LABOR BEAT VIDEO: 'Toxic swaps' fight continues. New Labor Beat video shows testimony to the state legislature and a petition to the federal SEC...
Speakers line up to testify before the Illinois House of Representatives. Labor Beat photo by David Vance.The fight for public schools revenue in Illinois has moved to some out-of-the-way political settings. First (on 4/17/16) funding activists testified at the Illinois House Revenue and Finance Committee hearings on Wall Street banks toxic (shady) swap deals with Chicago Public Schools. These swaps have devoured hundreds of millions of dollars that should have gone to public education. Then (on 7/7/16) financial experts, Illinois state representatives and activists delivered to the Chicago office of the Security and Exchange Commission (S.E.C.) many thousands of petitions calling for investigations into these swaps. Will The S.E.C. Stop Shady Swaps?
This continuing story is now updated in a Labor Beat video available at the YouTube link: https://youtu.be/KFSgMQcD1R4
What is at stake here is more than money for the public sector, however. Things are at a political tipping point: Will the government, now through these state and federal departments, turn back on the funding spigot for necessary public services which can quench the great, smoldering fire within the working class? If not, what then? Matt Luskin, Chicago Teachers Union organizer, spoke of the handful of Illinois legislators who have been paying attention to the shady swaps scandal. "It's not going to be enough for them to just show up at the rallies. They have to do what we've done and actually take on some risks around this. They're going to have to go beyond making public statements and rhetoric just as we've had to and take action around these issues."
Also appearing are: Saqib Bhatti, Director of ReFund America Project; Kimberly Johnson, CTU teacher at Emmett Till Elementary; Carlos Rosa, Alderman, 35th Ward; Robert Martwick, State Representative, 19th District; Chris Welch, State Representative, 7th District; Erica Rangel, Ceasefire, Enlace Chicago.
Petitions turned in to the federal Securities and Exchange Commission. Labor Beat photo by Larry Duncan.Produced by Labor Beat. Labor Beat is a CAN TV Community Partner, and member of the Evanston Community Media Center. Labor Beat is a non-profit 501(c)(3) member of IBEW 1220. Views are those of the producer Labor Beat. For info: mail@laborbeat.org, www.laborbeat.org. 312-226-3330. For other Labor Beat videos, visit YouTube and search "Labor Beat". On Chicago CAN TV Channel 19, Thursdays 9:30 pm; Fridays 4:30 pm. Labor Beat has regular cable slots in Chicago, Evanston, Rockford, Urbana, IL; Philadelphia, PA; Princeton, NJ; and Rochester, NY.
By: David R. Stone
Good news on possible funding
Chicago’s City Council is moving forward on possibly adding to the funding the city provides to Chicago Public Schools. A summary of the “Chicago Public Education Revitalization Ordinance” (introduced in a City Council meeting on Wednesday, July 20, 2016) says that some $150 million in “surplus” Tax Increment Financing (TIF) money could go to the Chicago Public Schools by December 31, 2016. The ordinance has not been voted on (it is still in committee), but 40 of the city’s 50 aldermen have signed it, according to Chicago Teachers Union staffers. TIF districts have been diverting property taxes in some areas of the city into a fund to support real estate development, rather than supporting schools, parks or other social services that rely on city funding.
Expect more details when the editor and many of the Substance News reporters return from Minneapolis, where they have been attending the American Federation of Teachers convention this week.