WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Peter Buffett, son of billionaire investor Warren on the conflict between capitalism and humanism: "You can't have both." -- Big Philanthropy and Philanthro-Feudalism

Retired teacher, Randy Fritz

Hey General Assembly: your job was/is to return my money to me—you took it in the first place and promised to return it, under specific circumstances, in the form of a pension. You promised to match my contributions. In fact, you have a fiduciary responsibility to do so. That’s not just what you promised, it’s what the 1970 Illinois Constitution promises. -- Fred Klonsky Blog

IFT Pres. Dan Montgomery

“This is a grotesque taking of employees’ retirement security that seems both patently illegal and unfair. It’s a sharp jab in the eye — and the heart — of public employees. There’s a lot of anger out there.” -- NY Times

Billionaire Kenneth Griffin 

"Right now, government workers can retire about a decade before the rest of us can — and we are the ones paying the bills." -- Tribune

Rep. Raymond Poe, R-Springfield 

"That's not enough time to digest it. You don't give the people it affects enough time to do some research and crunch the numbers and see how it works. I think it puts everybody who's affected by it at a serious disadvantage." -- Journal Star 

Nekritz    (Fred Klonsky)

Pension grabbing State Rep. Elaine Nekritz 

"I can argue both sides of it because what we end up doing . . . is sort of digging ourselves back into the hole we’re in now by failing to make an actuarily adequate payment.” -- Sun-Times

Delaware public school teacher

 My students like to tell me that I’m old school.  They are right.  I’m from the school of teaching CHILDREN, not standards.  I’m from the school of student needs, not student data.  I’m from the school of thinking and discovery and choice; not canned, watered-down, one-size-fits-all, global curricula. -- Washington Post