That'd buy a whole lotta this.
Posted on 01/07/2009 3:13:45 PM PST by originalbuckeye
Chicago public school bureaucrats skirted public competitive bidding rules to buy 30 cappuccino/espresso machines for $67,000, with most of the machines going unused because the schools they were ordered for had not asked for them, according to a report by the CPS Office of Inspector General.
That was just one example of questionable CPS actions detailed in the inspector general's 2008 annual report. Others included high school staffers changing grades to pump up transcripts of student athletes and workers at a restricted-enrollment grade school falsifying addresses to get relatives admitted.
In the case of the cappuccino machines, central office administrators split the order among 21 vocational schools to avoid competitive bidding required for purchases over $10,000. As a result CPS paid about $12,000 too much, according to Inspector General James Sullivan. "We were able to find the same machines cheaper online," he said.
"We also look at it as a waste of money because the schools didn't even know they were getting the equipment, schools didn't know how to use the machines and weren't prepared to implement them into the curriculum," Sullivan said.
CPS spokesman Michael Vaughn said CPS plans to change its purchasing policy so that competitive bidding kicks in when a vendor accumulates $10,000 worth of orders, no matter how many schools are involved. One person was fired and disciplinary action is pending against three others, he said.
The grade-changing took place at an unidentified high school, where student athletes grades were boosted, then, after transcripts were issued for college admission offices, the grades were changed back. The culprits could not be identified because passwords allowing entry to the grading system were shared by a number of people, Sullivan said. A new record system has tighter security, he said.
At Carson Elementary, an overcrowded school in Gage Park where even neighborhood kids were restricted from enrolling, five lower- level employees got six relatives into the school by falsifying addresses. Sixty-nine students from outside the attendance area got in, but they didn't even bother to lie about their addresses. CPS had to spend as much as $252,000 to bus kids who live in the neighborhood to other schools, Sullivan said.
Vaughn said the employees involved have resigned, been fired or will be fired.
They’ve been in charge for a long time already. Decades. The next four years are not going to be any different - it’s just that conservatives may finally be waking up. Too late, I am afraid. If you are a parent and do not want your children brainwashed, get them out of government schools now, or don’t complain when your children reject your values and cherished beliefs down the road.
That'd buy a whole lotta this.
They ordered frivolous machines that schools didn’t ask for, they skirted the rules to close competitive bidding (ie awarded the contract to ONE bidder), they overpaid. All of which begs the question - who was the vendor? And then, who in Chicago schools got the kickback?
And therein lies the problem. The federal government should have NOTHING to do with the education system. If only Reagan had followed through and done away with the federal DOE..........
They have already spread their model to Washington State. The voters elected a man who heads a branch of the SEIU as the WA State Superintendent of Schools. He stated in his resume that he was a former lawyer for the teachers’s union, which was bad enough, but then we find out that he is the head of the WA SEIU, a direct off shoot of ACORN.
Sheesh, Chicago vole schools training the next generation of baristas for Starbucks. Sure helps Starbuck’s bottom line to have the taxpayer handle the training for them. Now Obama’s nominee can bring this up to a national scale.
Excellent connection :)
Why the hell would any public school need expresso machines?
True, the machines might not have been that high in comparison, but the REAL question....why do schools need cappuccino machines??????
They don’t. Period.
This is so asinine. A $20 Mr. Coffee machine is fine for any faculty lounge, etc. If people want a $2,000 espresso machine they can put up the money themselves.
Expensive espresso machines for vocational schools? Starbucks will give them all the training they need in one day, with no cost to the school district. How about teaching auto shop, rather than espresso-making? A person could actually make a good living after learning how to fix cars.
Vocational training. Barista is one of the fastest growing jobs in the food/beverage service industry. It takes much more skill to brew a double half-caf, grande soy latte, than say, make a Big Mac.
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