Dear Anonymous.

Dear Mr. Klonsky:

Reading your post reveals the dishonesty of the teachers’ union mantra that “we’re doing it for the kids.” Instead you just want better compensation and working conditions. Why not admit it?

Moreover, you don’t seem to realize that taxpayers are over-taxed. Your friends in the Illinois legislature increased our income taxes 66%. Federal income taxes are going up. And in “progressive Park Ridge” (whatever that means) property taxes go up by healthy margins every year.

Those of us who balk at a +3.6% increase in teacher pay have nothing against teachers. We think administrators’ pay should be frozen, too. Still, we care about our children far more than you ever could. The more taxes we pay, the less we have to save for college and retirement.

Your post here is a political rant, but what we care about isn’t politics, it’s arithmetic.

– Anonymous

Dear Anonymous,

For years now I have published a blog that engages in these issues and my name is on the cover. I spoke my mind on this blog even when I taught in Park Ridge. Why you are afraid to sign your name to  these things is a mystery to me and cheapens your point of view. This is particularly true when you then claim to speak on  behalf of others as if you somehow represent them.

“We think…”

What “we?”

The other anonymous “taxpayers” who claim to care about the students of Park Ridge but don’t want to pay for it?

However, I’ll be glad to explain one more time.

I admit it.

I want teachers to earn a good living and have good working conditions.

I also know that this is not in contradiction to the needs of our students. Park Ridge teachers’ working conditions are  Park Ridge students’ learning environment. Fair compensation attracts good teachers to Park Ridge.  That’s good for Park Ridge children.

Simple really. It ought to be a shared interest. You don’t want good teachers for the children of Park Ridge and a good learning environment? Shame on you.

The legislature temporarily raised the income tax 2%. You wish to describe it as a 66% increase. That is pure sophistry. The truth of the matter is that the economy of the state is headed into the toilet if the legislature doesn’t increase revenues. A continuation of a flat tax in which the rich and the poor pay at the same rate will guarantee that all public services, schools included, will face an economic disaster. Instead, common sense legislators (of which there are too few) should create a graduated progressive tax system as all but seven states have done.

As for facts, the cost of living raise for teachers in Park Ridge was a modest 2% a year for four years. Not 3.6% as you falsely claim. That is an increase consistent with the increase in the consumer price index and consistent with teacher raises in school districts throughout the north and north-west suburbs and less than the increase recently won by Chicago teachers.

You may consider this a rant, but I do it openly under may name.

– Fred Klonsky

PS: By the way, where were all these hoards of taxpayer watchdogs on Monday night when the board approved the collective bargaining agreement? Where were the supporters of the  board member, Anthony Borelli, cheering him on as he voted for larger class sizes and no salary increases for staff?  Where were all the “we” that you claim to speak for?