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H/T: Micah Uetricht
Back in March I first heard of Jason Richwine when he appeared on a panel along with my brother Mike and Brother Jitu Brown of the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization (KOCO) discussing Rahm’s school closings.
Brother Mike and Brother Jitu explained why the school closings were wrong.
Richwine supported Rahm and babbled on about how throwing money at schools was a bad thing.
I have never understood that argument. Nobody seems to be throwing money at public schools.
Charters? Yes.
Neighborhood schools? No.
Richwine’s name came up again a month or so later when it was disclosed he had written a report saying that Latinos were genetically more stupid than white people.
Richwine’s racism was even too much for the right-wing Heritage Foundation for which Richwine was working at the time.
Too racist for the Heritage Foundation? A high bar.
They fired the guy.
Now another article surfaces from Richwine which he wrote back in September.
He wrote that Chicago public school teacher pensions are too generous.
Of course, Richwine never mentions the long history of underfunding by the CPS board.
The pension holidays.
The diversion of funds.
Says Richwine:
A Chicago teacher who retired in 2011 after 30 or more years of service time could expect an annual pension payment of $77,496. For context, the average Social Security benefit—which requires a much higher employee contribution into the system—would likely be in the range of $25,000 to $30,000 per year for a worker with a similar salary history.
What Chicago teacher is this? Richwine doesn’t say.
His context is noteworthy, however.
As public employees, Chicago teachers pay into the pension system out of their paychecks. They also pay more into the fund as Chicago taxpayers. And they pay into the state retirement systems of all state public employees.
No private employer would be allowed holidays when it comes to Social Security payments. That is what Chicago has been allowed to do when it comes to the teacher pension fund.
In any case, Richwine is creating quite the resume.
Public school basher. Racist. Public pension opponent.
Pal of Rahm.
Fred Klonsky 
Interesting – by the way I’m not a Latino – but I can tell you my kids attend school with several of them and it’s not that they are stupid rather they are still learning the language. They struggle with that because there are a lack of ESL teachers to support them. Rahm wants to keep bringing in immigrants then he needs to better fund the bilingual teacher programs in schools who need teachers for the language learners. These idiots associated with CPS central have no clue to the reality of what is happening in our schools. The term throwing money at the schools is a favorite one they like to use. I think the term they need to understand is how to better support our schools so they get everything they need to better educate our children. It’s not money – it’s how, when and where you spend it! The people in power clearly don’t get this concept!
Nice piece. Mr. Richwine clearly doesn’t know anything, which frees him to make up and give voice to whatever nastiness that passes for thought in his head.
One other point that further illustrates the idiocy and evil of dumping on teachers and their “posh” pensions: teachers also pay into the social security system, although they are usually ineligible to receive social security pensions. Social Security is a public good that benefits everyone directly or indirectly, just like roads, police and fire protection, etc., so supporting it through FICA deductions from everyone’s paychecks makes sense.
Apparently the video has been pulled as of 11:30.