Crain’s Chicago Business has a really good article by Dave McKinney about how Illinois got into the pension mess that now exits.
This symbol is on the IEA web site.
I found this particularly insightful:
Education Association President Cinda Klickna was not in union leadership in 2005. But she says the union sat between a “rock and a hard place of, do you want to help students or do you want to put your money into the pensions?”
The legislation that passed enabled Blagojevich to earmark $300 million more to schools.
I think it would have been more appropriate to point out that the choice was whether to increase salaries that year or provide for the payment of future pensions.
The teachers’ unions consistently decided on immediate gratification.
The following paragraph is so, so correct:
Madigan has a reputation around the Statehouse for thinking three steps ahead of everyone else. But he got this one wrong—really wrong.
The Tribune made the same point in March.
I think we need to strengthen and increase unions for private workers but for public worker non unionize them because it creates a conflict of interest between taxpayers.
FDR did not include public workers in unions for that reason; JFK did.
Union members are greedy, after all they are Americans.
Cinda Klickna was a Teachers Retirement System of Illinois (TRS) pension fund Board member in 2005.
The teacher union loves to help students by hiking salaries and pension benefits.