CPS Makes Cuts for All but the Top

The Chicago Public Schools are asking for everyone to make cuts except for the administrators asking for the cuts.

And what about the CPS administration? They've already done their bit, according to Huberman. "Over the past year, we have worked to close the budget deficit by focusing on Central Office and Citywide departments," he recently wrote in a memo to schools employees. "These cuts were very difficult, but our primary goal was to minimize direct impact on schools."

Last week Mayor Daley weighed in, admonishing teachers to enter the "real world" and forgo their 4 percent raises. "Government has to diet," Daley told reporters on March 22. "You have to be able to cut back and start sharing the loss that people have."

Wow—that sounds like decisive leadership. But having spent the better part of the last week poring over the 350-page Chicago Public Schools budget, I can tell you there's little evidence that the central office has gone on a diet. In fact, top schools brass are enjoying something like a carbo-loading feast. The district's highest-ranking officials got healthy raises this year— and one of the biggest went to Huberman.

How can CPS dole out raises while claiming to be cutting back? Let this be a lesson about the difference between a press release, disseminated far and wide for mass consumption, and a governing budget, buried on a Web site and read only by insiders and a few really motivated geeks.

So, Chicago Public Schools CEO wants teachers to take a pay cut. He's even considering going with a four day work week. Everyone needs to get a cut but himself. He gave himself a raise.

This is the same Huberman that worked as a beat cop less than a decade ago before going through a remarkable rise through Chicago's bureaucracy.

The Nice Ride of Ron Huberman

We all know times are tough for the government of the city of Chicago. Last year, Mayor Daley had city employees take three random days off. Just last week, an idea was floated to stop administering the police entrance exam. The city continues to face a massive budget deficit and city officials are looking to cut spending anywhere they can. One person that is doing very well financially in the city's government is Chicago Public Schools CEO, Ron Huberman.

In mid-October, Chicago Public Schools chief Ron Huberman made a special trip to Springfield to implore legislators to restore funding cuts that were aggravating an already painful budget season.

What he didn't mention to legislators was how he got there, in the literal sense. The schools chief drove himself in a 2009 Ford Escape hybrid that costs taxpayers more than $800 a month. That vehicle is in addition to the Crown Victoria that Huberman rides around in while in Chicago; the school district leases it for about $1,000 a month, not including the driver's pay. Huberman, who was appointed a year ago, makes $230,000 a year.

To understand why Huberman is given a nice leased automobile at the same time that almost everywhere else in the city's government is cutting, you need to understand just who Ron Huberman.

For the last year, Ron Huberman has been the CEO of Chicago Public Schools, taking over for Arne Duncan. For a couple years prior to that, he was CEO of the CTA. For the two years previous to that, he was Chief of Staff to the Mayor, Richard M. Daley, himself. Prior to that, he was a cop for nearly a decade. That included stints as a bicycle officer and a stint in the gang team. For reasons that are still unclear, he became the youngest Assistant Deputy Superintendent.

There's absolutely nothing, outwardly at least, that can explain this man's meteoric rise from a mid level cop to the head of the city's entire school system. Since we're in Chicago, that means there's a story there that the public clearly doesn't know. Huberman, in fact, exemplifies what the term crony means in the city but the media is too afraid to call a spade a spade and too lazy to investigate how someone can go from bike cop to CEO of the school system in ten years.

It appears our media thinks that such rises simply happen based on merit in this city. So, is it any surprise that Huberman has two nice leased rides paid for him by the city. After all, that's how cronies are taken care of here.