The information below was quoted from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy website . We suggest that you go to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy website to listen to the tape or read the transcript of this analysis. The Michigan Education Association is similar to the Illinois Education Association in Illinois. As your school districts are negotiating their teachers' contracts take note if the same tactics are used in your district. Clearly you can see that the Huntley school board members, BEST members and school employees have used some of these tactics against Larry Snow.
MEA Advocates Deceptive High Pressure Tactics Against School Board Members
An MEA training audio tape for union negotiators offers a particularly disturbing inside look at the MEA, and clearly reveals that it has adopted the militant "industrial union" model for its organization, rather than a "craft union" or professional association model.
The transcript of the tape explains how union negotiators should use pressure tactics to force school board members to concede to their demands. Among the tactics advocated are:
* Investigate the background of each school board member, including religious affiliation, marital status, age, education, employment, family, politics, "what do his peers think of him?," "what is his relationship with his employer or employees?," and "does holding a public office help him advance in his job or produce business connections?" This should be investigated, the MEA states, so the negotiator will "know what sensitive chords and nerves to hit during negotiation to get the results you seek."
*After gathering information, the MEA recommends that the local union "consider bringing in a heavy from the outside. You know, perhaps your Uniserv director. When the job is done and the bad guy, you know, has to leave town, won’t it be nice when the local association won’t have to bear the brunt of resentment?"
*The MEA tape recommends that the negotiator "use time as an ally. You know, if your negotiating team can get to bargaining sessions well rested, whereas the board’s team is harried and fatigued, keep negotiations going until 2 o’clock or 3 o’clock in the morning. Wear down the board physically and psychologically."
*"Remember that large districts rely heavily upon the superintendent to absorb the flack. They use the superintendent as a shield. If he is discredited, the rest of the board suddenly feels naked and they are often eager to take an escape route which the association has waited for the appropriate moment to offer."
*"Do your best to split the board on crucial issues through contacts with individual board members or misrepresentation of the issues to the public through press releases. Attempt to carefully attack the credibility of the board negotiating team so that most of the board team’s executive sessions with their board will be spent answering board members’ questions about association charges and not with planning on up-coming negotiation sessions."
Saturday, July 08, 2006
Friday, July 07, 2006
A tale of two different taxing situations.
The first story below appeared in the Rockford Register Star. In the first article below you will read that legislators are thinking of a tax increase. The second story is an AP story and apppeared in Northwest Herald.
In the first story below Martire made two good statements:
"The honest answer is if you're going to enhance public spending, you need recurring revenue to fund it," Martire said.
"And if you're relying on gimmicks or tricks or borrowing or raiding other funds, every year you create a bigger and bigger deficit position. That's something other than responsible because it's borrowing against future generations to maintain current spending levels."
But the solution is to NOT "enhance public spending" and to NOT "maintain current spending levels". Even his own words show that the real problem is spending, not funding.
After more than 15 years, is a state tax increase inevitable?
By Aaron Chambers
REGISTER STAR SPRINGFIELD BUREAU
Click here for more information about Aaron Chambers
SPRINGFIELD — The state hasn’t hiked tax rates in more than 15 years.
Will Illinois soon hit you with a tax increase? And, as some observers suggest, would a tax hike be more responsible than the state’s nickel-and-dime approach to generating more cash to spend?
“They come up with so many creative ideas, why don’t they just raise taxes and get by all these games and get a solid revenue stream to take care of our pensions and our debt and our schools?” said Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Rockford.
He was referring to Gov. Rod Blagojevich and fellow Democrats in the Legislature who have shaped the state budget in recent years.
Syverson predicted the state would need to raise taxes to deal with its rapidly growing expenses.
He said a sales-tax increase wouldn’t be feasible because it would drive consumers to the Internet and surrounding states.
But he would consider supporting an income tax increase — perhaps a temporary one — as long as the state stopped diverting dollars from road construction funds and committed to using all new revenue to pay bills and debt.
“Unfortunately the problem can’t be fixed with a few small fee increases,” Syverson said. “It’s going to take a pretty substantial amount of new revenue, unfortunately, just to make up for what’s happened over the last three years.”
John Kenward, a senior analyst at rating agency Standard & Poors, said the state’s nickel-and-dime approach is not unusual.
“There’s not a lot of forward financial planning with the states,” he said. “It tends to be budget to budget, year to year.”
Kenward said it’s heroic for Illinois to keep a lid on taxes to stay competitive with surrounding states. But that at some point, it would need “an overall longer-term plan because the revenues aren’t growing as fast as the expenditures are.”
In April, Fitch Ratings gave Illinois a “negative outlook,” because it must start making dramatically larger payments to its pension systems. Public pension systems have $38.6 billion in unfunded liability, which is the difference between assets and the cost of retirement benefits for everybody covered by the system.
Ralph Martire, executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, a fiscal policy think tank, likened Blagojevich’s fiscal style to paying grocery bills with a credit card.
Martire supports an income tax hike to better fund education and other needs.
“The honest answer is if you’re going to enhance public spending, you need recurring revenue to fund it,” Martire said.
“And if you’re relying on gimmicks or tricks or borrowing or raiding other funds, every year you create a bigger and bigger deficit position. That’s something other than responsible because it’s borrowing against future generations to maintain current spending levels.”
The state hiked the personal income tax from 2.5 percent to 3 percent in 1989, according to the state Department of Revenue. The corporate income tax increased from 4 percent to 4.8 percent at the same time.
The state sales tax has been 6.25 percent since 1990.
Blagojevich’s latest plan to generate cash is selling or leasing the state lottery. Skeptics say that would simply postpone an inevitable tax increase, but Blagojevich budget director John Filan disputes that.
Staff writer Aaron Chambers may be reached at 217-782-2959 or achambers@rrstar.com.
In the story above
Rising gas prices have pumped millions into state budget
[published on Fri, Jul 7, 2006]
SPRINGFIELD (AP) – Rising gasoline prices and the extra tax money they produce have pumped an additional $137 million into the state budget over the past year, analysts say.
To view the rest of the story go to Northwest Herald.
In the first story below Martire made two good statements:
"The honest answer is if you're going to enhance public spending, you need recurring revenue to fund it," Martire said.
"And if you're relying on gimmicks or tricks or borrowing or raiding other funds, every year you create a bigger and bigger deficit position. That's something other than responsible because it's borrowing against future generations to maintain current spending levels."
But the solution is to NOT "enhance public spending" and to NOT "maintain current spending levels". Even his own words show that the real problem is spending, not funding.
After more than 15 years, is a state tax increase inevitable?
By Aaron Chambers
REGISTER STAR SPRINGFIELD BUREAU
Click here for more information about Aaron Chambers
SPRINGFIELD — The state hasn’t hiked tax rates in more than 15 years.
Will Illinois soon hit you with a tax increase? And, as some observers suggest, would a tax hike be more responsible than the state’s nickel-and-dime approach to generating more cash to spend?
“They come up with so many creative ideas, why don’t they just raise taxes and get by all these games and get a solid revenue stream to take care of our pensions and our debt and our schools?” said Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Rockford.
He was referring to Gov. Rod Blagojevich and fellow Democrats in the Legislature who have shaped the state budget in recent years.
Syverson predicted the state would need to raise taxes to deal with its rapidly growing expenses.
He said a sales-tax increase wouldn’t be feasible because it would drive consumers to the Internet and surrounding states.
But he would consider supporting an income tax increase — perhaps a temporary one — as long as the state stopped diverting dollars from road construction funds and committed to using all new revenue to pay bills and debt.
“Unfortunately the problem can’t be fixed with a few small fee increases,” Syverson said. “It’s going to take a pretty substantial amount of new revenue, unfortunately, just to make up for what’s happened over the last three years.”
John Kenward, a senior analyst at rating agency Standard & Poors, said the state’s nickel-and-dime approach is not unusual.
“There’s not a lot of forward financial planning with the states,” he said. “It tends to be budget to budget, year to year.”
Kenward said it’s heroic for Illinois to keep a lid on taxes to stay competitive with surrounding states. But that at some point, it would need “an overall longer-term plan because the revenues aren’t growing as fast as the expenditures are.”
In April, Fitch Ratings gave Illinois a “negative outlook,” because it must start making dramatically larger payments to its pension systems. Public pension systems have $38.6 billion in unfunded liability, which is the difference between assets and the cost of retirement benefits for everybody covered by the system.
Ralph Martire, executive director of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, a fiscal policy think tank, likened Blagojevich’s fiscal style to paying grocery bills with a credit card.
Martire supports an income tax hike to better fund education and other needs.
“The honest answer is if you’re going to enhance public spending, you need recurring revenue to fund it,” Martire said.
“And if you’re relying on gimmicks or tricks or borrowing or raiding other funds, every year you create a bigger and bigger deficit position. That’s something other than responsible because it’s borrowing against future generations to maintain current spending levels.”
The state hiked the personal income tax from 2.5 percent to 3 percent in 1989, according to the state Department of Revenue. The corporate income tax increased from 4 percent to 4.8 percent at the same time.
The state sales tax has been 6.25 percent since 1990.
Blagojevich’s latest plan to generate cash is selling or leasing the state lottery. Skeptics say that would simply postpone an inevitable tax increase, but Blagojevich budget director John Filan disputes that.
Staff writer Aaron Chambers may be reached at 217-782-2959 or achambers@rrstar.com.
In the story above
Rising gas prices have pumped millions into state budget
[published on Fri, Jul 7, 2006]
SPRINGFIELD (AP) – Rising gasoline prices and the extra tax money they produce have pumped an additional $137 million into the state budget over the past year, analysts say.
To view the rest of the story go to Northwest Herald.
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Taxes forced me out
The following letter to the editor appeared in the Northwest Herald.
Taxes forced me out
To the Editor:
A letter of thanks to the tax hikers of Kane County and District 300.
Thank you, Dundee Township assessor, for hiking my assessment for more than was needed.
Thank you, Village of Algonquin, for not keeping the tax rate lower for homeowners, even with the new developments on Randall Road.
Thank you, District 300, for running such a dirty campaign to engage my kindergartner to try to get a "yes" vote out of her parents. (By the way, I voted no.)
Thank you, Kane County, for making my taxes so high that I put my house up for sale.
Thanks for making me have to explain to my children why we needed to move away from their friends.
Thank you for making me see that moving to Indiana was a good choice and a better education for my children.
Thank you for showing that no matter what, the corrupt, twisted ways of taxes and electioneering in Illinois never will change.
Roger Case
Valparaiso, Ind.
Taxes forced me out
To the Editor:
A letter of thanks to the tax hikers of Kane County and District 300.
Thank you, Dundee Township assessor, for hiking my assessment for more than was needed.
Thank you, Village of Algonquin, for not keeping the tax rate lower for homeowners, even with the new developments on Randall Road.
Thank you, District 300, for running such a dirty campaign to engage my kindergartner to try to get a "yes" vote out of her parents. (By the way, I voted no.)
Thank you, Kane County, for making my taxes so high that I put my house up for sale.
Thanks for making me have to explain to my children why we needed to move away from their friends.
Thank you for making me see that moving to Indiana was a good choice and a better education for my children.
Thank you for showing that no matter what, the corrupt, twisted ways of taxes and electioneering in Illinois never will change.
Roger Case
Valparaiso, Ind.
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
District 99 Tax Referendum Rejection Arguments
A group called Citizens for Responsible Solutions opposed to the District 99 referendum proposed the following reasons to reject the referendum. Their investigation and reasons are a good example for others to follow after they have decided to organize a group and oppose school referenda.
Reasons to vote no:
District 99 Tax Referendum Rejection Arguments
I.
Tax cap issue is a "red herring." Despite the tax cap, District 99 has already received very significant and repeated inflows of new dollars in recent years.
Due largely to property value appreciation and new construction, total revenues, after tax cap restrictions, grew from $44.2 million in fiscal 1994 to $67.7 million in fiscal 2003. That is an increase of over $22 million or an average annual revenue increase of 5.3% per year.
Additional funds from referendum/non-referendum bonds and state construction grant totaled $82.3 million.
The district's problem is not their after tax cap revenue levels, but rather their unwillingness to make budget adjustments as the economy goes through non-boom periods.
II.
District 99 has repeatedly demonstrated poor fiscal and administrative management in recent years.
Voters approved $49.5 million for construction and renovation. Cost overruns (700+ change orders) have brought cost, to date, to nearly $65 million with additional lawsuit expenses still coming. Final net impact of lawsuits is unknown.
District 99 borrowed $10.6 million they claim has generated income. In fact, the borrowing expense has exceeded the investment interest rate by several percentage points, costing the district hundreds of thousands of dollars in negative interest rate spread. They now hope to reduce, not solve, the problem by re-financing $42 million of higher cost bonds. This will cost several hundred thousand dollars to transact.
District 99 has failed to respond to calls to commit to a mandated balanced budget. Instead, it has adopted a budget where annual percentage increases for salaries and benefits exceed realistic percentage increases in revenues, resulting in continued deficit spending.
Budget problems have been compounded by practice of spiking salaries just prior to retirement, and refusing to expect administrators to contribute toward insurance costs.
Poor administrative relations with staff contributed to teacher strike that further polarized staff/administration relations.
District issued high cost taxable bonds instead of lower cost tax free bonds under pretense that money would go to cash reserves rather than be used for operations. Instead, over half that bond money has already been spent.
III.
District 99 has demonstrated poor priorities.
$3500 to $6500 pay increases were just approved in August for most administrators, but sufficient money for textbooks supposedly isn't available.
$2 million has been allocated to buy land at DGN for future parking and sports fields, but science labs, fine arts facility renovations, administrative office space and computer upgrades badly needed right now at DGS have not been funded.
Last spring District 99 spent nearly $25,000 sending 15 administrators and department heads to San Francisco for a four day conference, when sending only 2 or 3 individuals would have been much more appropriate considering district budget problems.
IV.
District 99 has not been candid with the community on many issues.
Claimed a "Balanced Budget" that clearly wasn't.
Indicated that referendum rate increase amount being considered was $.05 or $.10. In fact, it was readily changed to $.15, a 50% increase. Leadership was either disingenuous or out of touch with their fiscal needs.
Promised to abate back state construction grant money, but ceased doing so after only a couple years.
Didn't address construction/renovation needs at both schools as promised in last referendum.
Makes no mention of salary and benefit role in current fiscal problems even though that area represents at least 80% of their budget!
Finally, using per capita expenditure data in their election materials ignores the fact such data is largely a function of District size, not management efficiency.
V.
This proposed tax increase is excessive as well as potentially harmful to other taxing bodies.
Many families and individuals are currently under great financial stress due to unemployment, high medical costs, college costs, etc. $150 to $250 more in new taxes is simply unaffordable for these people and elderly on fixed income.
It is unfair to ask for a tax increase before telling citizens the fair value of the Woodridge property, and plans to either use it or sell it after forty years! "Citizen participation" means more than just asking for an endorsement. Their own survey shows citizen support of a Woodridge property sale by approx. a 2 to 1 margin.
There is still about $6 million available in reserve to cover the next two years of projected deficit, plus room to cut non-instructional expenditures such as the administrative budget.
Any true problems related to the tax cap are a statewide problem requiring a state solution, not a bailout by district taxpayers. Other non-school district taxing bodies seem able to live with the tax cap.
District 99 is already getting one third of our property tax bill. Tax dollars are not unlimited, and such a large tax increase would seriously jeopardize the growing fiscal needs of other taxing bodies such as District 58, College of DuPage, Villages of Woodridge and Downers Grove, DuPage County, etc.
Reasons to vote no:
District 99 Tax Referendum Rejection Arguments
I.
Tax cap issue is a "red herring." Despite the tax cap, District 99 has already received very significant and repeated inflows of new dollars in recent years.
Due largely to property value appreciation and new construction, total revenues, after tax cap restrictions, grew from $44.2 million in fiscal 1994 to $67.7 million in fiscal 2003. That is an increase of over $22 million or an average annual revenue increase of 5.3% per year.
Additional funds from referendum/non-referendum bonds and state construction grant totaled $82.3 million.
The district's problem is not their after tax cap revenue levels, but rather their unwillingness to make budget adjustments as the economy goes through non-boom periods.
II.
District 99 has repeatedly demonstrated poor fiscal and administrative management in recent years.
Voters approved $49.5 million for construction and renovation. Cost overruns (700+ change orders) have brought cost, to date, to nearly $65 million with additional lawsuit expenses still coming. Final net impact of lawsuits is unknown.
District 99 borrowed $10.6 million they claim has generated income. In fact, the borrowing expense has exceeded the investment interest rate by several percentage points, costing the district hundreds of thousands of dollars in negative interest rate spread. They now hope to reduce, not solve, the problem by re-financing $42 million of higher cost bonds. This will cost several hundred thousand dollars to transact.
District 99 has failed to respond to calls to commit to a mandated balanced budget. Instead, it has adopted a budget where annual percentage increases for salaries and benefits exceed realistic percentage increases in revenues, resulting in continued deficit spending.
Budget problems have been compounded by practice of spiking salaries just prior to retirement, and refusing to expect administrators to contribute toward insurance costs.
Poor administrative relations with staff contributed to teacher strike that further polarized staff/administration relations.
District issued high cost taxable bonds instead of lower cost tax free bonds under pretense that money would go to cash reserves rather than be used for operations. Instead, over half that bond money has already been spent.
III.
District 99 has demonstrated poor priorities.
$3500 to $6500 pay increases were just approved in August for most administrators, but sufficient money for textbooks supposedly isn't available.
$2 million has been allocated to buy land at DGN for future parking and sports fields, but science labs, fine arts facility renovations, administrative office space and computer upgrades badly needed right now at DGS have not been funded.
Last spring District 99 spent nearly $25,000 sending 15 administrators and department heads to San Francisco for a four day conference, when sending only 2 or 3 individuals would have been much more appropriate considering district budget problems.
IV.
District 99 has not been candid with the community on many issues.
Claimed a "Balanced Budget" that clearly wasn't.
Indicated that referendum rate increase amount being considered was $.05 or $.10. In fact, it was readily changed to $.15, a 50% increase. Leadership was either disingenuous or out of touch with their fiscal needs.
Promised to abate back state construction grant money, but ceased doing so after only a couple years.
Didn't address construction/renovation needs at both schools as promised in last referendum.
Makes no mention of salary and benefit role in current fiscal problems even though that area represents at least 80% of their budget!
Finally, using per capita expenditure data in their election materials ignores the fact such data is largely a function of District size, not management efficiency.
V.
This proposed tax increase is excessive as well as potentially harmful to other taxing bodies.
Many families and individuals are currently under great financial stress due to unemployment, high medical costs, college costs, etc. $150 to $250 more in new taxes is simply unaffordable for these people and elderly on fixed income.
It is unfair to ask for a tax increase before telling citizens the fair value of the Woodridge property, and plans to either use it or sell it after forty years! "Citizen participation" means more than just asking for an endorsement. Their own survey shows citizen support of a Woodridge property sale by approx. a 2 to 1 margin.
There is still about $6 million available in reserve to cover the next two years of projected deficit, plus room to cut non-instructional expenditures such as the administrative budget.
Any true problems related to the tax cap are a statewide problem requiring a state solution, not a bailout by district taxpayers. Other non-school district taxing bodies seem able to live with the tax cap.
District 99 is already getting one third of our property tax bill. Tax dollars are not unlimited, and such a large tax increase would seriously jeopardize the growing fiscal needs of other taxing bodies such as District 58, College of DuPage, Villages of Woodridge and Downers Grove, DuPage County, etc.
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
Teacher at Sheepshead Bay High School Takes Time Off to Go To Prison
The following article appeared in the NY Times.
This is our favorite section in the story below....""Michael Herman, the teachers' union chapter leader, said Mr. Everett was an excellent teacher who should be welcomed back to his job teaching law classes.
"It was an unfortunate isolated incident that got blown out of proportion," Mr. Herman said. "He wanted to make a difference in kids' lives, and he was doing that.""
That folks is one of the many problems of the teachers' unions.
June 7, 2006
Time Off? No Problem. But for Jail? Problem.
By ELISSA GOOTMAN
For years, the New York City school system has encouraged people to leave lucrative professions behind to work as teachers. But a disbarred lawyer convicted of theft may not have been what officials had in mind.
Investigators said yesterday that when the disbarred New Jersey lawyer, Thomas Everett, applied for a leave of absence from his job teaching at Sheepshead Bay High School in Brooklyn, he wrote that he had to take care of "problems with the state of New Jersey judicial system." In fact, they said, Mr. Everett needed the time off to go to jail.
In a report, Richard J. Condon, the special commissioner of investigation for the city schools, wrote that Mr. Everett, 59, was
disbarred in 2001 while being investigated by the Essex County prosecutor's office. In 2003, Mr. Everett started teaching at
Sheepshead Bay.
But his past followed him. In May 2005, New Jersey officials finished their investigation, and Mr. Everett was arrested and charged with stealing more than $1 million while serving as the executor of two elderly women's estates.
In October, investigators said, Mr. Everett pleaded guilty to theft and misappropriation and was sentenced in January to a maximum of three years in prison, at which point he applied for the leave. After serving four months, Mr. Everett was released from jail on May 22 and placed in a supervised release program, forbidding him to leave New Jersey. According to the report, he owes $1.4 million in restitution to the families.
The Department of Education issued a statement yesterday saying it would move to fire Mr. Everett. That is what Mr. Condon recommended — not because of the conviction, but because Mr. Everett had not reported the conviction to the department's Office of Personnel Investigations, although he did tell his principal.
Nonetheless, Mr. Condon said Mr. Everett may have been done in by his own honesty, by offering an accurate if vague reason for requesting the leave.
"If he had come up with a good reason, even if it wasn't true, but one that passed the smell test, he probably would have been home free," Mr. Condon said.
Mr. Everett did not return a telephone call yesterday seeking comment. But according to the report, he said that heirs of his
clients, whom he described as "two little old ladies in nursing homes," had questioned his actions in handling the estates. He told investigators that he simply failed to keep good records of his billable hours.
Michael Herman, the teachers' union chapter leader, said Mr. Everett was an excellent teacher who should be welcomed back to his job teaching law classes.
"It was an unfortunate isolated incident that got blown out of proportion," Mr. Herman said. "He wanted to make a difference in kids' lives, and he was doing that."
This is our favorite section in the story below....""Michael Herman, the teachers' union chapter leader, said Mr. Everett was an excellent teacher who should be welcomed back to his job teaching law classes.
"It was an unfortunate isolated incident that got blown out of proportion," Mr. Herman said. "He wanted to make a difference in kids' lives, and he was doing that.""
That folks is one of the many problems of the teachers' unions.
June 7, 2006
Time Off? No Problem. But for Jail? Problem.
By ELISSA GOOTMAN
For years, the New York City school system has encouraged people to leave lucrative professions behind to work as teachers. But a disbarred lawyer convicted of theft may not have been what officials had in mind.
Investigators said yesterday that when the disbarred New Jersey lawyer, Thomas Everett, applied for a leave of absence from his job teaching at Sheepshead Bay High School in Brooklyn, he wrote that he had to take care of "problems with the state of New Jersey judicial system." In fact, they said, Mr. Everett needed the time off to go to jail.
In a report, Richard J. Condon, the special commissioner of investigation for the city schools, wrote that Mr. Everett, 59, was
disbarred in 2001 while being investigated by the Essex County prosecutor's office. In 2003, Mr. Everett started teaching at
Sheepshead Bay.
But his past followed him. In May 2005, New Jersey officials finished their investigation, and Mr. Everett was arrested and charged with stealing more than $1 million while serving as the executor of two elderly women's estates.
In October, investigators said, Mr. Everett pleaded guilty to theft and misappropriation and was sentenced in January to a maximum of three years in prison, at which point he applied for the leave. After serving four months, Mr. Everett was released from jail on May 22 and placed in a supervised release program, forbidding him to leave New Jersey. According to the report, he owes $1.4 million in restitution to the families.
The Department of Education issued a statement yesterday saying it would move to fire Mr. Everett. That is what Mr. Condon recommended — not because of the conviction, but because Mr. Everett had not reported the conviction to the department's Office of Personnel Investigations, although he did tell his principal.
Nonetheless, Mr. Condon said Mr. Everett may have been done in by his own honesty, by offering an accurate if vague reason for requesting the leave.
"If he had come up with a good reason, even if it wasn't true, but one that passed the smell test, he probably would have been home free," Mr. Condon said.
Mr. Everett did not return a telephone call yesterday seeking comment. But according to the report, he said that heirs of his
clients, whom he described as "two little old ladies in nursing homes," had questioned his actions in handling the estates. He told investigators that he simply failed to keep good records of his billable hours.
Michael Herman, the teachers' union chapter leader, said Mr. Everett was an excellent teacher who should be welcomed back to his job teaching law classes.
"It was an unfortunate isolated incident that got blown out of proportion," Mr. Herman said. "He wanted to make a difference in kids' lives, and he was doing that."
Monday, July 03, 2006
PMA Financial Network suggests referendum but has history of funding referenda.
The following story appeared in the Daily Herald. For the most part the Daily Herald does an outstanding job reporting on education issues. If you are not a subscriber you should subscribe.
PMA has yet to say a school does not need money. This company often holds lucrative contracts with schools. If the schools get more money than PMA financial gets more money.
The most important section in the report below is as follow.... "PMA Financial Network works with school districts across the Chicago area. The company’s financial projections have not been well-received at all suburban schools.
Cary Elementary District 26 board members last year questioned the accuracy of a PMA report that predicted sharply declining fund balances. PMA’s poor financial outlook was used to help push an unsuccessful 2004 tax-hike referendum, which some District 26 officials at the time opposed and said was an unnecessary effort.
Based on PMA’s forecast, District 26 materials stated it would be out of money in 2005 unless revenue jumped or cuts were made. Instead the district ended with $7.92 million in its coffers when the 2004-05 academic year ended.
PMA has contributed money to groups promoting “yes” votes on school tax-increase efforts. State Board of Elections records show PMA has provided $13,750 to tax-hike proponents since 2003."
Report: Warren must make cuts or raise tax funds
By Bob Susnjara
Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Warren Township High School in Gurnee can free up about $3 million to balance its budget by considering program cuts or a tax increase, according to a financial consultant’s report.
Donald Weber, vice president of sales and marketing for PMA Financial Network Inc. in Warrenville, made a presentation to Warren District 121 board members Tuesday night. PMA has been assisting Warren in long-range financial planning.
“You’ve got some rough waters you’re going to be approaching in the very near future,” Weber told Distrct 121 board members, “and we projected that two years ago.”
Possible programs Warren can elect to cut include:
• Eliminating all athletics and co-curricular programs, saving $1.7 million.
• Losing 30 staff members to save $2.3 million.
• Dropping non-mandatory classes, such as foreign language, saving $1.4 million.
• Cutting eighth period to save $700,000.
District 121 can also seek to boost its revenue by placing a tax-increase referendum on the ballot, stated the PMA report. The report says Warren’s deficit spending is reducing working-cash fund balance reserves.
Weber said Warren’s financial woes are tied to a lack of revenue rather than spending too much money. He said District 121 needs more revenue, fewer expenditures or a combination of both.
PMA Financial Network works with school districts across the Chicago area. The company’s financial projections have not been well-received at all suburban schools.
Cary Elementary District 26 board members last year questioned the accuracy of a PMA report that predicted sharply declining fund balances. PMA’s poor financial outlook was used to help push an unsuccessful 2004 tax-hike referendum, which some District 26 officials at the time opposed and said was an unnecessary effort.
Based on PMA’s forecast, District 26 materials stated it would be out of money in 2005 unless revenue jumped or cuts were made. Instead the district ended with $7.92 million in its coffers when the 2004-05 academic year ended.
PMA has contributed money to groups promoting “yes” votes on school tax-increase efforts. State Board of Elections records show PMA has provided $13,750 to tax-hike proponents since 2003.
PMA has yet to say a school does not need money. This company often holds lucrative contracts with schools. If the schools get more money than PMA financial gets more money.
The most important section in the report below is as follow.... "PMA Financial Network works with school districts across the Chicago area. The company’s financial projections have not been well-received at all suburban schools.
Cary Elementary District 26 board members last year questioned the accuracy of a PMA report that predicted sharply declining fund balances. PMA’s poor financial outlook was used to help push an unsuccessful 2004 tax-hike referendum, which some District 26 officials at the time opposed and said was an unnecessary effort.
Based on PMA’s forecast, District 26 materials stated it would be out of money in 2005 unless revenue jumped or cuts were made. Instead the district ended with $7.92 million in its coffers when the 2004-05 academic year ended.
PMA has contributed money to groups promoting “yes” votes on school tax-increase efforts. State Board of Elections records show PMA has provided $13,750 to tax-hike proponents since 2003."
Report: Warren must make cuts or raise tax funds
By Bob Susnjara
Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Warren Township High School in Gurnee can free up about $3 million to balance its budget by considering program cuts or a tax increase, according to a financial consultant’s report.
Donald Weber, vice president of sales and marketing for PMA Financial Network Inc. in Warrenville, made a presentation to Warren District 121 board members Tuesday night. PMA has been assisting Warren in long-range financial planning.
“You’ve got some rough waters you’re going to be approaching in the very near future,” Weber told Distrct 121 board members, “and we projected that two years ago.”
Possible programs Warren can elect to cut include:
• Eliminating all athletics and co-curricular programs, saving $1.7 million.
• Losing 30 staff members to save $2.3 million.
• Dropping non-mandatory classes, such as foreign language, saving $1.4 million.
• Cutting eighth period to save $700,000.
District 121 can also seek to boost its revenue by placing a tax-increase referendum on the ballot, stated the PMA report. The report says Warren’s deficit spending is reducing working-cash fund balance reserves.
Weber said Warren’s financial woes are tied to a lack of revenue rather than spending too much money. He said District 121 needs more revenue, fewer expenditures or a combination of both.
PMA Financial Network works with school districts across the Chicago area. The company’s financial projections have not been well-received at all suburban schools.
Cary Elementary District 26 board members last year questioned the accuracy of a PMA report that predicted sharply declining fund balances. PMA’s poor financial outlook was used to help push an unsuccessful 2004 tax-hike referendum, which some District 26 officials at the time opposed and said was an unnecessary effort.
Based on PMA’s forecast, District 26 materials stated it would be out of money in 2005 unless revenue jumped or cuts were made. Instead the district ended with $7.92 million in its coffers when the 2004-05 academic year ended.
PMA has contributed money to groups promoting “yes” votes on school tax-increase efforts. State Board of Elections records show PMA has provided $13,750 to tax-hike proponents since 2003.
Sunday, July 02, 2006
Corruption in Public Schools Costs Taxpayers, Impedes Reform
The referendum parade will begin shortly. Money grubbers are calculating their next move at this time. Be prepared become informed before you vote. The article below is an oldie but a goodie and appears on the Heartland Institute's website. While at the site you should sign up to receive a subscription to School Reform News.
Corruption in Public Schools Costs Taxpayers, Impedes Reform
In Roslyn, education dollars spent on Lexus, limos, and luxury
Written By: Lisa Snell
Published In: School Reform News
Publication Date: September 1, 2004
Publisher: The Heartland Institute
Ongoing news reports from across the country indicate incidents of corruption and mismanagement in the public schools occur frequently, often on a massive scale. Ignoring the scale of the problem not only costs taxpayers millions of dollars but also hinders school reform efforts, according to New York University law professor Lydia G. Segal.
In her recent book, Battling Corruption in America's Public Schools (Northwestern University Press, 2003), Segal argues, "one impediment to reform that no one is seriously studying in the debate over how to improve public schools is systematic fraud, waste, and abuse." Her careful documentation of the pervasive corruption and waste in the nation's three largest school districts--New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles--leaves little doubt the problem merits serious study.
However, fraud, waste, and abuse are not limited to large urban school districts, as the following recent examples demonstrate.
$8 Million in Undocumented Expenses
In New York's affluent Roslyn School District on Long Island, former school superintendent Frank A. Tassone and senior administrator Pamela C. Gluckin were each charged recently with stealing more than $1 million from the district. Gluckin allegedly used the funds to finance four homes, a Lexus, and other luxury items. Tassone allegedly used his $1 million for airline travel, cruises, dermatology treatments, furniture, and jewelry, and to give his roommate's company more than $800,000 in no-bid contracts. Both Tassone and Gluckin pleaded not guilty.
The Roslyn school board is still reviewing more than $8 million in undocumented expenses. According to the New York Times, those expenses include:
• $736,000 paid to an Oklahoma publishing company that has no record of doing business with the district;
• $600,000+ spent in delicatessens and specialty food stores;
• $100,000+ spent on limousines and car services;
• $50,000 paid to restaurants;
• $21,000 charged for a BMW lease or purchase;
• $3,800 spent to reserve space with Manhattan Mini-Storage, a long way from Roslyn;
• $1,485 spent for an Equinox gym membership.
Gluckin previously worked for Long Island's William Floyd District under former treasurer James Wright, according to Suffolk Life. In June, Wright was charged with stealing more than $750,000 from the William Floyd District simply by writing checks to himself.
$15.9 Million in Kickbacks
In Fort Worth, Texas, a school construction scandal ended in June with the former executive director of maintenance for the Fort Worth School District, Tommy Ingram, and contractor Ray Brooks being sentenced to eight years in prison each for a kickback scheme in which they defrauded the school district of an estimated $15.9 million.
Payroll Scam
In July, eight employees of the New Orleans school system pleaded guilty to stealing more than $70,000 in a scheme in which payroll clerk Louis Serrano wrote fraudulent checks to seven other employees in exchange for half of the face value of the checks. A ninth employee, payroll clerk Terri Smith Morant, admitted stealing $250,000 by printing checks to herself using her maiden name.
According to a recent report by the state legislative auditor of Louisiana, school system employees have cashed an estimated $3 million in paychecks that administrators sent out either in error or with criminal intent.
Fighting corruption in the school system is like "eating an elephant," New Orleans Police Superintendent Eddie Compass told The Times-Picayune. "We just took the first bite."
Mismanagement
In addition to losses from outright fraud, taxpayers also have lost millions due to mismanagement and incompetence.
For instance, in a June 2004 audit of California's Oakland Unified School District, state auditors could not determine if in 2002-03 the district had appropriately spent millions of dollars and properly complied with scores of state and federal mandates. As a result, the district could be forced to repay $163 million to the state and federal governments. In addition, district bonds worth $322 million are in jeopardy of losing their tax-exempt status because the funds have been inappropriately spent on general education rather than on specific projects.
According to the audit's findings, the district's shortcomings included:
• Failing to hold competitive bidding for $18.4 million in contracts;
• Inappropriately using $650,000 in bond funds to pay a lawsuit settlement;
• Issuing payroll checks to employees when they no longer worked for the district;
• Failing to maintain attendance records at some schools and overreporting attendance at others;
• Inappropriately carrying over unused funds for federal projects from one year to the next.
Also in June in southern California, the Los Angeles School Board continued the saga of the most expensive high school ever built by voting to do further work on the Belmont Learning Complex. When completed, Belmont will have cost about $270 million--$175 million of which has already been spent to produce a school that currently is unusable.
In June in south Florida, auditors delivered 650 pages of backup documents to support the findings of an April 2004 forensic audit that charged the Miami-Dade school district with wasting more than $100 million in its school facilities program. The audit alleged there was massive disorganization and waste in the program as well as "probable malfeasance, misfeasance, and potential for fraud."
Exploiting a Loophole
Unethical behavior and taxpayer abuse by school employees is not always illegal. In June, thousands of teachers in Texas rushed to retire before a lucrative loophole in Social Security law closed. Although most Texas teachers participate in a state pension fund rather than paying into Social Security, the loophole allowed them to receive Social Security benefits if their last day of work before retirement was in a job covered by Social Security.
In 2002, one-fourth of all public school retirees in Texas--3,521 people--took advantage of the loophole, according to auditors. Congress moved to close the loophole in spring 2004 when auditors estimated leaving it open could cost the Social Security system $450 million.
School districts around the state helped retiring teachers meet the one-day requirement by hiring them to work janitorial or maintenance jobs on their last day of work. Teachers paid the districts a small fee for this privilege, generating substantial revenues for some districts. For example, the Lindale Independent School District made about $700,000 helping teachers beat the deadline, according to assistant superintendent for business Mike McSwain.
"We just couldn't look at our taxpayers and say we passed up this opportunity to get this kind of revenue into the district," McSwain told the Associated Press.
Lisa Snell (lsnell@reason.org) is director of the education program for the Reason Foundation in Los Angeles.
Corruption in Public Schools Costs Taxpayers, Impedes Reform
In Roslyn, education dollars spent on Lexus, limos, and luxury
Written By: Lisa Snell
Published In: School Reform News
Publication Date: September 1, 2004
Publisher: The Heartland Institute
Ongoing news reports from across the country indicate incidents of corruption and mismanagement in the public schools occur frequently, often on a massive scale. Ignoring the scale of the problem not only costs taxpayers millions of dollars but also hinders school reform efforts, according to New York University law professor Lydia G. Segal.
In her recent book, Battling Corruption in America's Public Schools (Northwestern University Press, 2003), Segal argues, "one impediment to reform that no one is seriously studying in the debate over how to improve public schools is systematic fraud, waste, and abuse." Her careful documentation of the pervasive corruption and waste in the nation's three largest school districts--New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles--leaves little doubt the problem merits serious study.
However, fraud, waste, and abuse are not limited to large urban school districts, as the following recent examples demonstrate.
$8 Million in Undocumented Expenses
In New York's affluent Roslyn School District on Long Island, former school superintendent Frank A. Tassone and senior administrator Pamela C. Gluckin were each charged recently with stealing more than $1 million from the district. Gluckin allegedly used the funds to finance four homes, a Lexus, and other luxury items. Tassone allegedly used his $1 million for airline travel, cruises, dermatology treatments, furniture, and jewelry, and to give his roommate's company more than $800,000 in no-bid contracts. Both Tassone and Gluckin pleaded not guilty.
The Roslyn school board is still reviewing more than $8 million in undocumented expenses. According to the New York Times, those expenses include:
• $736,000 paid to an Oklahoma publishing company that has no record of doing business with the district;
• $600,000+ spent in delicatessens and specialty food stores;
• $100,000+ spent on limousines and car services;
• $50,000 paid to restaurants;
• $21,000 charged for a BMW lease or purchase;
• $3,800 spent to reserve space with Manhattan Mini-Storage, a long way from Roslyn;
• $1,485 spent for an Equinox gym membership.
Gluckin previously worked for Long Island's William Floyd District under former treasurer James Wright, according to Suffolk Life. In June, Wright was charged with stealing more than $750,000 from the William Floyd District simply by writing checks to himself.
$15.9 Million in Kickbacks
In Fort Worth, Texas, a school construction scandal ended in June with the former executive director of maintenance for the Fort Worth School District, Tommy Ingram, and contractor Ray Brooks being sentenced to eight years in prison each for a kickback scheme in which they defrauded the school district of an estimated $15.9 million.
Payroll Scam
In July, eight employees of the New Orleans school system pleaded guilty to stealing more than $70,000 in a scheme in which payroll clerk Louis Serrano wrote fraudulent checks to seven other employees in exchange for half of the face value of the checks. A ninth employee, payroll clerk Terri Smith Morant, admitted stealing $250,000 by printing checks to herself using her maiden name.
According to a recent report by the state legislative auditor of Louisiana, school system employees have cashed an estimated $3 million in paychecks that administrators sent out either in error or with criminal intent.
Fighting corruption in the school system is like "eating an elephant," New Orleans Police Superintendent Eddie Compass told The Times-Picayune. "We just took the first bite."
Mismanagement
In addition to losses from outright fraud, taxpayers also have lost millions due to mismanagement and incompetence.
For instance, in a June 2004 audit of California's Oakland Unified School District, state auditors could not determine if in 2002-03 the district had appropriately spent millions of dollars and properly complied with scores of state and federal mandates. As a result, the district could be forced to repay $163 million to the state and federal governments. In addition, district bonds worth $322 million are in jeopardy of losing their tax-exempt status because the funds have been inappropriately spent on general education rather than on specific projects.
According to the audit's findings, the district's shortcomings included:
• Failing to hold competitive bidding for $18.4 million in contracts;
• Inappropriately using $650,000 in bond funds to pay a lawsuit settlement;
• Issuing payroll checks to employees when they no longer worked for the district;
• Failing to maintain attendance records at some schools and overreporting attendance at others;
• Inappropriately carrying over unused funds for federal projects from one year to the next.
Also in June in southern California, the Los Angeles School Board continued the saga of the most expensive high school ever built by voting to do further work on the Belmont Learning Complex. When completed, Belmont will have cost about $270 million--$175 million of which has already been spent to produce a school that currently is unusable.
In June in south Florida, auditors delivered 650 pages of backup documents to support the findings of an April 2004 forensic audit that charged the Miami-Dade school district with wasting more than $100 million in its school facilities program. The audit alleged there was massive disorganization and waste in the program as well as "probable malfeasance, misfeasance, and potential for fraud."
Exploiting a Loophole
Unethical behavior and taxpayer abuse by school employees is not always illegal. In June, thousands of teachers in Texas rushed to retire before a lucrative loophole in Social Security law closed. Although most Texas teachers participate in a state pension fund rather than paying into Social Security, the loophole allowed them to receive Social Security benefits if their last day of work before retirement was in a job covered by Social Security.
In 2002, one-fourth of all public school retirees in Texas--3,521 people--took advantage of the loophole, according to auditors. Congress moved to close the loophole in spring 2004 when auditors estimated leaving it open could cost the Social Security system $450 million.
School districts around the state helped retiring teachers meet the one-day requirement by hiring them to work janitorial or maintenance jobs on their last day of work. Teachers paid the districts a small fee for this privilege, generating substantial revenues for some districts. For example, the Lindale Independent School District made about $700,000 helping teachers beat the deadline, according to assistant superintendent for business Mike McSwain.
"We just couldn't look at our taxpayers and say we passed up this opportunity to get this kind of revenue into the district," McSwain told the Associated Press.
Lisa Snell (lsnell@reason.org) is director of the education program for the Reason Foundation in Los Angeles.
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