Simple math Blagojevich
The Governor's scheme to get Rev. James Meeks out of the race should simply be laughed at from a financial perspective. $10 billion up front for a 99 year lease (assuming someone will pay that), some interest, and POOF, it's ALL GONE BY 2025!!! And in just four years, the state is right back to where it started regarding lottery revenue for education. Then what after 2025? Especially at a time all those pensions are coming due that are not being funded right now. Great, so the kids they are spending more money on now can pay a lot more in taxes when they get out of school making it even harder for them to get started in life and support their families. This makes absolutely no sense at all, unless you are running for re-election.
The state gets about $500 million more for the first four years, then the state is back to around $650 million per year until 2025, and then practically nothing after 2025. Blagojevich is willing to give up almost all revenue after 2025 for about $2 billion more over 4 years up front.
Oh, and the company most likely to "lease" the lottery is GTECH Corp., that already has a large chunk of the contract to run the Illinois Lottery. And who represents GTECH? Why it's Blagojevich's former Chief of Staff when he was a Congressman, John Wyma. More campaign donations to Democrats for years and years to come (like 99) I suspect.
Overall, this sceme will hurt state education funding long-term without doing much of anything at all to stop the decline in quality of government schools. With competition and choice comes accountability and innovation. That concept is a better place to start finding solutions than this campaign gimmick is.
The biggest problem isn't money. The problem is the government monopoly largely controlled by Illinois' biggest campaign funders, the teacher's unions. Simply banning union (and corporation) campaign donations would go a lot further toward improving education quality than this plan by loosening the control the teacher's unions have over legislators. We'd start seeing good teachers being paid more instead of the good teachers subsidizing bad teachers when they all get the same pay raises regardless of performance. We might even be able to fire a few bad teachers, while the increased pay for good teachers would attract more good teachers.
Go ahead and start ripping into me for a perceived anti-union bias (I'm actually pretty neutral on unions that don't abuse their power), but don't try blaming Topinka's lack of any vision on me. I do give credit to Blagojevich and Meeks for stirring up the debate that even has inspired innovative ideas like using prostitution and drugs to fund schools.
8 comments:
Sell the lottery to Freddie Barbara and the Roti family.
The bets of Tim Degnan alone will help finance education.
Seriously, the mob has a proven track record at gross revenues and profits from gambling. It is a matter of the public record that Degnan is a gambler and in to outfit bookies.
This could be a real revenue enhancer.
Jeff, I've pointed this out to others before: the tired old "blame the unions" argument went out with Bob Dole.
The world's most Socialist nations - France, Cuba, Sweden, Venezuela, even Albania and the Ukraine - have higher literacy rates than the U.S. Clearly, labor unions aren't the problem.
What is the problem is that in the city of Chicago, garbagemen make more money than school teachers, and you can't afford to buy a home on a teacher's salary in many parts of the state.
If we want to have the best and brightest professional teachers, we have to offer them a competitive salary. It's Econ 101. And right now, an 7-11 manager makes more than a teacher.
I bet if I asked you asked most people you know and respect why they aren't teachers, none would say "I don't want to belong to a union." Most would say "the pay sucks."
Free Labor Unions in Cuba?
That's news....
Read Human Rights Watch and this below,
Our labor activists endure beatings, and physical as well as psychological abuse. They are fired from their jobs for political reasons, and to top, last April seven of our labor leaders were sentenced to a total of 150 years in prison. They are:
Carmelo Díaz Fernández, 63 years of age. President, Unión Sindical Cristiana (Christian Labor Union) and assistant director, Centro Nacional de Capacitación Sindical y Laboral (National Center for Labor and Labor Union Education and Training). Sentenced to 16 years.
Miguel Galván Gutiérrez, 38 years of age. Executive board member, Centro Nacional de Capacitacion Sindical y Laboral. Sentenced to 26 years.
Pedro Pablo Alvarez Ramos, 53 years of age. Secretary General, Consejo Unitario de Trabajadores Cubanos (Unitarian Council of Cuban Workers). Sentenced to 25 years.
Alfredo Felipe Fuentes. Delegate from Havana Province, Consejo Unitario de Trabajadores Cubanos. Sentenced to 26 years.
Nelson Molinet Espino. 37 years of age. President, Confederación de Trabajadores Democráticos de Cuba (Cuban Federation of pro-Democracy Workers). Sentenced to 20 years.
Héctor Raúl Valle Fernández. 35 years of age. Vice-president, Confederación de Trabajadores Democráticos de Cuba. Sentenced to 12 years.
Iván Carrillo Hernández. Exective board member, Confederación Obrera Nacional Independiente de Cuba (Cuba's Independent National Workers' Federation). Sentenced to 25 years.
YDD, I recognize that teacher unions aren't the only problem, but they certainly are a problem and impede improvements. Failing to recognize that they use their power more for their own interests instead of what's best for the quality of education should have gone out with Bob Dole. The power teachers unions have in Illinois is hardly kept in check or we would have seen improvements long ago. You admit our education quality is declining, so you must at least admit teachers unions are not helping to stop the decline. Simple logic and common sense proves they are part of the problem, because if they weren't, our education quality wouldn't be getting worse.
Cuba and Venezuala are dictatorships, not democracies, so are you advocating a dictatorship as the solution to education failures? Horrible examples, right along with Albania and Ukraine whose political systems are far from open. Sweden's economy and education are on a decline and almost half of their children are born outside of marriage. Sweden also has 7 political parties in their Parliament without one majority party, making it extremely difficult to exert brute political power over education policy. And they have less than 10 million people, fewer than Illinois. France is France. You can't point to those countries to somehow prove unions aren't any part of the problem in Illinois.
Chicago has some of the highest paid elementary teachers in the world, so perhaps that's more of a Democrat and Daley problem than it is a union problem if garbagepersons make more. Perhaps the teachers aren't doing enough political work for Democrat candidates during the 3 months off in the summer. Or they are dong political work and then getting do-nothing jobs with the city and county that pay better. I'll agree with you teacher unions aren't the biggest problem in Chicago/Cook regarding education quality. The Democrat leadership is the biggest problem in Chicago/Cook right along with the people that would vote for a Democrat on the ballot even it was a yellow dog.
The average salary at District 51 in Washington, IL is $39,000 a year for 9 months work. That equates to $48,750 for a full year, more than enough to afford a house and a good standard or living. They are one of the few Districts that don't have a collective bargaining agreement that pays all teachers the same irregardless of performance, and they were also the "poorest" District in Illinois spending less per pupil than any other District, yet outperforming the most expensive District is several test areas. Throw in pensions and benefits, and they aren't doing bad at all. I'd guess they make more than Washington garbagepersons, so what's Chicago's problem?
Gee, maybe Daley and the Alderman don't need the teacher unions campaign donations because they have the city work force to get them re-elected.
I don't buy it that teachers aren't paid enough. If Democrats, the teacher unions, and people like you would stop perpetuating the myth that teachers don't make enough money, I think we'd see that perceived problem go away. Working 9 months with summers off and unbelievable benefit and millionaire pension packages are completely downplayed to make it appear teachers don't get competitive salaries. Stop doing that and start selling the truth and you won't be scaring so many people away from the profession.
I'd like to see teachers make more money, sure. Especially the good ones. But I bet plenty of good teachers get fed up pretty quickly when they aren't recognized for good performance and hard work and see bad teachers that just show up get the same salary and raises that they do. But teacher unions aren't part of the problem, riiiiiigggghhhht.
I'd have to check again, but I believe more than 1/3 of Illinois teachers make more than $100,000 when considering benefits and their pension package as compared to the private sector. 25 years teaching at $50,000 on average and then 25 years of pensions at $50,000 on average adds up real quick.
"Ald. Beavers: Listen, if white folks can do it, black folks can do it, OK? Easily, all right? We’ve got control of the votes in the city and the county, so we do what we want to do, all right? Remember that."
There ya go YDD. You might want to call up Ald. Beavers and the black community and ask them why they want to pay garbagepersons more than teachers. They've got control of the votes and they do what they want to do. Remember that.
25 years of teaching at $50,000 doesn't produce anywhere near to a $50,000 pension.
Blago is goal oriented not detail or task oriented, don't bother him with details or the future.
Beavers is a racist
Steve perhaps you didn't understand me, average of $50,000 salary over 25 years. Pensions are based on best three years salary, I believe. You would know that better than me. Last three years at $70-$80,000 does equal well over a $50,000/yr pension.
Right now the average teacher salary in Illinois is about $55,000 with just less than 14 years experience on average. The average teacher pension is almost $43,000/yr, but that includes many, many, many pensions based on less than 25 years of service. As we all know most teachers quit long before 25 years in, yet they still get pensions to drive that average down. There is no stat I could find on the average service time of those receiving an average of $43,000 in pensions. It's got to be less than 20 years though.
If anything, my estimates were really, really low on the complete pay package. The average salary over 25 years is probably closer to $65-$70,000/9 months, with their pension probably closer to $75,000 to start with COLAs.
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