Education Matters US

I will be catching up hopefully this weekend.

Here are the candidates who filed to run for the 62nd State Representative seat being vacated by Bob Churchill. I will be trying to contacting each of the candidates later to interview them on their plans for education. It appears only Sandy has a website at this time.
Republicans:

Cole, Sandy – www.SandyCole.net
Oilschlager, Barbara D.

Democrats:

Elman, [...]

There was a brief Levy Hearing before the Board meeting. There was only 1 public comment reminding the board members to be fiscally responsible and to be transparent with any levy rate increases.
The board meeting was very short tonight. Here are my notes:

Three board members mentioned the Music Man performance was very well [...]

Yesterday’s Daily Herald had an interesting letter to the editor. It came from a resident of District 203 in Naperville. This gentleman was a member of the group that helped convince voters they should approve the education referendum. Little did he know then what he was about to unleash on himself [...]

The Daily Herald is reporting the District 46 Board and Teachers Union have finally reached a tentative contract agreement. The the sides conducted and all night negotiation session on Thursday night. The sides had already turned to mediation before Thanskgiving to hopefully speed up the process.
It had been widely speculated that the [...]

I wanted to give everyone the results of tonight’s Levy Hearing and Board Meeting for D127. They approved the levies unanimously. They are levying $24,806,382 in the education fund for tax year 2005. You can see all their approved levies here.
In my previous calculations I showed a minimum of just over $20 [...]

The Daily Herald ran the article below today about our Green Line campaign here in D 127. I was also interviewed this morning by Libby Collins on WKRS AM 1220 about the campaign as well. Due to these efforts, I have received multiple emails today asking for more information. I am [...]

Many local schools boards are abdicating their authority and are handing it over to the teachers unions. How and why are they doing this you ask? Read this story provided by Students First.

Local influence adds to teacher-union power
12/8/2005
By Scott Reeder
Small Newspaper Group
SPRINGFIELD – Illinois’ two major teacher unions not only exert their political clout [...]

The Daily Herald is reporting today about questionable spending in the Grayslake High activity fund spending. When the Herald reporter questioned the expenses Superintendent Catherine Finger was concerned and is now considering whether an indepentent review of the fund is needed.
I would say there is no question and independent review is needed. If [...]

I am late talking about this, but it is still noteworthy because of who gave this speech. It was given by Morty Rosenfeld, President of the Plainview-Old Bethpage Congress of Teachers. The speech entitled Telling What We Know was given on 10/17/2005. (Hat tip: Kevin Killion of the Illinois Loop. Both [...]

If you are going to the d127 meeting tonight or on December 15th…

I am rewriting this article to try and make it easier for all to understand. This will also fix the errors I had made earlier when I confused the tax year and calendar years.
Grayslake High School District 127 has exceeded the amount that they asked for in their 2002 referendum. That referendum question [...]

Extreme Wisdom is reporting that last week Big Ed has gotten the courts to rule that property taxes are an unconstituional way to fund Education.
You may think this cannot happen here in Illinois, but think again. It will soon be here. The discussion has already started. Tonight, a board member [...]

View Corrected and simplifed Post

I emailed the D127 Board about their tax levies asking for an explanation about why they had exceeded the amount stated in the passed referendum. I will not quote the response or identify the source at this time. I did not ask permission to publish the email. The basic expalanation though was [...]