October Update

WE ARE ONE—ORLAND PARK

On Monday evening, 300 members of the Orland Park Council gathered in solidarity for a member who the school board was unhappy with and were either going to fire or send her back to her previous position. Read the whole story at http://orlandpark.patch.com/articles/d135-incomplete.

The fight will continue to get the member her job back. Procedure was followed. The school board approved her to the position. No problems were ever discussed with the member but the board voted 4 to 3 to send her back. Then they reposted the job opening. The saga continues.

Pension Reform Update

You are well aware that the push for pension reform is coming to a head again. The Tribune and the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club are again behind this push.

Our state organization, the Illinois Federation of Teachers, is working on the premise that any changes should be CONSTITUTIONAL, FAIR, and SUSTAINABLE. What does that mean? The Illinois Constitution (Article XIII, Section 5) bans the “diminishment or impairment” of our pensions. Any changes must also be fair to our members. Funding needs to be sustainable for the long term.

The Illinois Legislature will meet next week and then in November for the veto session. Be prepared to take action.

Starting with Tuesday’s late news, the Illinois is Broke campaign ran a commercial which will run until after the veto session is over. The ad has someone going door-to-door talking about the pension debt and asking for support for a huge amount of taxes. It ends with the door being slammed in his face.

The Illinois is Broke coalition has also put out a video using a teacher to convince us that teachers should accept changes to their pensions. Below is TRS’ answer.

TRS response to the Civic Committee's internet video intended to scare teachers.

This is a very slick and well-produced video that uses out–of-date information without the proper context to paint a false picture of Teachers’ Retirement System and the strength of teacher pensions in Illinois.

TRS will be around for decades and all retirees will get paid their pensions.

The statistics “Illinois is Broke” depends on in this ad are not current. For instance, they quote the TRS assets at $31 billion. TRS released a news release in August that said total assets at the end of FY 2011 were $37 billion.

They cleverly wrote the script to make it sound like the System’s unfunded libability must be paid all at once. Not true.

What “IIB” doesn’t say in this piece is that TRS has carried an unfunded liability since at least 1953 and has never missed a pension check. The TRS liability is composed of what the System owes current retirees AND active teachers who have yet to retire. But that total liability - funded or unfunded - never comes due at one point in time because active teachers can’t collect their pensions until they retire. The total is paid out gradually over decades.

How much of its current total $80 billion liability does TRS have to pay out in fiscal year 2012? $4.5 billion. How much did TRS pay out last year in benefits? $4.1 billion. What were total revenues in FY 2010 and FY 2011? $17.3 billion. Again, total assets are $37 billion.

The math is easy. TRS is not going broke. The System is in debt, but has been in debt for almost 60 years because the state for decades has not contributed all that is needed to reach the magic status of “full funding.” TRS is not broke and every retired teacher is going to get their checks, in full and on time.

Making Strides against Breast Cancer

Through rain, sunshine, and then more rain, the members of Team 943 walked and volunteered on Sunday Oct.16th in the annual Making Strides against Breast Cancer Walk in Orland Park. Details in the December AFTerthoughts and on our website-www.aft943.org.

IFT Student Marketing Challenge

The Illinois Federation of Teachers Student Marketing Challenge (IFT SMC) provides Illinois students from Kindergarten through 12th grade an exciting opportunity to get real-world experience in the marketing/communications industries.

As the Challenge sponsor, IFT wants to give participating students a unique chance to work as organized teams acting ?as “advertising agencies” to develop effective public marketing campaigns on current topics affecting education. Students will benefit by learning to work together like industry professionals to create an effective, marketing campaign using a variety of media. In return, the IFT will benefit from the fresh perspectives and ideas provided by participating students at all grade levels.

The Challenge will be conducted annually. Each year, the IFT will provide participating students with a different case study outlining a current public issue. Students must research the issue then develop a marketing campaign to meet the Challenge criteria as specified for each grade level group. Student teams will then submit their campaigns to a panel of qualified judges for review. One winning team will be selected from each grade level group.

The IFT will hold a public press conference to announce the winning student teams. IFT President Dan Montgomery and representatives from the judging panel will present the winners with individual certificates of accomplishment. The winning campaigns (or components thereof) will be used by the IFT and its local unions in future public awareness or action campaigns, programs and related materials.

DOWNLOAD OFFICIAL RULES AND AN APPLICATION FORM

DEADLINE: December 16, 2011