Blame state for financial distress
If you pay into Social Security, your employer is required by law to contribute a matching amount into the system on your behalf.
PENSION CONCERNS: Evanston teachers grill lawmakers
Evanston teachers grilled lawmakers Monday about reports the cash-strapped state may skip a $4 billion payment to the state’s pension systems, including the teachers’ plan that provides monthly income during retirement.
STATE AFFAIRS: Throw lawmakers into ;’debtors’ prison’?
Illinois has more than $120 billion in debt and unfunded obligations, or roughly $10,000 for every man, woman and child in the state.
Illinois House to resume budget work Monday
The Democratic-dominated legislature will renew its push for a new budget next week, trying to finish ahead of a deadline that would bring Republicans into the mix.
Brady misses hundreds of votes; Quinn criticized for absence
SPRINGFIELD – GOP nominee for governor Bill Brady recently missed more than 200 votes as a state senator during the waning weeks of the legislative session, a Daily Herald review of voting records found.
District 204 pushes idea of ‘deadbeat’ state
Hoping to change state law to allow the school district to legally withhold income tax payments from Springfield, Indian Prairie District 204 will consider a resolution urging lawmakers to approve a “deadbeat amendment.”
“Lessons Learned” Part II: Dr. Sheffield’s initiatives
ROCKFORD (WREX) – The job description: reform Rockford’s school system and, in essence, alter the city’s future. Community leaders have long stressed the two are tied together. So as Dr. LaVonne Sheffield ends year one of her superintendent contract, 13 News focuses on her initiatives in part two of our series “Lessons Learned.”
U-46 announces plans to recall 200 teachers
Two hundred Elgin Area School District U-46 teachers will be getting an extra nice start to their weekends.
Career center faces $200,000 in proposed tuition cuts
Nearly 70 students would be denied spots under District 186 plan
High school juniors and seniors will be fighting for fewer slots in Capital Area Career Center programs if the Springfield School District approves $200,000 in tuition cuts that would limit the number of students it sends there next fall.
CUSD 201 avoids increasing class sizes, at least for now
Community Unit School District 201 in Westmont will not have to increase class sizes to balance its budget, but school officials left the door open for more crowded classrooms in the fall.
Music student fee to help retain teachers in Indian Prairie schools
Ten dismissed music teachers will be restored to the District 204 payroll this fall, but parents will directly pay some of the cost.
Nine years later, HBR to get state funding
HINCKLEY — When Hinckley-Big Rock School District officials won a state grant for nearly $2 million of a $5.5 million construction project, they didn’t know they would be waiting nine years for the money.
University of Illinois trustees approve tuition increase, $620,000 salary for new president
CHICAGO (AP) — University of Illinois trustees voted Thursday to raise tuition for new students by 9.5 percent and approved a contract that pays the school’s incoming president approximately $620,000 a year — about $170,000 more than the man he’ll replace
Ed Dept: $437 million in teacher incentive grants
The U.S. Department of Education will give $437 million in competitive grants to districts that reward teachers for improving student achievement in high-need schools.
Service Above Self awards going to six people in Rockford area
ROCKFORD (WREX) – Downtown Rockford Rotary will present its Annual Service Above Self Awards to six people this afternoon.
Golden Apple names Chicago-area winners
Golden Apple has announced its recipients of the Golden Apple Awards for Excellence in Teaching in the Chicago area
Give Quinn the power to stave off meltdown
The state Legislature plans to return to work Monday to slap together a lot of half-baked schemes to paper over a $13 billion deficit.
Who Wears the Pants in Illinois? It’s Not Quinn
Pat Quinn is learning something every governor should know from the moment he takes the oath of office: he’s not the most powerful elected official in Illinois. Not even close.
Politics lately seems about as appetizing as an old canine chew toy, one of those pockmarked rawhide bones covered with doggie drool and bits of regurgitated kibble. The baying pack fights over the bone, yanking it from one pair of slavering jaws to the next. It flips into the air, tumbles at my feet. And I’m supposed to fall to the ground and chomp down on that?
Can States Fix Their Pension Problems?
An article in The Times today details how “errors, misunderstandings and wishful thinking” have caused public pension costs in New York State to explode.
Bill requires diversity in Calif. pension funds
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California’s public pension funds would have to report the ethnicity and gender of some of the outside investment managers they hire under a bill that passed the state Assembly on Thursday.
Word of the Day for Friday, May 21, 2010
baksheesh \bak-SHEESH\, noun:
1. A gratuity, present or tip.
2. A gratuity, tip, or bribe paid to expedite service.
verb:
1. To give a tip.