“Republican insider Rodney Davis has spent 19 years on the taxpayer payroll taking orders from politicians like disgraced former Governor George Ryan and right-wing, Tea Party Congressman John Shimkus. Now, Rodney is running for Congress and he hopes we won’t pay any attention to his past as a campaign operative who helped come up with new schemes to launder money at the Illinois Republican Party.”
from the Chicago Teachers Union
The Chicago Teachers Union is currently on the front lines of a fight to defend public education. On one side the 30,000 members of the CTU have called for a contract that includes fair compensation, meaningful job security for qualified teachers, smaller class sizes and a better school day with Art, Music, World Language and appropriate staffing levels to help our neediest students.
On the other side, the Chicago Board of Education—which is managed by out of town reformers and Broad Foundation hires with little or no Chicago public school experience—has pushed to add two weeks to the school year and 85 minutes to the school day, eliminate pay increases for seniority, evaluate teachers based on student test scores, and slash many other rights.
Teachers, parents and community supporters in Chicago have fought valiantly—marching, filling auditoriums at hearings and parent meetings, even occupying a school and taking over a school board meeting. Most recently, 98 percent of our members voted to authorize a strike. But now we find ourselves facing new opponents—national education privatizers, backed by some of the nation’s wealthiest people. They are running radio ads, increasing press attacks, and mounting a PR campaign to discredit the CTU and the benefits of public education.
from PDA-IL
PDA IL joins the Chicago Teachers Union, Chicago Teachers Solidarity Campaign, Gray Panthers, Northern Illinois Jobs for Justice, Unite Here and National Nurses United among other labor unions and Hyde Park community activists to protest against the use of property taxes going to fund the building of a new luxury hotel in Hyde Park while schools face millions of dollars in cuts.
from the Grassroots Collaborative
Over 20 Bickerdike activists attend a training to learn about Tax Increment Financing (TIF) and how the inequality of TIF distribution is effecting our neighborhoods, schools, libraries, and parks.
August 7, 2012.
from The Real News Network
Gerald Friedman (University of Massachusetts, Amherst): A single-payer plan in Maryland would cover everyone, improve outcomes and make business more competitive
Parts Two and Three follow after the jump.
from the Center for American Progress
The United States is the only developed nation that does not guarantee paid sick leave for workers when they are ill, or when they need to miss work in order to take care of a sick family member. Sarah Jane Glynn, a Policy Analyst at the Center for American Progress, explains why there is a need for paid sick days, who benefits and why guaranteed paid sick days for workers is good for the economy.
from PDA-IL
Chicago Teachers Union Financial Secretary Kristine Mayle speaks on the current state of Chicago Public Schools and contract negotiations.
August 13, 2012
The recent stock market volatility could have been restricted by a tax on transactions that would make the small quick score less attractive
from Democracy Now!
As Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney names Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin as his vice presidential running mate, we speak with two Wisconsinites about the seven-term congressman’s record, and how his views are influenced by the controversial philosopher, Ayn Rand. “This is not necessarily a foolish choice by Romney,” says John Nichols, political writer for The Nation magazine. “It is an extreme choice and it does define the national Republican Party toward a place where the Wisconsin Republican Party is — which is very anti-labor, willing to make deep cuts in education, public services, and frankly, very combative on issues like voter ID and a host of other things that really go to the core question of how successful and how functional our democracy will be.” Ryan is chairman of the House of Representatives Budget Committee and architect of a controversial budget plan to cut federal spending by more than $5 trillion over the next 10 years. “Ryan gets a lot of mileage for understanding so-called the budget and economics,” says Matthew Rothschild, editor and publisher of The Progressive magazine. “But if you look closely, he doesn’t really get it.” Democrats argue Ryan’s planned Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security reform would essentially dismantle key components of the social safety net.
Part Two after the jump.
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