Thread: Chicago Public Schools System Is Broke: Expect Fireworks

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Chicago Public Schools System Is Broke; Union Contract Mandates Raises Through 2012; Expect Fireworks

The Chicago Public School system is broke. By now you know the score: pension promises cannot be met and union salaries and benefits are out of line with reality. Combined with bloated administration costs, the system is bankrupt.

The Sun Times says the best hope is for teachers to accept a wage freeze.

Best Hope? Not so fast.

The contract is not up until 2012, and knowing what we know about unions, the picture is set for massive teacher layoffs or a gut wrenching strike and legal battle if the CEO unilaterally imposes a wage freeze.

Please consider No way around CPS teacher pay freeze. http://www.suntimes.com/news/commentary ... 26.article

Chicago Public Schools CEO Ron Huberman on Thursday painted the grimmest financial picture the Chicago schools have ever seen.

The budget deficit could top $900 million, a hole so big that Huberman says he needs major concessions from teachers -- a move that could easily lead to a teachers' strike if the unions refuse to play ball.

We're not alerting parents to cause a panic or to bash beleaguered teachers.

We're alerting parents now, when there's still time, to try to resolve this crisis and avoid a strike.

The best hope is for the Chicago teachers to accept a wage freeze.

Huberman can't say that out loud. On Thursday, he simply laid out the sorry facts of the deficit, saying concessions are one piece of a multi-part solution. He's courting the unions now, giving them a chance to pick their poison, hoping they'll offer up cost-saving ideas.

It is nearly impossible to see a way out of this mess -- or a teachers' strike -- without a wage freeze.

The Chicago Teachers Union contract locks in 4 percent raises through 2012 -- really about 5.5 percent with experience and higher degrees added in. Eliminating that raise in 2011 saves $135 million.

Undoubtedly, the union will balk at a wage freeze. Already, Union President Marilyn Stewart has rejected altering the union contract.

In turn, Huberman won't budge, arguing he has no cash to spare -- and he won't be lying.

CPS' massive budget deficit, Huberman says, is driven by three biggies: a $138 million drop in tax revenue, $135 million in increased salary costs and, most significantly, a $280 million increase in its pension bill.

Ron Huberman isn't crying wolf.

It's time for big concessions now -- rather than face massive disruption in the schools and an ugly and fruitless strike down the road.

Not Crying Wolf

The article is loaded with sap like the writer's opinion "No one wants to deny hard-working teachers a raise." In reality, union salaries and benefits must be brought into alignment with private sector jobs.

The wolf is real. There is no money and tax hikes are out of the question. With 4 percent raises locked in through 2012, one hell of a battle is brewing.

In theory, there are plenty of things besides a pay freeze that could help. One thing would be elimination of defined benefit plans for all new hires and if one got really creative, for all teachers hired in the last 5 years. Of course one could also cut administrative salaries and staff as well.

Both need to be done.

However, theory is one thing and practice is another. Unions being unions, and administrators being administrators, neither will be willing to negotiate a fair compromise. Instead, look for massive teacher layoffs as the union and administrators throw the kids to the howling wolves.

By the way, I am not talking about just Chicago. Expect to witness a nationwide phenomenon of teachers unions and administrators combine to throw kids to the wolves to protect their own cushy jobs.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot. ... broke.html

Tragic, but completely to be predicted. When the feds are broke, our businesses are broke, our people are broke, our states are broke and our counties and cities are broke which means WE'RE BROKE.

Not enough people seem to understand, we're in economic collapse and we're bankrupt. Nothing is going to change that fact until we reverse the policies that caused it.

1. stop illegal immigration
2. pass the FairTax
3. protect our trade
4. legalize/regulate/tax under 2 the illegal drug trade
5. drill baby drill

Jobs Out (free trade treason) + People In (illegal immigration) = Bankrupt Nation.

It's not complicated. It's very simple.

www.fairtax.org

deleted by me

Originally Posted by wayneman

judy, you never cease to amaze me. well said! thank you

You're most welcome, wayneman.

Trouble is, we've been declared bankrupt since 1933. This is verified by Senate report 93-549 from November 1973.

A majority of the people of the United States have lived all of their lives under emergency rule. For 40 years, freedom and governmental procedures guaranteed by the Constitution have, in varying degrees, been abridged by laws brought into force by national emergency.

Further on it also states:

And, in the United States, actions taken by Government in times of great crisis have--from at least, the Civil War--in important ways shaped the present phenomenon of a perminent state of national emergency.

http://www.barefootsworld.net/war_ep.html

TAXPAYERS STILL PAYING FOR USA�S �BANKRUPTCY� IN 1930

What you are about to read is America�s best-kept secret.

From 1928 to 1932, there were five years of �Geneva Conventions.� The free nations of the world met in Geneva, Switzerland for five continuous years to set up what would be the �bankrupt policy� of all the participating nations.

In 1930, the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal and other countries all declared bankruptcy.

It was the result of the stock market crash of 1929. The Great Depression triggered the bankruptcies.

However, if you try to look up the 1930 volume containing the minutes of what happened, you probably will not find it. This volume has been pulled out of circulation, or is hidden in the library and is difficult to locate.

This volume contains the evidence of the bankruptcy.

Going into 1932, the bankrupt nations stopped meeting in Geneva.

In 1932, Franklin Roosevelt came into power as President of the United States.

Roosevelt�s job was to put into place and administer the bankruptcy that had been declared two years earlier.

America�s �Corporate Government� needed a key Supreme Court decision to implement the bankruptcy plan.

The �corporate� United States government had to have a legal case on the books to set the stage for recognizing, implementing and supporting the bankruptcy.

The bankruptcy started in 1930-31.

The bankruptcy became �official� when Roosevelt came into office, although the public was not aware of the �declaration of bankruptcy� in Geneva by the United States.

Roosevelt was sworn in as President in January 1933. He started right away on the bankruptcy plan with what is historically known as �The Banking Holiday� � when the banks closed for a few �holidays� as millions of customers were pulling their money out of the banks.

Roosevelt proceeded in pulling in gold coin to get the gold out of circulation.

Roosevelt then began to �stack� the Supreme Court with close associates who would vote on one Supreme Court case to support the bankruptcy plan.

There was bitter resistance to Roosevelt�s �stacking the court� with his most trusted legal advisers.

Some of the Justices on the Supreme Court tried to warn the nation that Roosevelt was tampering with the law and with the courts.

Roosevelt was trying to see to it that prior decisions of the court were overturned.

Roosevelt was trying to bring in a new order, a new procedure for the law of the land.

A bankruptcy case was needed on the books to legitimize the fact that the �Corporate U.S.� had already declared bankruptcy.

The �Corporate U.S.� had to be created to replace the Constitutionally created United States of America by our founding fathers and the original 13 colonies after the American Revolution in 1776.

The massive restructuting of American government was in response to a world-wide economic depression.

The bankers who held the debt for the United States and other countries told these nations� leaders:

�You can do it either of two ways. The easy way or the hard way. You just accept the bankruptcy and we�ll let you out of the depression. If you don�t, you�re on your own.�

The bankers, led by the Rothschilds in Europe and the Rockefellers in America, by way of the U.S. Federal Reserve bankers literally had the bankrupt nations by the throat.

These bankrupt nations agreed that over a period of several years they would pass the necessary laws for the implementation of the bankruptcy in favor of the international bankers.

America: A Nation of Debtors and Creditors

The plan developed by President Roosevelt in the 1930s became America�s �corporate public policy.�

It is known as the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC).

Each State in the U.S. unwittingly adopted the Code, not knowing that it compelled every taxpayer to pay off the nation�s bankruptcy debt declared in 1930 and implemented by President Roosevelt.

The Uniform Commercial Code became the law of the land.
The Code involves debtors and creditors.

Every legal action where you are brought before the court, you find yourself, since 1938, before an �equity court.�

Our courts (�equity� courts) administer commercial law having a debtor/creditor law as the controlling law.

Today we have an �equity court system� � but not an �equity court� as referred to in the United States Constitution or any of the legal documents before 1938 (the year the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Erie Railroad vs. Thompson).

That case laid the groundwork for all legal transactions in the United States.

The �equity court� was created by Corporate United States, itself a creation of the world banking system in the 1930s.

The U.S. Constitution created by our founders and the 13 colonies � that original �United States of America� � no longer exists. It was replaced by the �Corporate United States� to deal with the corporate national debt.

None of the sovereign states were represented in this dictatorial change of America�s judicial and financial system.

All the courts of this once great and free land have been changed, starting with the Supreme Court decision of 1938 in Erie vs. Thompson. The court, of course, ruled in favor of the creditor, thus creating the �legal� foundation for the Unified Commercial Code � more accurately, the �illegal� foundation for the Unified Commercial Code.

The federal government had to destroy all other case law that had been established before 1938. (Incidentally, I was born January 1, 1938.)

The federal government had to have a case (Erie vs. Thompson) to destroy all precedence, all appearance and even the statute of law itself.

That is, the �Statute at Large� had to be perverted and subverted.

America and its citizens were fiscally raped � and never knew it until these recent disclosures.

It was right after the Erie/Thompson case that the American Law Institute and the National Conference of Commissions on Uniform State Laws created the Code that is on all taxpayers� backs today.

In reality, our legal and judicial system of �Corporate America� is an illegal system imposed on the taxpayers to force them to pay off the bankruptcy debt in 1930 � a debt that will never be paid off.

(Note: The 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution � establishing a federal income tax) � was also illegally created by the federal government in 1913. There is no evidence that the 38 states at that time approved of the federal income tax. That case is now before the U.S. Supreme Court, where it has been for several years. The only way to resolve this illegal act is for another American Tax Revolution that led to this nation�s creation more than 225 years ago.)

The �illegal�Unified Commercial Code was, of course, approved by the American Bar Association in 1952, which makes that organization also an illegal operation.

By the middle 1960s, every state had unknowingly passed the UCC into law.

Washington, D.C., adopted the Uniform Commercial Code into law, just six weeks after President John Kennedy was assassinated.

Who represents the illegal �Corporate United States?�

All of its public agencies and institutions, including the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the U.S. Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard, Parks, Post Office, EPA, etc.

The federal government freely gives the land, its personnel and the money it collects from taxpayers via the IRS and its �State Corporations� to the United Nations and the International Bankers as payment for the federal 1930 bankruptcy debt.

The United Nations and the International Bankers use the money and services for various worldwide projects including war. War is an extremely lucrative business for the bankers of the New World Order.

Loans for destruction. Loans for reconstruction. Loans for controlling people on federal property.

What a legal disaster for all taxpayers � the source and hope of America�s freedom and independence.

America�s Taxpayers Are Forever Beholden To The Banks

The federal government put all 50 sovereign states into bankruptcy without their knowledge or approval.

Ironically, the sovereign States created the federal government, beginning with the original 13 colonies following the successful American Revolution.
The federal government ultimately took over its creators.

Finally, there is a legal way for taxpayers to expose the �illegal deal� made by officials of Corporate America and implemented by President Roosevelt during his four terms in office, the first and last President ever to hold office for four terms. Only the rich and powerful can make that happen.
Here�s what a taxpayer can do:

If you have to appear in court on any matter, from a traffic ticket to a real estate problem, simply ask the judge that you would like �to know the true nature and cause of the action� against you.

Since 1930, a defendant has never been told the �true nature and cause of the action� that led to America�s bankruptcy.� Revealing the truth of that �nature and cause� would mean the end of a corporate federal government and all of its laws since 1930.

What a financial and judicial mess that would make for those who have literally enslaved taxpayers over the past 70 years � the Corporate Government in Washington, D.C.

If you asked the courts, as the defendant in a case, about the �true nature and cause of the action,� the court is forbidden to tell you that information.

That�s why if you question the �true nature and cause,� the judge will say, �It�s not my job to tell you. You are not retaining me as an attorney and I can�t give you legal advice from the bench. I suggest you hire a lawyer.�

The problem with that suggestion is that the American Bar Association is part of the bankruptcy plan. Judges are also lawyers, from the local magistrate to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

Taxpayers will never know the truth as long as the present judicial/financial system remains in place to subvert the truth of America�s declared bankruptcy in 1930.

What would really blow the judges and courts away would be to compel the International Bankers to send a lawyer to the courtroom and present himself as the attorney for the �true creditor� (the International Bankers).

If at any time you decide to balk at this scheme because you don�t like it, the real creditor never has to make an appearance in court to list the �true nature and cause of action� being brought against you.

You end up dealing with an agency. The agency can conveniently grant itself immunity from prosecution because all it is doing (without your knowledge, of course) is administering the bankruptcy, which the government agreed during the Geneva meetings in Switzerland in 1930.

Our only weapon against a rogue government is to expose it.

(Gordon Bishop, a national award-winning author, historian and syndicated columnist, is the recipient of 8 Congressional Commendations and is New Jersey�s first �Journalist-of-the-Year� � 1986/New Jersey Press Association.)

http://www.ahherald.com/bishop/2004/gb0 ... ruptcy.htm

A good little video that covers this as part of it's body on the topic, along with issues with the Civil War and the Reconstruction, that have led to changes that have kept us in a perpetual national emergency. And the government can walk all over us peons.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?playnext=1 ... 0_4ujNBQ5I