Rahm's hand-picked public schools ex-CEO faces criminal charges. $23 million no bid contracts..

[madfloridian]

from CPS to her former employer.

Ex-CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett, 4 others charged in contract scheme

The former CEO of Chicago Public Schools, Barbara Byrd-Bennett, has been criminally charged in connection with allegedly steering more than $23 million in no-bid contracts from CPS to her former employer, authorities said Thursday.

Byrd-Bennett — Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s handpicked choice — becomes CPS’ first CEO to face criminal charges in connection with her job. Federal authorities have been investigating the most controversial of those contracts — a $20.5 million no-bid CPS deal for principal training, the largest in recent memory — for more than a year.

Receiving that contract in 2013 to train principals was The SUPES Academy, owned by former Niles West High School dean Gary Solomon and his former student Thomas Vranas. It generated controversy at the time because SUPES was not known for training principals while many other, respected organizations did that very job. The deal continued to draw criticism as some educators questioned the quality of SUPES’ training.

......The feds allege that Byrd-Bennett, 66, and Solomon set up a kickback scheme, detailed in emails, in which Byrd-Bennett would get money in exchange for steering the CPS contracts to SUPES and Synesi.

.....According to the indictment, on April 29, 2012, Solomon sent an Byrd-Bennett saying, “When this stint at CPS is done and you are ready to re re re retire, we have a spot waiting for you. Hopefully, with even more work and more opt. In the meantime, if we can figure out a way to do deep principal PD at CPS, I can find a good home for (friends of Byrd-Bennett's) and others, and make sure principles (cq) in CPS get kick ass training with kick ass teacher and kick ass coaching.”

This was public money which could have been used for public schools that have been closed in Chicago.

[KamaAina]

1. "becomes CPS’ first CEO to face criminal charges in connection with her job"

In Chicago, that is quite an outstanding feat, the equivalent of an Olympic gold medal.

[madfloridian]

2. AND it implies more to come...I hope.

[Octafish]

3. Grounds for dismissal, actually.

Thank you, Your Honor. The check will be made out to "Cash."

[F4lconF16]

4. Ugh. This is one of the things that really pissed me off with Obama.

I'd call it a monumentally bad decision, except I know it was intentional.

[madfloridian]

5. Suspect this is happening a lot under privatization policies for schools.

Glad to see one instance publicized.

[tech3149]

27. LIstening to a discussion from an educator tonight

She had the pleasure of hosting Thomas Franks after a presentation at the university. During the presentation Q&A he was asked why Obama had made so many choices that seemed to be counter to the interest of the public.
The answer was so simple and direct that it was painful. "Because he wanted to" He is a true believer in the concept of a free market economy and will never go against the wishes of the financial markets. As far as foreign policy he is cowed as much by the military American exceptionalism junta as every president since Truman.
If they hadn't killed the Kennedy's perhaps that strangle hold could have been broken but now we're pretty much screwn.

[madfloridian]

31. Franks was apparently right. When Obama and Arne pushed Newt Gingrich policies....

about free market schools I knew we were in trouble.

Thank you, Raul Grijalva: Obama’s Market-Based Policies Endanger Public Education.

Representative Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) is co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. He sees right through the Obama education policy and recognizes that it is a continuation of George W. Bush’s failed No Child Left Behind.

In this astonishingly candid interview with Josh Eidelson in Salon, Rep. Grijalva lacerates Race to the Top, high-stakes testing, privatization, and the other features of the Obama education policy.

Rep. Grijalva recognizes that the Obama program is now driven by financial interests:

Obama’s education secretary is “a market-based person,” his education policy manifests a “market-based philosophy,” and “we continue to starve public schools,” the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus charged in an interview Wednesday afternoon.

[TM99]

6. Neoliberal cronyism at its finest.

To think Emanuel was Obama's right hand man.

[Wellstone ruled]

7. Is this why Arnie Duncan pulled the pin?

Oh oh!!

[LiberalArkie]

8. I never had any doubt. And what city is Obama from? And what is that city known for?

[JimDandy]

9. No-bid contracts are almost always a rip off of the public

coffers. The concept of No-Bid Contracts invites corruption and any such contract should immediately raise a red flag as there are very few good reasons for having them. Those who abuse their use deserve to be taken down.

[kenfrequed]

10. Some day hopefully...

People will come to recognize this corruption for what it was.

I seriously almost punched a hole in my wall when I heard that Rahm had been chosen for Chief of Staff. Repugnant.

Of course he will probably end up being Hillary's Veep.

[stillwaiting]

26. Stop it. Don't say that. She wouldn't dare. Even I wouldn't vote for her if she chose him for VP.

I have voted in every election and primary for the Democrat (or the best democrat).

She chooses Rahm. She loses.

[valerief]

11. Who's surprised? nt

[SoapBox]

12. More crooks that had titles.

[jopacaco]

13. Looks like Arne has his own scandel brewing with Ohio charters

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/10/08/ugly-charter-school-scandal-arne-duncan-leaving-behind

These guys are killing public education.

[Dawson Leery]

28. Arne Duncan is Obama's Alberto Gonzales.

A crony who is a friend of the President who received their position as they were heavily invested in making things run a certain way that was contrary to the public good.

[hifiguy]

14. A neo-liberal scumbag

just as I always thought.

Who's the "fucking retard" now, Rahm?

[Punx]

19. Thank you

I was really hoping someone would ask that question.

[FloriTexan]

15. Kick!

[madfloridian]

17. Hey....

another one.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027244727

[Fearless]

16. Apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Then an animal comes by and eats it... The rest ain't real pretty but it's still better than that asshat.

[DhhD]

18. Public money being thrown somewhere; any new charter school labor union start-ups?

[azmom]

20. K&R

[Unknown Beatle]

21. When Obama picked Rahm Emanuel for Chief of Staff,

my initial thought was, "What the..?" And then he picked Geithner for treasury secretary and I thought, "Wait a minute. He's making mistakes already in his appointments."

But they weren't mistakes and it should have been a red flag as to where his allegiances lay. Wall St./Big Banks.

[suffragette]

22. Was she connected to Broad?

Wondering because the corrupt and fired Superintendent we had in Seattle was connected to Broad.

[madfloridian]

24. Well, she was part of the Broad Academy...article about her "connections".

http://www.susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1414

November 1998 -- February 2006: As Cleveland Schools CEO, Byrd-Bennett defended the use of Compass Learning and other "drill and kill" programs, telling a Baltimore Sun reporter, "I would argue that there is very little intervention [for struggling students] that isn't rote. For some things, you just have to learn facts to build to higher-order skills."

NOTE: How did attendance rates jump? from 89% in 2001 to 93.8% in 2002? Absent students were counted 'present' if they were given make-up assignment. ( District staff aimed to skew absence data, Janet Okoben, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Oct. 17, 2005)


November 2003 Secretary of Education Rod Paige announces Byrd-Bennett's appointment to NAEP governing board.
See How NAEP Labels a Reader


February 2006 --March 2009: Superintendent-in-Residency for Harcourt School Publishers. In her "disclosure statement to Detroit Public Schools in 2009," she describer duties as "working with school superintendents, principals, and literacy coaches of grades K-12 in 12 districts throughout the country . . . .." She resigned this position to take job with Detroit Public Schools. She gave "verbal disclosure" at time of her hiring; on advice of her attorney, on financial disclosure statement for "other income" she wrote "not applicable." See auditor's report Review of DPS Procurements with Federal Dollars, Report o. 2011-1008, July 29, 2011 for more details.


March 2006--2009: Superintendent Executive Coach, Broad Superintendent Academy
http://www.broadprize.org/asset/TBP2007ReviewBoard.pdf

She's not the only one from that academy who was let go by school districts. Can't find my post now, but there were quite a few.

[suffragette]

29. Yes, Broad Academy. Goodloe Johnson was also connected to them.

Seems like ethics is not part of their training.

[madfloridian]

30. Yes, and here's more. John Covington, Robert Bobb, more

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/5951

And more from the Broad Report by the Perimeter Primate.

http://thebroadreport.blogspot.com/

[d_legendary1]

23. When is Darth Cheney going to be prosecuted?

By this measure that guy should be in hand cuffs.

[madfloridian]

34. Probably never.

[d_legendary1]

35. Damn...

But thanks for the reply.

[madfloridian]

25. Wow..Byrd Bennett blames the kickbacks on casinos and college tuition.

Feds: Byrd-Bennett said ‘tuition to pay and casinos to visit’ led to kickbacks

Even before she was hired to run Chicago Public Schools, Barbara Byrd-Bennett set up a scheme to get a 10 percent kickback on all the CPS contracts she could steer to a former employer, in part to set up a college fund for her twin grandsons, authorities said Thursday.

The feds found damning, detailed emails between her and her ex-boss, Gary Solomon — apparently so damning that Byrd-Bennett will plead guilty in the case involving $23 million in CPS contracts. U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon, in an unusual move, announced Byrd-Bennett’s intention to plead as he announced the charges.

“I have tuition to pay and casinos to visit ” the feds say Byrd-Bennett wrote in one of many emails discussing the alleged kickbacks.

....Byrd-Bennett becomes CPS’ first chief executive officer to face criminal charges in connection with her job. Federal authorities have been investigating one of those contracts — a $20.5 million no-bid deal for principal training, the largest in recent memory — for more than a year. The investigation came to light in April when subpoenas landed at CPS, forcing Byrd-Bennett out. By then, CPS had paid SUPES all but $7.7 million.

[Chisox08]

32. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to money stolen from CPS.

[madfloridian]

33. Just waiting for the next shoe to drop.

Bet Rahm's getting nervous.

[FlatBaroque]

36. People like Rahm do not get nervous

they are made men. They possess a special status.

[Initech]

37. More evidence that it's a big club and we're not in it.

Fuck those corporate criminal scumbags.