Mike Klonsky speculates on who might replace Barbara Byrd-Bennett, who resigned in the midst of a federal investigation of a $20 million np-bid contract to SUPES, a principal training program that BBB once worked for.
Will it be the return of Paul Vallas? A businessman?
MIke says it doesn’t matter.
“Meanwhile, the media debate is all about whether Rahm should appoint another career educator like BBB or J.C Brizard, or another non-educator business guy? I don’t think it makes a damn bit of difference so long as either one, along with the hand-picked school board, are mere puppy dogs. It’s mayoral control of the schools that’s the real issue here. The fact that Rahm is shopping for Chicago’s 6th CEO in 6 years following Huberman, Mazany, Brizard, Byrd-Bennett, and Ruiz, makes my point. Instability is the name of the game and when things go south, like a major scandal or a teachers strike, they are all easily replaceable.
“We need an elected school board and an end to autocratic rule over the schools.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Mayoral control of public schools is a horrific idea with terrible consequences. Ka-Ching … $$$$$.
Heck The deformers are all over re authorization of Leave Every Child Behind.
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Rahm is bad.
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AGREE!
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Does it annoy anyone else that Chicago calls its education head “CEO?”
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Oh, I thought it meant “Chicago’s Education Overlord”.
But, yes, it is an annoying trend. Like calling ketchup a “tomato based condiment”. Silly.
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I don’t hate fruit, but the “Dance of the Lemons” again?
😏
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yes, and it annoys me when districts have a “chief talent officer.”
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That one gets me every time. What a chief talent officer do?
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tap dance and sleight of hand card tricks
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“CEO” is the Broad Academy standard title. But hoop-di-doo…Deasy fell after wasting over $670M at LAUSD what with his mishandling of Miramonte law suits, MiSiS, and the infamous Apple/Pearson contracts, etc…..and now it is Byrd-Bennett being investigated for a mere $21M…but off she goes too. Hooray. Bet Broad will hire her along with Deasy and Ben Austin to attempt to impose Vergara-like lawsuits nation wide.
He does like to keep his creepy puppets who dance to his tunes, close by.
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People should run, not walk, when they meet a public servant who insists on being called a CEO.
Words matter. The title describes how they view themselves and their approach to a public entity.
I don’t know why they don’t go work in the private sector if they’re so enamored of the private sector. Is someone forcing them to take public sector jobs? Instead of running schools like businesses, why don’t they go run an actual business, one that isn’t publicly-funded?
We get the worst of both worlds- we don’t get real public servants and we don’t get real CEO’s. We get this horrible hybrid with the worst aspects of both sectors.
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Yeah and now Senate Republicans in New York are thinking now that a progressive is in charge, the state legislature should get a say in running in the schools over the mayor…who knows if they’ll pull it off or if they’re just making a bad deal so progressives need to have more taken away and given to the rich just to maintain the status quo without the state then dictating what the city needs or doesn’t.
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I’m sure Paul’s rubbing his oily little hands together in glee. How lucky could he get–first, he’s tapped to run as Lt. Gov. right after being run out of Bridgeport. But, sadly, his ticket loses. Now he’s interviewed by Chicago Magazine (I have to agree w/Mike–what WERE you thinking, Carol?). Wow, what an opportunity this could be!
Agreed, KrazyTA–we’re seeing the REAL “dance of the lemons” being played out all over the country (hey, Buffalo,NY–heard J.C. Brizard was being considered for your supt. vacancy–what’s going on w/that?)
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I don’t think they’ll pick Vallas. He criticized the mayor and his school board for opening so many charter schools. Said it was reckless. That’s probably a deal-breaker in ed reform circles:
“Beyond that, Vallas proposed two steps that won’t go down very well at Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s City Hall: a freeze on creating any new charter schools, except to replace failing neighborhood schools on a one-for-one basis, and electing at least some members of the Board of Education.”
I have never heard any of them criticize opening more charter schools, ever.
The saddest part of the whole thing is, we are told we need business people on school boards because they’re such ultra-savvy actors and have so much real-world experience. Why did they rubber stamp that contract? They knew Byrd-Bennett had all kinds of entanglements and conflicts re: that company. It was just dumb. It’s like they WANT the public to believe they’re corrupt and captured. Why is it so hard to avoid this? These are just ordinary ethical norms. It’s not a high standard.
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Chiara–You’re right–they wouldn’t, but not for the right reasons (for those you’d reiterated–hey, nobody criticizes the mayor & his school board!) But–I was commenting, more, about the craziness of Chicago Mag. actually interviewing P.V. & the interviewer taking away the notion that his return to CPS might actually be a GOOD thing?!
Have to quote the great Jonathan Pelto once again, “Wait, what?”
(&–BTW–thanks, Jonathan, for all your brilliant Bridgeport reporting–which helped bounce Paul right back to us here in ILL-Annoy, as per his run for Lt. Guv.)
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When you asked “Who is next?” in the headline, I thought you meant who’s the next to resign. If there were any decency/justice/something in this world, Rahm would be out the door with BBB. She was, after all, just his minion, never an independent agent. Surely the feds understand that? (Yeah, I know, not really, and don’t call me Shirley.)
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“Gov. Bruce Rauner has defended his practice of paying top dollar to high-level state employees, saying he was willing to take the arrows to lure good people to government.
But records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times under the Freedom of Information Act show that one of the highest-paid state employees hired under Rauner isn’t making a dent in the governor’s office budget.
In March, Rauner tapped Beth Purvis, a former charter school director, as his education secretary at an annual salary of $250,000.”
I guess I’m confused. Why does he have to pay a high salary to “lure” her to government? Wasn’t she already paid by the public as a charter school director? Does he consider charter schools “the private sector” now? Directors of (supposedly) public schools have to be offered high salaries or they won’t consider government work?
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It still blows me away that ed reformers feel the need to reiterate that they support public schools:
“We do support all kinds of quality schools,” Vitale said.”
I mean for God’s sake. They’re on a SCHOOL BOARD. If parents are asking them whether or not they “support” public schools they have a fundamental problem.
One would think we would have settled this issue of whether or not the ed reform “movement” does or does not “support” public schools, since we’re all paying them to run our schools. They’re still on the fence on the public school question?
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So when do these fools go to jail? AND, pay back the misappropriated monies?
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