Teachers Getting Screwed in Illinois While Pritzker Swims with the Sharks in Mexico

Former Bulls star Scottie Pippen and millionaire playboy Matt Pritzker yuck it up at a recent Bulls game.

Chicago Sun-Times columnist  Mark Konkol writes today about the luxurious life of Matt Pritzker, the 28 year old playboy who sits in a $10,000 a game court-side seat at Bulls games right next to former Bulls star Scottie Pippen.

Pritzker is the first cousin of Penny Pritzker, who is a member of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and who, along with the rest of her family, has been spending hundreds of thousands of  dollars for ads targeting teacher pensions in Illinois.

Unfortunately, it is looking more and more like the Civic Committee will be successful (We'll find out next week!).  Active public school teachers in the state will be forced pay four percent more out of their salaries and get even less in benefits.  If teachers opt out of the new pension formula, their salaries and pension benefits are FROZEN.  Real fair, huh?

Teachers, as you grind into the last month of the school year and all the bullshit it brings, I want you to consider Matt Pritzker's privileged life and the fact that his family is part of a group that is trying to screw you BIG TIME!  According to the Chicago Tribune, Pritzker's job is "investor, Matthew Pritzker Co."

What is that?  I'll tell you what it is--it's a license to be a playboy!

Here's what columnist Konkol writes about Priztker in today's Sun-Times:  "He's jumped from a 30-story perch into a net, scaled sheer rock walls and ventured out of a protective cage to swim with 18-foot sharks off the coast of Mexico.

"'I had to push the envelope and climb out of the cage, so I [could] say 'open water with a Great White,' Pritzker said.

"Pritzker tagged along on [Virgin Airlines billionaire owner Sir Richard] Branson's attempt to break a speed record for crossing the Atlantic Ocean in a 100-foot boat during a hurricane.

"He likes the rock star thing, too.  Pritzker joined his pal [Adam] Duritz on stage as a stand-in 'guitar strummer' for a few songs with the Counting Crows two nights in a row at Ravinia before sell-out crowds."

When I read Konkol's puff piece about Pritzker, I think of my former colleagues who are paying $400.00 a week for day care for their children, doing end-of-the-year special ed. reports and budgets in addition to attempting to teach the children, fighting the administration about retaining a student, being subjected to nasty comments from parents who don't bother to meet the teacher until the last few days of school when they come in to bitch.

And here's "Matty Boy" Pritzker jetting around the world, sitting court-side at Bulls games rubbing elbows with Scottie, and swimming with the sharks in Mexico (too bad one didn't get him).

My colleague Debra was a Counting Crows fan when Pritzker was a ten year-old in Little League, but she can't afford to go the Ravinia concert because the Pritzker family and its Civic Committee buddies are going to reduce her household income by four percent next year.

Jealousy?  You better believe it!  But it's more than jealousy--it's just damn unfair.

Teachers, if you haven't contacted Governor Pat Quinn and your state legislators, time is running out.  There is a great deal of misinformation being spread around by Quinn, who is an outright liar (Saying that retired teachers receive free health insurance from the state is a lie!  My wife and I paid over $10,000 last year in premiums for a PPO), and his lackies, one of whom is Neil Steinberg of the Sun-Times.  Steinberg is spreading Quinn's lies in his Sun-Times column (see May 7th's paper).

Me?  I'm going to drive up to my hometown of Crystal Lake this afternoon and swim with the carp.  Maybe THAT will cool down my Irish temper.