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Blogging about education matters because education matters.

There was a very good letter to the editor about how families are reeling from endless taxes by James Melchin. This letter was published on 5/3. [Emphasis mine]

The topic was the endless taxes imposed on us by our county, state and federal governments.
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First, Illinois has grown at half the rate of our neighboring […]

State Sen. Chris Lauzen will be holding a property tax forum Monday, May 12 from 7 - 8:30 pm at the Yorkville Public Library, 902 Game Farm Road, Yorkville. (Hat tip: Daily Herald) [Emphasis mine]
As property tax bills begin to appear in mailboxes throughout Kane and Kendall counties, state Sen. Chris Lauzen, an […]

In a 6-0 vote, Cary Community Consolidated School District 26 passed the following resolution against the passage of the SB2288/HB750 tax grab. They joined Palatine District 15 and the Village of Grayslake to pass similar resolutions against it passage.

A RESOLUTION ADVOCATING AGAINST SB2288 and HB750
A RESOLUTION to send a letter to the […]

Please share with any home school residents in DuPage County that this form is not required and should not be filled out.

The Home School Legal Defense Association was recently alerted by a member family in DuPage County that they received a letter dated February 8, 2008, from the regional superintendent asking the family to […]

I went to see the Ben Stein movie Expelled Friday night. Ben interviews scientist who research Darwinism and scientist who claim the evidence leads to an Intelligent Designer (ID) instead.
It becomes very clear throughout the movie that the theories of the origin of life has no scientific basis. These theory that life sprang […]

Grayslake Mayor Tim Perry and the Grayslake Board voted 5-0 this week against the passage of SB2288/HB750. [Emphasis mine]

Grayslake village board members voted 5-0 in favor of a resolution against the Senate proposal. The village’s position will be communicated to lawmakers in Springfield.
“If there is no guarantee there is permanent property tax relief involved, it’s […]

Teacher Sex Scandal in Joliet

Eight additional female students came forward Friday to accuse an unpaid assistant track coach at Joliet Township High School of carrying on illicit affairs with them, police said.

Another assualt at East Leyden High School near Maywood, IL

An East Leyden High School teacher who allegedly sexually assaulted one of his female students […]

Robyn Hooker, principal of Kent Gardens Elementary School, has told students they may no longer play tag during recess after determining that the game of chasing, dodging and yelling “You’re it!” had gotten out of hand. Hooker explained to parents in a letter this month that tag had become a game “of intense aggression.”

They also […]

Last week I published the statements of Grant Towship Assessor, Walt Kubalanza explaining how the Assessor is not blame for the high taxes. This week, I have an excerpt from a letter to the editor claiming Mr. Kubalanza is not telling the truth.

He forgot to mention that when the tax rate does not go […]

Yesterday, the Grayslake Middle School was released early due to a threat found in a student bathroom. Below is the report from the News-Sun.

GRAYSLAKE — On a day that saw schools from Chicago to Michigan affected by threats of violence, officials at Grayslake Middle School dismissed students early on Monday and contacted police after […]

Designs for Change claims Chicago Public Schools doesn’t know how to pick good Principals. (Hat tip: Students First).

Chicago Public School officials have an “abysmal’’ record at picking principals to invigorate ailing high schools, especially at 20 such schools where reading and math scores sank or showed little progress, a school reform group charged […]

From the Champion News (April 10th):

Editor’s note: The Palatine District 15 School Board passed a resolution yesterday evening opposing SB2288 and HB750. The resolution passed with 6 Yes votes and 1 Abstention. Some Republican legislators are rumored to be supporting the bills, which would allow the General Assembly to override a possible Blagojevich veto. There […]

In what is becoming a regular occurrence, another public school official is in trouble with the law. This week alone has brought us the following stories:

Principal from Spring Grove was caught in a motel with a 15 and 16 year old
Principal Accused of Stealing $35,000
Fired Cop accused of misconduct hired as school security chief
Student […]

I happened to be looking at the Village of Grayslake website yesterday and found the page outlining where your taxes go if you live in Grayslake.
As I have stated many times, the local school get the majority of your taxes. The chart on the page verifies this as well showing that 71% of each […]

In Arizona, the school board of Bisbee Unified School District has decided it would be appropriate to give all the students coming to Prom a condom (Hat tip: Citizen Link). Of course, some parents were upset.

Students in Bisbee, Ariz., attending this year’s prom will receive a prom bag that includes condoms — a decision […]

“Reject ploy to hike taxes for education” is the title of a letter to the editor in the Daily Herald. [Emphasis mine]

State government thinks educating Illinois children is about money, not learning.
The Illinois State Board of Education regularly lowers the achievement bar so we can keep wishfully thinking no child’s being left […]

Lake County has the distinction of having the highest property taxes in the midwest as reported by Forbes.

There has been action on the assessment side of the equation by the Citizens Action Project in bringing more transparency to the system. I understand their mission is to focus on assessment, which is admirable. […]

I received the email below today from a resident of District 15/211. This was sent out by the PTA from my understanding.
The PTA, Teachers Unions, and school officials are hosting a meeting on Saturday, April 12th to push the $8 Billion Dollar tax increase known as HB750 or SB2288. Since this is […]

The Wall Street Journal had an Editorial about the homeschool ruling in California. I had previously written about this here and here. Below are a couple of excerpts [Emphasis mine]:

In the annals of judicial imperialism, we have arrived at a strange new chapter. A California court ruled this month that parents cannot “home […]

Over and over again, we talk about how to educate the children of this nation. We we want standards teacher, unions, administrators and their paid legislators dumb down the test, norm the scores or just flat out lower standards. Tennessee legislators are this time trying to lower standards so the poor overworked children […]

In a wonderful twist of irony, the ACLU is suing Florida School Districts over their abysmal education outcomes and graduation rates. They are in fact using the same phrase from the teachers contracts that the teacher unions used to get the voucher system thrown out. (Hat tip: Liberty Is For Me) The phrase […]

For those of you who love the teachers salary website, The Champion, check out their newly designed website at ChampionNews.net. Well done, the site is even better with many news resources as well the great data on teachers salaries.

Starting tonight Lake County is holding forums around the county where residents can express their opinions about the future of Lake County. Tonights forum is in Highland Park. You can see the full schedule at LakeCountyPedia.com.
For those of you who have not found LakeCountyPedia.com yet, it is described as “The Encyclopedia […]

Today the CA Court of Appeals said (Hat tip: Liberty Is For Me)

“Parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children.”

The Courts are once again ruling against the rights of the individual and forcing the will of the State onto its residents. This is Judicial tyranny and it has to […]

The yearly effort by Illinois Legislators to raise your taxes under the guise of Education Reform has returned. this time it is under a new name SB2288. You can read the full bill and see its co-sponsors at the General Assembly website. The Senate Education Committee votes tomorrow, Wednesday afternoon on this […]

I received a free copy of The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian movie tie-in Edition which includes the Narnia Chronology. I was already a fan of Narnia and was looking forward to the second movie about the books. When I received the book, I immediately opened the chronology. I wish this resource […]