Below are links to news stories of interest from newspapers that came up during a search today. These links were active at the time of this e-mail, but should you want to save a story, printing it or cutting and pasting the entire article and saving it to your computer is recommended.
State News
Most District 205 teacher applicants worked there before
Rockford WREX (NBC) – Most of the people applying for District 205 used to work there. Rockford Education Association President Molly Phalen thinks about 400 people have applied for teaching positions with the district. She says while some are from other districts, a vast majority
2 dozen Illinois school districts to get long-awaited construction funds
Chicago WGN (WB) 9 – The money was earmarked in 2002, but budget issues and political maneuvering kept it from being doled out. Gov. Pat Quinn’s administration made the decision to finally distribute the money without comment. In Du Quoin, the money will help pay for a new high school, while in Johnston City the $500,000
District 186 struggles to divvy up funds to low-income schools The Springfield School District expects to receive at least $5.8 million in federal Title I funds for low-income schools next year. But dividing up the ever-changing annual allocation is getting more difficult.
Schools dealing with budgets: Responses range from layoffs to cuts to business as usual
Dixon Telegraph – is so bad right now that Whiteside County’s top education official has asked his bank for a business loan application. The state is $425,000 behind on a promised $1.4 million in education funding to the Whiteside County Regional Office of Education. That’s 30 percent of Gary Steinert’s budget, and there’s a chance he won’t be able to make payroll
Pay freezes OK’d by board
Lincoln-Way Sun – the 2010-11 school year in an effort to compensate for lost education funding from the state. The state owes the district $6.3 million, according to Wyllie. The administration also had asked the teachers union to accept a freeze but the union refused. The Lincoln-Way Education Association, which represents 480 teachers, signed a three-year contract in September.
New principal for Plainfield school
Joliet Herald News – Sorg’s salary will be $85,302, including benefits. Sorg will replace Donald McKinney, who is resigning at the end of this school year. Sorg began his education career as a third grade teacher at Wesmere Elementary School, serving from 2001-2005. He then was named assistant principal at Creekside Elementary School in 2005. He was one of 10 candidates considered
Five more years and salary cut approved for Siebert
Harrisburg Daily Register – But I think I need to set an example as superintendent since we’re in tough times with negotiations,” Siebert said. The board is in negotiations with the Eldorado Education Association and the Teamsters Union. Siebert said there are differences between the groups, but said the negotiations remain civil.
Saluting excellence in the classroom
Chicago Daily Herald Editorial – Few would disagree that these are tough times for education in Illinois. Thousands of teachers have been laid off in recent weeks as area school districts trim expenses amid the state’s threatened $1.3 billion cut in education funding for the coming academic year.
Teachers are pension scapegoats
Chicago Daily Herald – Letter – other things like the state did, and the bank would accept that? Of course not. Can you imagine what your current balance would be? This is what the state has done, and now wants to blame it on the teachers, saying their pensions are exorbitant. Had the state made its legal payments into the fund, there wouldn’t be a problem today. Remember, the teachers paid 10 percent of their salary into
Hogan very excited for opportunity as new UI president
Champaign News Gazette – the table to help restore trust and integrity? I have a lot of experience in academic administration. I also think I have, forgive me for saying so, a very strong background as an award-winning teacher, an award-winning scholar. Those are the two things universities are supposed to be all about, teaching and learning, research and discovery.
Incoming U. of I. president gets nod from Quinn WBBM Reporting
Chicago WBBM 780 Radio – The University of Illinois board of trustees is slated to approve a new president this week and Governor Pat Quinn is giving his approval to their pick. Quinn replaced seven of the nine trustees who have chosen Michael Hogan as U of I’s new president. The governor asked for the resignation of the board
CPS Budget Cuts in One Small School
Chicago Now – As it stands, in the proposed budget for the next year, the state of Illinois plans cut $1.3 billion dollars in funding for education. In Chicago, that means a $368 million dollar cut to the Chicago Public School system. Statewide the jobs of 30,000 teachers will be eliminated, in Chicago 2,700 teachers will be without jobs this September. As proposed by Governor Quinn and itemized by Ron Huberman
Gov. to abolish regional schools office
Chicago Daily Southtown – Gov. Pat Quinn is expected today to sign into law legislation that abolishes the scandal-plagued Suburban Cook County Regional Office of Education. Quinn is scheduled to sign the measure
Money woes and SIU
Belleville News-Democrat – The good news for Southern Illinois University Edwardsville students is that tuition is not going up. The bad news is that fees are. The bottom line is that students soon will pay more for their education. A primary reason is that the state is paying less. SIUE’s allocation is expected to be 7.8 percent less next fiscal year than this.
A race, or a crawl? Chicago Tribune Editorial – Second-round applications for Race to the Top, the $4.35 billion challenge grant program that is the…
Political News
Illinois lawmakers assess their session
Peoria Journal Star – Even though the Illinois General Assembly has yet to decide how to deal with a $13 billion budget deficit, area lawmakers were able to get some of their proposals approved during the legislature’s spring session. Here’s what they had to say about the measures that made it through, and those that didn’t.
State lawmakers beginning to agree on one thing
Southern – Michael Boland told us. “I think we haven’t met our obligations. I think we’ve pushed off things into the future.” For years, Boland, an East Moline Democrat, has aligned himself with Gov. Pat Quinn, casting himself, like Quinn, as a populist fighting for the little guy. His views on Quinn, however, have changed. “I would have hoped that Gov. Quinn would have been more of a leader,”
Statehouse Insider: Quinn’s ‘answers’ tend to meander
Springfield State Journal Register – A while ago, a reporter based in the Capitol who covers Gov. PAT Quinn observed that Quinn doesn’t answer questions so much as he filibusters. Case in point occurred last week, when Quinn was fielding questions about the state budget impasse and what
Bill Brady Launches First TV Ad In Chicago
Chicago WBBH (CBS) 2 – his first ad of the general election campaign Friday. His campaign says it will air on broadcast and cable TV in the Chicago area. In the 30-second spot, Brady blasts Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn for wanting to raise the state income tax. He says Quinn wants to “feed big government.” Quinn maintains Illinois needs the money for education because the state faces a $13 billion deficit
Edgar knows what it will take to fix state mess
Bloomington Pantagraph – Editorial – Gov. Jim Edgar seems to be among the few voices of reason concerning our state’s finances. During a recent appearance in the Twin Cities, Edgar said the plans offered by incumbent Gov. Pat Quinn and his Republican challenger, state Sen. Bill Brady of Bloomington, fall short. Edgar said it will probably take a combination of spending cuts and a tax increase to get the state out
Lawmakers must return, finish the job
Chicago Daily Herald – Stop gap measures will not provide for those who depend on state services and keep them from falling through the cracks. Stop gap measures will not give local governments and schools the funds they need to do their jobs. Stop gap measures will not address the $13 billion deficit. The borrowing and other measures the Emergency Budget Act proposes will only worsen
Pick your pension poison
Chicago Tribune – When lawmakers return to Springfield to finish the budget later this month, they’ll be greeted by the same major holdup that caused them to head home in frustration last week — how to make a nearly $4 billion state worker pension payment.
Police, firefighters may be next for pension changes
Arlington Heights Daily Herald – But negotiations called for cutting that in half to match the members’ contribution at about 10 percent. Earlier this spring, state lawmakers set new limits on pensions for teachers, state and university workers, judges and lawmakers, and raised the retirement age to 67, but cops and firefighters were left out in part to avoid having 67-year-olds in such active jobs.
Simon, Madigan like their partys chances in election
Champaign News Gazette – URBANA – This could be a tough year for Democrats, party candidates acknowledged Sunday, but there’s still time to overcome the bleak outlook. About 200 Democrats attended the local party’s spring dinner, headlined by Attorney General Lisa Madigan and lieutenant governor candidate Sheila Simon, at Kennedy’s at Stone Creek
Brady’s ’semantics’ on ‘across the board’
Chicago Tribune – And that you don’t know what “semantics” means. In that same interview, Brady made seven references to indicted former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, each one adjacent to the name of current Gov. Pat Quinn, Brady’s Democratic opponent in November. Brady spoke of “Blagojevich/Quinn appointees,” complained that “Quinn and Blagojevich have racked up in excess of $10 billion in unpaid bills and short
Enough with ’semantics’; give detailed plan
Bloomington Pantagraph – Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady should stop trying to explain away the “semantics” of when a call for a 10 percent across-the-board cut isn’t a call for a 10 percent across-the-board cut. Instead, the state senator from Bloomington should get specific — real specific — about where he thinks the 10 percent cut in state spending should be made.
Springfield’s lost boys Chicago Tribune Editorial – The real Illinois fiasco isn’t that legislators have failed to pass a budget. The real fiasco is…
Other Views: Stop delaying and start leading in Springfield
Rockford Register Star Editorial – a complex, cobbled-together spending blueprint in the dead of night, fully analyzed and understood by virtually nobody. It cut around $2 billion off last year’s budget, again leaving Gov. Pat Quinn the power to decide where the cuts would come. … The remaining $11 billion gap would be dealt with — certainly not solved, not by a long stretch — through massive borrowing,
Lawmakers’ job still not done; we shouldn’t be home
Elgin Courier News – In ancient Sparta, Spartan mothers commanded their soldier sons, “Come home victorious, or come home on your shield.” This was the old version of the British Empire’s declaration, “Victory or death.” The modern Illinois version of this refrain was contained in hundreds of recent e-mails, letters and calls to my office from recently concerned Illinois constituents. Citizens and editorial boards warned, “Don’t leave Springfield until you produce a responsible balanced budget!”
GUEST EDITORIAL: State Budget: Too Much Power At Top
Hillsboro Journal News – One of the things that became crystal clear during the Illinois Senate’s debate over a new state budget was that the Democratic legislative leaders have completely broken the budget-making process.It’s no big secret that more and more power has been concentrated into the hands of the leaders, the House Speaker and the Senate President.
Scott Lee Cohen: Top Democrat threatened me CHICAGO (STMW)
Chicago WBBM 780 Radio – They would make something up to put me in jail. They did not want me on that ticket,” Cohen said. No, it was not party Chairman Michael Madigan or Gov. Quinn, he said. After Cohen’s victory in the Democratic primary, allegations surfaced that the pawnbroker held a knife to the throat of an ex-girlfriend, allegations he denied but that made Democrats
Giannoulias poll shows him even with Kirk
Chicago Sun Times – A poll taken by Alexi Giannoulias’ Democratic Illinois Senate campaign last week shows Giannoulias even with GOP rival Rep. Mark Kirk, making up for ground lost after the failure of the Giannoulias family-owned Broadway Bank. Giannoulias, the state treasurer, is even with Kirk, according to his campaign pollsters, Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research.
Legislators are pretty unhappy, too
Decatur Herald and Review – Before legislative leaders abruptly adjourned May 7, we surveyed a number of lawmakers for their thoughts on how the 2010 spring legislative session had turned out. The frustration was pretty evident. “I think it’s been really terrible, to tell you the truth,” state Rep. Michael Boland told us. “I think we haven’t met our obligations. I think we’ve pushed off things into the future.”
Gov. Candidate Brady on Highland Park School Arizona Boycott
Chicago Now – Gubernatorial candidate Bill Brady was cornered by NBC Chicago News and asked his reaction to the shameful misuse of power by the Highland Park schools that last week announced that they were banning a girls basketball team from attending a tournament in Arizona. His first comment was a good one, one I’d like to see more often from our politicians
Blago’s Lawyers Expected to Release List of Tapes
Chicago WFLD (Fox) 32 – Chicago – The Blagojevich corruption case is back in court Monday. The former governor’s legal team is expected to give the court a list of which tapes they want played in court. Meanwhile, Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-Chicago) is the latest person to be subpoenaed in the case. According to a criminal complaint, Blagojevich tried to shop President Obama’s senate seat to Jackson.
National News
School that fired all teachers to rehire them – Education
WMAQ-TV (MSNBC ) – and it opted for the mass firings after a breakdown in talks with teachers about other reforms that would have required more work, some without extra pay. Obama, during a national address on education in March, said the firings were an example of the need for accountability over student performance. “So if a school is struggling, we have to work with the principal and the teachers
Bad teachers a touchy subject in W.Va. education debate
Daily Mail – Charleston
The West Virginia Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers-West Virginia, have each appealed to the Legislature as the special session …
Madison teachers agree to a salary freeze for coming school year
Madison Eagle – … the negotiations between the Board of Education and Madison Education Association (MEA), the teachers’ union, regarding the next school year’s contract. …
TIME.com Today’s Top Stories
Both Dems and the GOP Could Suffer a Primary Backlash
The Tea Party may be wreaking havoc with the best-laid plans of the Republican leadership, but many Democrat incumbents are also under fire from challengers angry at Obama
Mexico Shaken by Abduction and Feared Murder of Top Politician
Diego Fernandez de Cevallos, a leading figure in Mexico’s ruling party, disappeared last Friday, leaving the violence-battered country’s political establishment in shock
How Britain’s New Coalition Will Govern on Key Issues
Compromise will be the key to determining how the new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition will answer major policy questions
Financial Reform Inevitable? Don’t Bank on It
In a bill this complex, with this many moving parts, the litany of potential financial-reform deal killers is virtually endless
Study: A Link Between Pesticides and ADHD
A new study by American and Canadian researchers associates exposure to pesticides to the rising rates of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in children
In the gulf, a gusher of lawsuits
On April 21, with the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig still in flames, John W. Degravelles and a group of other lawyers sued for damages. In the first of at least 88 suits filed since the disaster, they were seeking compensation for the widow of a Transocean worker who went missing and is presumed…
(By Steven Mufson and Juliet Eilperin, The Washington Post)
With Solar Valley, China takes bold step on energy
DEZHOU, CHINA — Uprooting the last traces of rural life on the edge of this northern Chinese city, laborers with chain saws spent a recent morning cutting down trees to make way for a hulking factory. A big red banner trumpeted the future for what used to be farmland: “The Biggest Solar Energy…
(By Andrew Higgins, The Washington Post)
‘This has the potential to work’
NARAY, AFGHANISTAN — Last November, Lt. Col. Robert B. Brown received an enticing offer from a mysterious enemy.
(By Greg Jaffe, The Washington Post)
Financial overhaul’s approval likely
The Senate this week could hand President Obama his second major legislative victory of the year, both on administration priorities that seemed in doubt not long ago.
(By Brady Dennis, The Washington Post)
Iran to ship uranium to Turkey in nuclear deal
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran has agreed to ship much of its enriched uranium to Turkey in a nuclear fuel swap deal reached with the help of mediation from Brazil and Turkey.
Word of the Day for Monday, May 17, 2010
majuscule \MAJ-uh-skyool\, adjective:
1. Of letters written either as capitals or uncials.
noun:
1. A large letter, either capital or uncial, used in writing or printing.