Martin Ryczek

[Martin Ryczek @martry499]

@CTULocal1 The latest blather from @CTULocal1 looking for someone outside the classroom to fix a problem when they won’t lift a finger to improve what happens inside

[Martin Ryczek @martry499]

Chicago’s students keep paying the price for @CTULocal1 wasting resources, protecting bad teachers, and insisting on forcing kids into poor performing schools.

I’ll get behind a tax increase as soon as @CTULocal1 gets behind teacher accountability.

[Chicago Teachers Union @CTULocal1]

Chicago’s students are about to pay the price because a bloc of aldermen are opposingthe Protecting Chicago budget.

Let’s be clear about what that means:
A “no” vote is a voteagainst progress,against safety, andagainst the schools our communities rely on. And it’s a voteforthe billionaires and wealthy corporations who’ve profited while elected officials have drained resources from Black and brown neighborhoods for decades.

Parents and community members across Chicago can already see the impact. CTU’s Protecting Chicago Schools Calculator shows exactly what each school stands to lose if their alder sides with wealthy corporations instead of our young people.(https://t.co/Wky03Fkkw7)

Alders have a choice: Protect Chicagoans from cuts and higher taxes on our families and invest in our young people, OR side with the wealthy billionaires and make the city more unaffordable.

Chicago deserves leaders who stand with us, not with ultra-wealthy corporations.

[Martin Ryczek @martry499]

While demanding more from everyone else, @CTULocal1 and its leadership refuse any accountability for themselves or the under-performing teachers who harm the very students @stacydavisgates purports to advocate for

[Chicago Teachers Union @CTULocal1]

At a time when public education, health care, and resources are under attack, CTU President Stacy Davis Gates is leading a movement that says: our children are worth fighting for.

As Trump deploys federal agents into Black and brown neighborhoods, educators are stepping in to shield the community. From Know Your Rights trainings to walking students home to mutual aid efforts led by school staff, we keep us safe.

90% of Black Chicagoans support taxing the wealthy corporations to fund valuable public services like our libraries, our schools, violence prevention programs, and summer jobs for Black youth.

As President Davis Gates puts it, “Working people — Black people — have already done their fair share.”

This movement is about dignity, justice, and building the Chicago our young people deserve.

Read more in @TheRoot at https://t.co/cB0VrhtfKy

[Martin Ryczek @martry499]

The biggest question here is why the local school is expected to solve this problem? There are problems here far beyond any school’s ability address. Let’s see @ChicagosMayor step up.

[I Meme Therefore I Am 🇺🇸 @ImMeme0]

🚨BREAKING: Pregnant Mother and Young Kids Brutally Attacked by Mob of Students Outside Chicago School

Yesterday, a pregnant mother, having just picked up her young children from a school, was followed by a mob of students.

As she desperately tried to protect her kids, they were dragged to the ground, beaten, kicked, and stomped on in a terrifying assault.

The situation is unfolding as members of the community gather today in front of the school, demanding that the violent students be held accountable for their actions.

[Martin Ryczek @martry499]

I’ll get behind tax increases as soon as @CTULocal1 takes some serious steps to stop wasting the money they already have. SHOW US THE AUDITS!!!

[Chicago Teachers Union @CTULocal1]

"The city council has two options: They can tax the rich or they can decimate services and tax working-class people." - Mayor Brandon Johnson

90% of Black and Latine voters support taxing ultra-wealthy corporations to protect our city. And Mayor Brandon Johnson's Protecting Chicago Budget does just that — it makes wealthy corporations pay their share, instead of raising taxes on working people. And it invests a historic $1 billion TIF surplus into our schools, communities, and people.

When we invest in our people, instead of protecting the ultra-rich, we build the city our communities deserve. The choice is clear: Invest in people, not cuts.

Tell city council to choose people over corporations. Vote YES on the Protecting Chicago Budget.

[Martin Ryczek @martry499]

But Chicago’s mile is already MAGNIFICENT

[CWBChicago @CWBChicago]

...There is also a Miracle Mile shopping center in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, and St. Louis Park, Minnesota.

[Dan Proft @DanProft]

This is a particularly salient comment from Ken Griffin at this week's American Business Forum.

It reminds me of a conversation I had years back with a sales rep for a big manufacturing concern who had a 10-state territory that included Illinois although he wasn't from Illinois. His comment, "People in Chicagoland talk about politics more than people in all of the other states I cover combined."

An unintentionally telling observation about how government-centric Chicagoland is. No matter your business, everything runs through and/or into government. Illinois' main industry is not agribusiness, logistics or financial services, it is the anti-industry of government and its business is giving builders of businesses the business.

Think about the conversations you have on a daily basis in Illinois and how often politics insinuates itself into conversations where, upon reflection, it should be unwelcome and in other places in America it is.

[Ald. Raymond Lopez @RaymondALopez]

It’s rhetoric like this that makes people feel they can act the way they do. Chicago is part of the United States of America. Since we haven’t seceded from the Union, we are subject to its laws, including immigration laws. If you don’t like the laws, tell your congressmen to change them.

[Congressman Byron Donalds @RepDonaldsPress]

MARCH: I asked @ChicagosMayor how much of YOUR MONEY he wastes on illegals–he didn't know.

JUNE: I asked @GovPritzker the same question–he didn't know either.

OCTOBER: Chicago is creating @ICEgov Free Zones.

They unapologetically put criminal illegals first.

This is insanity.

[Deon Joseph @ofcrdeonjoseph]

He can’t create an ICE free zone. But what he’s actually doing is trying to create more conflict. He actually wants the violence because he believes it will turn the tide for him politically as a defender of immigrants. There is no zone where the federal government can’t go into. This will give him the “dead cat bounce” with a few. But in the end will backfire.

[Martin Ryczek @martry499]

So what you’re saying is that we don’t need more tax money for this and can use it elsewhere

[Christopher Mims 🤌 @mims]

Something surprising is happening -- despite Trump admin's rollbacks of incentives for EVs and related tech:

America's fast charging infrastructure is exploding.

We'll see a 3x increase in chargers in just the next 4 years. I hit the road to experience it first hand.

[Martin Ryczek @martry499]

And still @ChiPubSchools insist on dumping much needed cash to keep open far more buildings than are justified by the district enrollment

[The Chicago Public Education Fund @TheFundChicago]

At a time when every dollar counts, Principal Marie Garza is facing difficult decisions that highlight how the @ChiPubSchools budget deficit is affecting classrooms. This year, @APMABulldogs is grappling with the loss of a bilingual SECA.

[Martin Ryczek @martry499]

Pritzker gets more of OUR tax $$ from the higher electric bills

[Jeanne Ives @JeanneIves]

Your electric bill goes up 20%, Pritzker says nothing. State Farm increases premiums, and Pritzker wants legislation to stop it. JB's policies caused your electric bill to go up, and he can reverse that. State Farm operates in a competitive market. Insane.
https://t.co/g11x1YqJ7j

[Martin Ryczek @martry499]

Don’t remember these folks shedding any tears for folks in the private sector getting laid off

[Reuters @Reuters]

The State Department began firing more than 1,350 US-based employees as the Trump administration proceeded with an unprecedented overhaul of its diplomatic corps https://t.co/IxSE3lS4zG

[Martin Ryczek @martry499]

Would be nice if you also referenced 1) how much of those pensions are made up of the cash that state workers contributed directly from their paychecks and 2) how IL citizens elected officials who thought it was a great idea to create the current debt

[Illinois Policy @illinoispolicy]

The average retired state worker in Illinois made $93,558 last year.

That's $24,538 more than the average Illinois taxpayer who subsidized it.

This 👏 isn't 👏 sustainable 👏

https://t.co/7LKHPTwyu3

[Martin Ryczek @martry499]

The CTU contract has consequences and contrary to their mantra of concern for students, as the Wendell Smith example shows, it’s the students who ultimately get short changed.

[The Chicago Public Education Fund @TheFundChicago]

His message is clear: without real investment and long-term planning, CPS cannot meet the needs of its most vulnerable students. Schools like Wendell Smith are being pushed to the edge, and it's the students who will suffer most.

[Martin Ryczek @martry499]

That ‘risk’ for police could easily be eliminated with communication and coordination

[Chicago Tribune @chicagotribune]

Commentary: Groups of masked agents, armed with weapons, moving around the streets of a city in unmarked vehicles creates a public safety risk for police and for residents.
https://t.co/dIgW3jn46s

[Martin Ryczek @martry499]

A prime responsibility for @ChicagosMayor is to ensure that taxpayers hard earned $ is used effectively and efficiently. You are failing miserably so far. When you turn your performance around, THEN maybe you can ask for more. Enough is enough

[Mayor Brandon Johnson @ChicagosMayor]

Enough is enough. We need the ultra-wealthy to pay their fair share so that we can fund a world-class public transit system.

https://t.co/UU7fhS2Ie6

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

Today’s world needs the marital covenant in order to know and welcome God’s love, and to overcome the forces that break down relationships and societies, through its unifying and reconciling power.