In a brazen Letter to the editor from this week's News-Gazette, Ed Geppert, president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, was proselytizing to the good people of the state bemoaning the extremely over-dramatic woes of the state's "public servants"-as he calls them. Anyone who has followed the actions of the IFT will find this laughable. "Teachers and public employees," he writes, "did not cause this problem." (the problem being the enormous debt that has been generated by state pension problems). Geppert in his audacious claim seems clear to forget (more likely to ignore) the role of perhaps the ultimate public employee:
It is ironic that Geppert should write this on the eve that his most esteemed receiver of patronage, that is disgraced, impeached, and indicted ex-governor Rod Blagojevich enters his plea on accusations of (among other things) attempting to sell U.S. Senate seats. So we wondered greatly why Geppert does seem so virulently upset about no money to the teacher pensions when his own organization has donated nearly $2 million to BLAHgojevich's campaigns for the governorship? Not to mention the parent AFT's donation in addition. How about the Illinois Education Association's of over half a million dollars. (source for these contributions here)
Perhaps the IFT would do better for their teachers to cough up their own funds instead of funding criminal state officials. Teachers and public servants may not be at fault, but Geppert and his own certainly are.
Posted by Hound No. 4
