MEDIA WATCH: Chicago Sun-Times does anti pension propaganda behind the smokescreen of 'news analysis'...
Sun-Times City Hall Reporter Fran Spielman, in her "Pension Contention" article of July 29, 2016, forgot that if you subtract the 974 administrators with pensions of over $100,000 pension, the pensions of the remaining 27,740 classroom teachers currently receiving pensions through the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund (CTPF) is closer to median Chicago income of $47,831. Because the Sun-Times really obfuscates the issue by including the higher paid administrators (who are also "teachers" once they retire and get pensions), the story misrepresents the reality.
Besides, why should Chicago teachers' pensions be compared to some statistical "household average"? The average household did not have to spend from $100,000 to $200,000 getting a four-year college degree for the privilege of teaching children to read, write, count and use computers. Also, while getting that degree, the teachers could not work full time for four years, not earning about $47,000 a year for four years, thereby losing additional hundreds of thousands of dollars while doing only good (and getting low pay for a college graduate, by the way).
During the 34 or 38 years of teaching, Chicago teachers did contribute something to their own pension fund, our their State taxes also paid for pension funds outside of Chicago. And the pension fund might not be broke if like other cities outside Chicago (like Oak Park) exempt school taxes when the politicians take TIF funds. Why didn't Fran Spielman call the Mayor or his spokesman and ask "Why are you not exempting school taxes when you take taxes in the TIFs?"
How soon will she get an answer? Meanwhile. former Mayor Richard M. Daley gets over $240.000 in annual pension money. And Daley caused much of this contention by privatizing services which would have continued to bring money to the city -- like parking lots, parking meters, and the Chicago Skway, to cite the most obvious examples). Daley was also responsible for the "swaps" and other problems. Maybe he, and his cronies who now have our tax money could donate their pensions back.
By: Theresa D. Daniels
The Stealing of Pension Monies
The information presented here by Substance writer Lotty Blumenthal, as well as found in books like The Retirement Heist by Ellen D. Schultz, should be disseminated in every publication, how the greed and double-dealing of corporate interests and politicians cheats everyday people of their retirement security. Bravo, Lotty and Substance!