Re: This is My Illinois

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On 11/29/12, Merrill wrote:

> You say you have paid into your pension in three out of four districts?
> What about the fourth? Is Mandy down at Walmart picking up your pension
> now? Must be nice getting free retirement.

Mandy at Walmart isn't picking up my retirement. I don't work for Mandy. I
work for a school district which is doing so. You don't seem to get the
difference. That's OK, most teacher have experience with kids who just refuse
to get it. BTW, I'm an administrator and not a member of a union. This is
something that I personally negotiated in my employment contract. Do you have
a problem with this? I'm really good at what I do...

> I'm sure you cry all the way to WalMart in your Lexus.

I don't shop at Walmart ever and I don't drive a Lexus.

I like how the VP of
> the teacher's union shows up at hard-core Marxist rallies, along with
> hundreds of teachers, in order to denounce the rich, threaten the
> government, and to call for revolution
>
> How can we expect these people to even be remotely objective or fair in the
> classroom? Radicals don't make good teachers.

Right Comrade, Marxism whatever. Teachers are entitled to their political
opinion. I know quite extreme right-wing teachers as well. I also know very
religious teachers and believing in a guy who lives on a cloud and judges
everyone is a whole lot scarier to me than someone who believes in taxing the
rich to give to the poor... like Jesus believed come to think of it. I'm
actually management, by the way. But I believe teachers deserve good pay and
the best way to achieve that through being members of a union.

> No, it is not a "negotiated compensation" in the sense that the taxpayers
> had any input, or even KNOWLEDGE OF what was going on. It was a backroom
> deal that was partially responsible for bankrupting the pension system.

Tax payers have input when they elect school board members. The school board
then hires administrators who negotiate contracts. The school board then
approves the contract. The United States is not a direct democracy at any
level of government and can't realistically be. That would mean that the
public would have to vote on every single act of government. Not possible and
not the American system. You elect people to run various levels of
government. They do so. If you don't like it, vote a different way or run
yourself. However, most school board positions are unpaid, and you probably
won't like running the school district yourself for free, so you'll hire
people to do it for you... and you'll have to pay them.

Pension pick up hasn't bankrupted the pension system. TRS is not the only
pension system in trouble, and there isn't pension pick up in every public
system. Pension pick up was actually paid into the system, whether it was
from the teachers directly or from the school district. The systems are
bankrupt because the state didn't pay the money they were obligated to pay
over many years. THIS and only this is why the systems are struggling. Had
the state done what it was legally required to do, then we would be in a much
better spot. Now, the state has screwed teachers and wants to screw them
further. However, you seem to think teachers are communists who don't deserve
any retirement. Your constant invocation of Walmart proves you devalue
teachers and their work.

> Maybe you should start contributing to your own damn retirement and stop
> insisting that people working at the local WalMart pay for it. Parasite.

Parasite? I'm quite certain I've paid more property taxes in the last year
than you have in the last ten. I own a large number of rental properties. I
could retire tomorrow and I'm not yet 40, and live comfortably on that income.
Whatever TRS benefits remain when I actually do retire will be a supplement
to a much larger retirement package I've put together. You just hate teachers
and what they do. You likely hate cops, firefighters and anyone else who
works for government, but its less popular to bash them.

We don't work for you. We work for school districts. You get one vote,
that's it. So vote in the next election for state reps and school board
members. We aren't "stealing" from you. In fact, if you want to take
personal responsibility, you have defrauded educators. The precious tax
payers, through your state representatives, have not funded the public
retirement systems for decades. The tax payers' elected representatives made
agreements, and now you dare to shirk your agreements? Who is the parasite?

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