One Broadie Fails+Falls/Another Slips Right In: BRIZARD OUT IN CHICAGO/BYRD-BENNETT IN

Posted by Duke to the Jersey Jazzman Blog |http://bit.ly/W9DToZ

Thursday, October 11, 2012  8:54 PM EDT::  On the night of the VP debate, right at the end, this story breaks:

Chicago Public Schools chief exits WGN News Desk  | http://bit.ly/VXE341 9:29 p.m. CDT, October 11, 2012  ::  The CEO of Chicago Public Schools, Jean Claude Brizard,  is out, according to the mayor’s office. Spokesperson Sarah Hamilton says that Brizard will be replaced by Chief Education Officer Barbara Byrd-Bennett. [smf: Byrd-Bennett has worked as an executive coach for the Broad Superintendents Academy.  She has served as CEO of Cleveland Public schools from 1998 to 2006, and as chief academic and accountability officer for Detroit Public Schools from 2009 to 2011 http://bit.ly/SPiO2 ] She called the decision to leave, “mutual.” Brizard had been in the position for approximately 17 months.

This is huge.

The Chicago teachers strike was a gigantic blow to reformy types everywhere. The CTU and their dynamo of a leader, Karen Lewis, went to war for Chicago's students - not for the teachers, but their students. Understand that all of Chicago's elite lined up to oppose the union's gutsy stance, going so far as to buy off the Illinois legislature under a plan hatched by the smarmy Jonah Edelman.

The reformies failed miserably.

from the broad center website |http://bit.ly/RkdEb3 featured profiles Jean-Claude Brizard Broad Superintendents Academy Class of 2007 CEO, Chicago Public Schools “With a campaign platform that included boosting graduation rates, more parent choice and safer schools, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel found a kindred spirit in Jean-Claude Brizard, whom he tapped in early 2011 to head the nation’s third largest school district. As CEO of Chicago Public Schools, Brizard is dedicated to creating great public schools for all students.”

Brizard was brought in to quell the rising tide of discontent among the plebes. A product of Eli Broad's little Los Angeles training camp, Brizard was a failure in Rochester before he headed off to the Windy City; what chance did he have in Chicago? None, it turns out: 

(story continues/click here/contains language that won’t pass muster with the LAUSD Internet language filter)