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The Mayor is considering the CTA’s Ron Huberman to potentially succeed Arne Duncan to take the top job at Chicago Public Schools. According to the Trib, the Mayor could make a decision as early as next week.
Duncan, who has left CPS to serve as Secretary of Education in Obama’s administration, did not have a teaching background. Huberman would be in a similar position, having run the Office of Emergency Management and Communications for a year after nine with the Chicago Police Department. He was named Daley’s Chief of Staff in 2005 after a series of City Hall Scandals, and in 2007, Daley named him to head the CTA.
Huberman would not comment publicly. [Trib]
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ooooh I don't like this.... call me crazy, but I think the head of CPS needs a more education-oriented background.
yeah, huberman's been doing a decent job with the CTA, so it seems stupid to take him away from that.
also, it seems like a horrible idea to put someone in to head the chicago public school system who ... doesn't have a background in schools or education.
Ron Huberman is one of Daley's puppets. Think about it. He has worked for CPD, currently works at the CTA, requested a double pension, now trying to run CPS. He is only the front so that if anything happens, he goes down, not Daley.
Yeah, God forbid Daley name someone to the position with a background in education, or someone who worked with Duncan at CPS that can hit the ground running.
And yes, Huberman has been making improvements at the CTA, so why take him away from that agency?
I am so sick of Daley shuffling the same cast of characters around among all the positions under his power. All he cares about is putting someone in who will not challenge him or make any waves for him.
As a lifelong Chicago resident, I was very surprised to learn in some research I have been doing for work that outside of Chicago, people get to vote for the board members, trustees, etc, of their school boards, community college districts, etc. Over the years, the General Assembly has slowly added new statutes that apply only to cities with 500,000 or more residents (Chicago) giving the mayor the sole power to appoint these officials. Not surprisingly, these laws were all passed under Daley I and Daley II (as far as I have been able find, anyway).
I'd personally like to see these laws repealed so that voters can decide who manages these institutions. After all, they are separate political entities with the ability to levy taxes, and I think it is really effed that one person has total control over them.
Jesus Christ! Skaterina, do you even understand the basics of Chicago history? People used to vote for school board members. You state you are a lifelong Chicago resident. Then you should know that, as a result, the Chicago school system was horrific and declared the worst in the nation. Haven't you ever read a newspaper or watched a newscast during your life in Chicago?
In a city such as Chicago, you can't have people vote for school board members. Nobody knows who they are voting for and there is no accountabilty. People will win these races based on money and organization, just as they do with all the downballot (and, in many cases, up ballot) elections. It also essentually guarantees corruption. That was the system the city had for the schools for decades. It doesn't work. This is not a matter of theory. We have experience to prove it, which you should be aware of if you are a lifelong Chicago resident. But instead you have this goody-touchies idea that if only there were elections everything would be much better.
Daley showed great courage by taking control of the school system aroung 15 years ago. He is accountable for what occurs. And, by all accounts, the schools have improved dramatically since then. The President of the United States, after all, choose the schools chief to be Secretary of Education.
Jeez, if you disagree you can say so without being so rude.
File this under "bad ideas". Huberman is good at running things and a large organization. We're talking about running kids lives here. This is the equivalent of "brownie" appointed to run FEMA. managing half a million kids is not the same as half a million train riders.
Huberman showed his true colors when he tried to increase his pension. How? By claiming that his stint with a massive CTA chief's salary--combined with sitting in the cushy CTA office--should count as "police service." Huberman had the nerve to claim that the CTA involves public safety.
What an insult to every cop who risks his life and is out their working in the trenches at a much lower salary than Huberman's.
Combine that with his complete lack of education experience, and you see what a fraud he is...and what a fraud Mayor Daley is.
Even more reason now to receive three pensions. Phonies!
Hiring somebody with a background in something other than education is a good idea.
Shuffling Machine puppets around between leadership roles is a bad idea though.
I don't understand how this would be a good thing. Huberman is doing great as the head of the CTA. Why change him now? Maybe huberman wants to move on. It's a shame because I haven't seen the CTA run so well since, well, ever.
I don't know when Chicagoans ever had the right to vote for school board members, but it certainly was never in my lifetime & I'm almost 60!
Daley I appointed them, Bilandic appointed them, Jane Byrne got them all fired & appointed new ones, Washington appointed them & Daley II appointed them.
In every board there were always certain groups represented: unions, teachers, ministers. Everyone except the actual public whose kids had to suffer under the general incompetence of the school board..
My least favorite board member was Marge Wild, a former teacher that married a really rich guy from South Shore. They were one of the last rich whites to live in South Shore.
Marge was head of the board's labor negotiating committee & showed up to the contract negotiations with the teacher's union wearing a full length fur coat, one winter.
Great way for management to piss off the employees!
She was one of those that Byrne got to fire!
Good fucking riddance!