse shape than the Chicago pension system. It is the state that can’t pass its own budget, and it is the state that passed the legislation enabling CPS to engage in the risky borrowing practices that lost the district over…

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Judge Novak says SEIU 73’s Christine Boardman could not bargain away retiree benefits. Which is what I said last December.

Fred Klonsky

From December, 2014.

Yesterday Cook County Judge Rita Novak ruled that mayor Rahm and union misleaders like SEIU 73 President Christine Boardman could not bargain constitutionally protected pension rights.

Which is what I wrote last December.

When city unions filed suit against Rahm’s pension cuts, Rahm said the cuts were good because he bargained them with city unions.

Those unions included Bricklayers District Council, Carpenters Regional Council, IBEW 134, Iron Workers District Council, IUOE 150, IUOE 399, Laborers’ District Council, Pipefitters 597, Plumbers 130, Sprinkle Fitters 281 and Christine Boardman’s SEIU 73.

The unions suing Rahm because he has violated the pension clause of the Illinois Constitution are the Chicago Teachers Union, AFSCME Council 31, IFT-AFT, Teamsters Local 700 and the Illinois Nurses Association.

Boardman’s SEIU 73 is notorious for agreeing to concessions with the Mayor and is a donor to his re-election campaign.

The legal question is whether union leadership can bargain…

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