School slaps mom with $9,156 bill is the story from the News-Sun over the weekend. This is an outrageous story and one more reason why we need to FUND THE CHILD and not the system.
This has been a tough year for Dana Wekesa, a 28-year-old nurse’s aide from Kenosha. While trying to balance a [...]
On Thursday, I had the opprotunity to meet with Ken & Jason Falkingham who administer the IUPC. The IUPC is an intergovernmental consortium of schools and other taxing bodies who buy electricity and natural gas as a group in an attempt to save money. Bruno Behrend of Extreme Wisdom was also present at [...]
In an article last July, the Northwest Herald found taxing bodies were overcharging for FOIA requests. Since that time I have done some research, although there is much more to go in this area. I found many taxing bodies that charge what appear to be excessive fees as well.
First there is [...]
Horace was a shining example of how a Christian and an American should live. He willingly gave of himself, his time, his money, and ultimately his life to help others. When he saw someone in need; he didn’t wait for someone else to help; he didn’t say the government should help these people; he just helped them himself. Many Christians and Americans today have forgotten the lesson Horace taught us through his life.
The Illinois School Business Officials are having their conference in a couple of weeks. Check out the perks we taxpayers are paying for over at the District 211 Blog under the post Nice Work If You Can Get It.
Here is the second part of my notes from the Michael Medved presentation at Deerfield High School Monday night. These are the tips Mr. Medved gave on how parents can fight back against the attack on their kids.
What Parents Can Do To Combat These Influences
Control (Influence of Media)
Not going to succeed through boycotts or [...]
The following are just 2 examples of why school choice provided by NCLB needs to be moved beyond just public schools and why NCLB is an ineffective and unneccessary waste of legislation that should be repealed.
First, the problem is that money does not follow the child so other local public schools can reject the students [...]
Below are my notes from the Michael Medved presentation at Deerfield High School Monday night. Mr. Vedved was sponsored by a group of Conservative Students call H2O (Humble to One). This is only part 1. I will post the solutions in the next day or so.
9th largest number of listeners
On WIND 560 [...]
Over at Extreme Wisdom, Bruno received an email asking for help from a fellow school reformer. I also received this email and have replied, but I wanted to explore Bruno’s thoughts some more. The email stated:
After the most recent ISAT results were released, it became clear that there was no way to use [...]
A Chicago Public School Math teacher, Frank M. Victoria, has a great article in Sundays Chicago Tribune. In it he explains why kids cannot understand why math works because they don’t know how math works. [Emphasis mine]
The problem:
Consider this 7th grade math problem: A company makes both 3-wheel and 4-wheel [...]
I read this letter to the editor in the Daily Herald and just had to repsond to it.
Don’t believe hype; Warren is doing well
This letter comes as a response to citizen questions regarding the 2006 Illinois State Report Card.
It is critical for the public to understand that the playing field is not level when it [...]
I received an email today about Michael Medved coming to Illinois. Mr. Medved is a conservative radio talk show host, author and movie critic. He is being sponsored by a group of conservative students at Deerfield High School who have felt persecuted by the liberal agenda of the school policies. Freshmen [...]
The saying that teachers are underpaid is just a myth as I have written about in the past. The Wall Street Journal studied teacher salaries and discovered the average public school teacher salary was $34.06 per hour in 2005. That figure places the average teacher “36% more than the hourly wage of the [...]
For those of you in the Crystal Lake area, please check out the reports on the Mchenry County Blog of a reported Columbine/Va Tech style threat for this morning April 20th. Cal has received multiple emails about this. Below is the press release excerpt Cal posted from the Police Dept.
The CLCHS has [...]
Antioch District 117 won’t take no for an answer. They made an offer on land adjacent to a parcel of land they already own. The owners of that land rejected their offer and accepted another.
Attorneys have filed a condemnation suit in Lake County circuit court against an Antioch homeowner who reportedly refused to [...]
On Tuesday, 2 homeschool dads were elected to school board in Carpentersville District 300 and the McHenry Grade School. Read the full story at McHenry Count Blog.
Homeschool Dad and McHenry County Republican precinct committeeman John Ryan of Algonquin knocked off the Carpentersville District 300 School Board President Mary Fioretti.
And up Route 31 in McHenry, [...]
I have recieved several of my FOIA requests back. So far, each taxing body has only sent me the contract with the consortium and no other bid documents. This is show there was no bid process or that the taxing body violated the Freedom of Information Act by not providing the documents requested. [...]
UPDATE: Write-in votes have been tallied and posted at the County Clerk’s website. County Clerk Williard Helander replied to my email this evening to notify me of this. Douglas Nerge won the write-in vote for the fourth spot on the D127 School Board. See the updated results below.
These are still unofficial [...]
I recieved an email from Grayslake High School District 127 write-in candidate, Cris Tajnai (excerpt below).
Next Tuesday, April 17, 2007 is VOTING DAY. I just want to let you know that I am a write-in candidate for the High School District 127 board election this coming Tuesday. Please write-in my name if you [...]
James Picardi, former Chicago Public School employee, receives only 20 months in prison for his minority fraud scheme. This story is in both the Daily Herald and Chicago Tribune. Exceperts below: [Emphasis mine]
A Wauconda man who took kickbacks for doling out Chicago Public Schools contracts was sentenced to 20 months [...]
A forum was held for the Grayslake District 46 school board candidates this past Monday night. It was sponsored by the PTO and moderated by one of its members. I know the moderator was changed to try and make the forum more unbiased, expecially since one of the candidates belongs to the PTO. [...]
Over at the District 211 Blog there are several great articles about the no-bid contracts the district entered into.
More on our natural gas contract and the May 25 memo
What about our natural gas contract?
Our local teachers union and the energy contract
In addition I have started a new website to make it easier to track all [...]
I’m sure some of you remember last year the D127 board claiming they did not approve anything extravagant in the Master Facilities plan even though it included synthetic turf. Well, now we find out how extravagant that decision was. The News-Sun has written an article about how the board is now balking [...]
I sent a letter to the 5 candidates running for school board in District 46 asking several questions. I provided each with my email address and a stamped self addressed envelope to use to return their responses. This was sent on Tuesday, March 13th advising that I wanted to provide my readers [...]
The Opionion section of the Daily Herald carried its endorsements for the District 46 school board. They are Sue Facklam, Mike Linder, and Nadia Shams-Ahmed. See the details below.
Incumbent Susan C. Facklam, 54, a Third Lake resident and nurse, seeks her second term even though her children are past elementary ages. Grayslake resident [...]
