Catalyst reports that a federal investigation is underway regarding a $20 million no-bid contract to an organization that trains principals. Investigators are probing whether Superintendent Barbara Byrd-Bennett had a conflict of interest. Principals have complained about the relevance and quality of the training.
“Federal authorities are investigating a “matter” at CPS that sources tell Catalyst Chicago involves CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett and the $20 million no-bid contract given to SUPES Academy.
“The CPS inspector general has been investigating Byrd-Bennett and the controversial SUPES contract since 2013. Inspector General Nick Schuler declined to comment Wednesday on whether the investigation is ongoing or on the inquiries from the federal government.
“The inspector general’s investigation was spurred by a Catalyst investigation that detailed Byrd-Bennett’s connection with the for-profit, Wilmette-based SUPES Academy. Byrd-Bennett had worked as a coach for SUPES until she was hired at CPS and there’s some evidence that she continued to consult with related companies after she was on CPS’ payroll. In June 2013, the School Board quietly awarded SUPES the $20 million contract, which was the largest no-bid contract in the district’s recent history, according to Catalyst’s review of board reports.
“Wendy Katten of the parent group Raise Your Hand called it “frustrating” that the board ignored the apparent conflict of interest.
“When this came out, it should have been addressed immediately. This is why there is so little trust in the district,” she said. “We went to the board and asked them to end this contract and redirect the money to schools. It shouldn’t have to lead to a federal investigation to get action.”
“Katten said the issue isn’t just one of ethics, but of how CPS chooses to spend its limited cash. “Those are valuable resources that are being taken away from our schools,” she added.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The SUPES site is boilerplate ed reform “movement” rhetoric:
“This coming change in leadership has the capacity to transform our public school systems.
We are now poised in this country to support strong, highly-prepared school leaders:
National governmental leadership (often controlled by change-averse education labor unions) is now demanding change and accountability in our nation’s schools. All indications are that US Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, will be successful in gaining bi-partisan support for his initiatives to increase accountability in school districts.”
Is slamming labor unions a requirement in all ed reform marketing materials? Do they not get funding without that, or something? 🙂
http://k12leaders.squarespace.com/the-crisis/
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The Privatizers—and their paid functionaries (A.K.A. Lackeys)—assume that bashing “the unions” will be one area that is “popular” and that the majority of voters either hate them already or can easily be manipulated into it.
Think of the negative words that opponents of organized labor typical put after the word “union”: “thugs”, “bosses”, “crooks”, “cheats”, etc., the same type of vile garbage people first heard over 100 years ago as the unionization of the United States began to gain momentum.
They know that they can’t attack “teachers” in quite the same way. They have to tread more lightly; a lot of people like teachers.
And “unions” make a convenient scapegoat for the continuing scourge of poverty that, if anything, is expanding, and is far worse than it was in the mid-1960’s when there was a brief moment in history where politicians actually acknowledged the poor.
Bashing “the unions” serves two purposes for The Privatizers: It provides a diversion, a distraction, and a convenient scapegoat. You can convince a lot of people that poverty is just an “excuse” and that if “the unions” would just get out of the way, all incompetent teachers would be eliminated, all “failing” schools in indigent neighborhoods would do as well, or better than Dalton, Exeter and Scarsdale High School, all students would be National Merit Scholars, attend Stanford, MIT, or one of the Ivies, and we would ALL live happily ever after.
However, once we’re all so well educated and affluent, who will stock the shelves of our supermarkets, keep the bathrooms clean in our favorite restaurant and bring us our drinks by the pool?
And if you say, “The Robots”, then you might be right. But how then will there be enough jobs for everyone, even if we ALL really CAN become National Merit Scholars?
“Ah…we can’t let people start thinking like that. They’ll start asking questions. Let’s continue to tell them that the ONLY way to make our lives better and get more money is to “Educate Our Way Out Of This Mess”.
Anyone who believes we can actually educate ALL of our kids “out of poverty” is either an idiot, delusional, mendacious or a finalist for this year’s “Pollyanna Wishful Thinking Award.”
Meanwhile, back to bashing those no good “UNION THUGS!” (A.K.A. The last people standing in our way…unless…(gulp) the parents get wise…
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Well, this is RAHM-BO land, and WHO endorsed RAHM-BO during the mayoral elections?
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Yes, the Chicago Tribune gave this front page, extended coverage.
As the Chicago Tribune did this perhaps there is light at the end of the tunnel after all.
The CT is not noted, at least in my book as being that enlightened about such matters pertaining to education.
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What a terrible waste of money.
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Just $20 million? No bid deal.
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Maybe they should start investing the Broad Academy too. I will never understand how these “educators” get jobs where a real certified educator has to have years experience, certifications, credentials, ed degrees, etc. I abhor how TFA and Broad and Relay and their ilk dole out masters degrees and pump out “educators” and “administrators” and “superintendents” when time and time again many have left in shame, only to be hired back by the 1%. The tide has to turn, no?
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P.S. Cami Anderson wants her teachers to be trained only by Relay. Somethings got to be wrong with that too.
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This is what happens when there’s no oversight from
an elected and independent school board. With the
mayor appointing dutiful puppets who won’t dare make
waves or raise concerns, that means there’s no Monica Ratliff
or Steve Zimmer—elected by and answerable to the
citizen-taxpyers of a school district—and who can
put the brakes on corruption, or at least ask questions
that might otherwise cause folks like Byrd-Bennett to
give pause to their actions.
Also, do you notice how the feds waited until AFTER
the mayoral election between Rahm Emanuel
and Chewy Garcia?
Hmmm….
The federal investigators are under the Department of Justice,
which is in the Executive Branch, which is ultimately controlled
by… POTUS Barack Obama… who is a long-time Chicago
crony of Rahm, and most recently Rahm’s boss when
Rahm was Obama’s Chief of Staff during Obama’s
first term in office.
Nixon did the same thing during the 1972 election, when
the Justice department delayed any action or publicizing
anything relating to Watergate until after the November
election.
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Please, Please Diane and you very faithful followers. We need to get this out of Des Moines, Iowa. Yes, we are trying to save a field. May be a small thing, but the historic public school that sat there has intertwined millions upon millions surrounding it. Every other public school was torn down and or sold off in a ruse to get this plot of land developed. We need help Diane. These cast of cronies play a pivotal role in politics. This goes All the way up to the Gov Terry Branstad. Iowa is the first state for the campaigning to begin. Des Moines, Ia.(Polk County). We have corruption so bad here it will make you weep. both sides are playing in cahoots on most issues. Please friend us on Facebook Friends of Rice Field. Website is RiceField.Weebly.com. Very gratefully.
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The latest from Chicago: Rumor has it that the CTU (Chicago Teachers Union) is behind all this. Of course we all know that the mayor had something to do with withholding this announcement until after the elections. One wonders why Ms. Bennett’s contract was not renewed by now. It expires June, 2015.
Ms. Bennett has taken a leave of absence and an interim has been appointed to the CEO position.
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