Where is Barbara Byrd Bennett? With Bennett's former Michigan ally Betsy DeVos looming to replace Arne Duncan (and John King) as America's secretary of educational privatization, the question continues as to when the former Chicago schools chief will finally enter prison...
By the time of the May 2014 meeting of the Chicago Board of Education, Barbara Byrd Bennett was already plotting with the owners of the "SUPES Academy" to collect what amounted to bribes by steering business to the suburban Chicago group. Substance photo by David Vance from the May 2014 meeting of the Chicago Board of Education.By the first day of December 2016, it had been more than three years since Chicago first learned that former Detroit Michigan school chief (and Broad Foundation "leader") Barbara Byrd Bennett had become the city's second public schools "Chief Executive Officer" during the administration of Rahm Emanul. And by December 1, 2016, it has been more than a year since Byrd Bennett, who admitted to federal corruption charges in the "SUPES Academy" scandal, was supposed to go to prison. But Byrd Bennett has not gone to prison, and there is no public explanation as to why.
Meanwhile, the forces of privatization which Byrd Bennett helped lead against the Detroit public schools (during the time she was chief there) have gotten even more power with the looming appointment of Michigan billionaire Betsy DeVos as U.S. Secretary of Education. President elect Donald J. Trump announced in November 2016 that DeVos is his pick for the job of continuing the massive privatization and charterization attacks on America's real public schools.
But readers need remember that DeVos will be continuing the attacks begun under the administration of President George W. Bush (2000 - 2009) and continued ruthlessly under the administration of President Barack Obama (2009 - 2017). Whether DeVos does more damage to the nation's public schools that her two immediate predecessors -- Arne Duncan and John King -- remains to be seen. But one thing clear is that the White House under both Republican and Democratic presidents has been the seat of the massive privatization attacks on the nation's real public schools. So in many ways, the DeVos hysteria being promoted from some quarters is simply blowing smoke. It was Barack Obama who orchestrated the massive attacks on public schools through charter school expansion (and promotion, via propaganda like the movie "Waiting for Superman") and the business model that claimed that "turnaround" was the solution to so-called "failing" public schools. Trump's administration, with DeVos in charge of the U.S. Department of Education, will simply be following in the footsteps of Arne Duncan and John King.
