Rahm Emanuel's handpicked schools 'Chief Executive Officer', Barbara Byrd Bennett, has a second job working for Eli Broad against unions and public schools ... and the photographs of her works in Detroit show Chicago's future, despite the rhetoric and lies during the current 'underutilization' fight
Sometimes one picture is worth even more than 1,000 words, and in the case of the recent people imported into Chicago as "Chief Executive Officer" of the nation's third largest school system, the photograph above this article, taken in Detroit, shows what Chicago will be seeing in a few years when the "underutilized" school buildings that are being proclaimed by Barbara Byrd Bennett have been evacuated and all the plans and talking points are history. Anyone from Chicago can go to Detroit or Cleveland and learn more about the work of the latest CPS schools CEO, but apparently only one news service will be doing that.
Photo taken inside one of the many Detroit public schools that were closed during the past five years, as Barbara Byrd Bennett and others pursued the Broad Foundation's attack on urban public schools and teacher unions. Despite all the claims that "underutilization" is the problem and that schools will be closed according to a plan, the Broad administrators, mercenaries of the corporate "school reform" movement, move from city to city and are gone by the time people can see the results of some of their work. The picture above was taken inside one of the many closed Detroit schools in August 2012. Substance photo by Rich Gibson.In the ever twisting and turning fight for true public and transparent education in the City of Chicago, Substance News has obtained a document through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that shows a clear conflict of interest with the new CEO of the schools, Barbara Byrd-Bennett. Byrd Bennett, as those who follow CPS closely know, was in Detroit a year ago, was brought to Chicago as "Chief Education Officer" ten months ago, and was elevated to "Chief Executive Officer" by Mayor Rahm Emanuel five months ago after Emanuel dumped his first out-of-town CEO, Rochester's Jean-Claude Brizard, following the Chicago Teachers Strike of 2012. In Chicago, since mayoral control began in 1995, the mayor appoints the members of the Board of Education and the "Chief Executive Officer" of CPS.
What has clearly become a privatization scheme to dismantle the Chicago Public Schools and divvy out as much public assets to private hands under Mayor Rahm Emanuel, with the appointment of the latest CEO (four in less than three years) it is clear now that the Mayor will do anything to get his way.
In what could be the most blatant move by the school Board to completely be vested in the privatization of all the schools in Chicago, CEO -- called "Triple B as she is known to some who like jargon and strange versions of reality -- is currently and when she was hired an Executive Coach in the "Broad Superintendent’s Academy." The Broad Superintendent Academy (see article below this one) is one of the most powerful groups in the USA in pushing the privatization of public schools and the attacks on public school teachers and unions.
What this is means is that the new CEO has another job while running the third largest school district in the country. As most teachers in the Chicago Public Schools will tell anyone, it is hard enough managing one job in CPS let alone an executive coaching job.
More than likely though since the current school Board’s agenda aligns with the New CEO’s second job she most likely is doing the second job at the same time as being on the clock with CPS. The Broad Foundations mission — and practice for the past decade or more — is to privatize as much public education as possible, staffing school districts with ideologues who practice the same philosophy as the billionaire real estate man who pays for it. Broad's agenda is clearly evident by Barbara Byrd Bennett's announcement that 129 schools are slated to be closed due to some fictitious budget numbers (the "billion dollar deficit") and a mendacious claim of and "underutilization crisis".
The agreement by the Chicago Board of Education to replace Jean Claude Brizard with Barbara Byrd Bennett as "Chief Executive Officer" for the nation's third largest school system became public in October 2012, after Mayor Rahm Emanuel forced out Brizard following the Chicago Teachers Strike of 2012. Also made public was Byrd-Bennett's annual salary of $250,000. What was not made public, until now, was that David Vitale, President of the Chicago Board of Education, quietly permitted Byrd Bennett to continue her work for Eli Broad. To the knowledge of Substance reporters and editor, Byrd Bennett is the first chief in CPS history to be granted such a waiver by the President of the Board of Education, and the public record shows no indication that Vitale or the Board made this bit of important information "transparent."What most people in Chicago haven't learned yet (again, read the article below as well) is that Byrd Bennett has just come from a town where she was implementing that agenda, and was brought to Chicago to continue it.
The Broad approach to public schools isn't just another place where leaders can get trained. Its ideology is explicitly against public school teachers and unions, and until three days ago, the Broad website had a copy of its "Handbook on School Closings" available.
