It was different because it was the last such meeting with Jo Anderson as IEA Executive director.
Jo officially departs IEA to become a senior advisor to US Education Secretary Arne Duncan on March 31, marking the end of more than 30 years of agitation by Anderson on behalf of IEA members.
Jo arrived at IEA in the early 1970s as an organizer. He departed a few years later, but returned in 1980.
Over the years, Jo has worked tirelessly, in a variety of positions, to improve student achievement by empowering teachers, a quest that, at various times, irritated some local and state IEA leaders, some UniServ Directors and managers, and some former executive directors.
That’s the thing about visionaries; people don’t always see what the visionary sees; at least not at first.
Despite (or perhaps because of) the differences of opinion, Jo Anderson did some great work. In 1995, he founded the Consortium for Educational Change (CEC) a network of Illinois school districts and professional organizations designed to improve student achievement by helping districts and schools to become collaborative, high-performing organizations.
He later created the Center for Educational Innovation (CEI), helping local associations to develop skills and relationships that increase student achievement and teacher satisfaction.
It’s fair to say that no one has done more than Jo Anderson to change the culture and labor management relationship in Illinois public schools and school districts.
At last week’s meeting, lots of old stories were told. Among them, how Jo was known to some, back in the day, as “Super Dave Osborne,” because, like the TV comic daredevil, Jo would insert himself into dangerous (career-wise) situations.
Jo, the ultimate change agent, now takes his crusade for high-functioning schools and school districts, in which student achievement is everyone’s focus, to Washington D.C.
They’d better be ready to change. He’s not a status quo kind of guy.
Good luck, Jo. Thanks.
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Congressman Aaron Schock (R-Peoria) displeased many IEA members with his vote against the Obama stimulus package. However, his support for the Social Security Fairness Act of 2009 will delight many of the same.
The Act would remove the barrier that keeps public employees in Illinois, such as teachers, from receiving full social security benefits if they also receive a state pension, even when they have earned social security through other work.
“We’re not asking anybody to receive benefits that haven’t paid in,” Schock said. “In Illinois, if you are a public employee and that is your exclusive job, you do not pay into Social Security.”
The Act could mean a lot to those who come to teaching as a second career.
For example, if an individual who works in the private sector decides to become a teacher and works long enough as a teacher to receive a pension from the state, that person is disqualified from receiving the Social Security benefits already earned during his or her first career, Schock said.
Schock is among 206 co-sponsors, but there were more more than 200 last year and it didn’t pass. He suggests everyone lobby their comgressional representative.
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Finally, bad news for those who hoped Illinois was the best at something.
Send your comments and questions to Charles McBarron
Illinois Education Association is an association of more than 130,000 members composed of Illinois elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty and staff, educational support professionals, retired educators and college students preparing to become teachers.
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