Friday, July 27, 2012

Meet Todd. He's CPS' New Common Core Commissar

Todd Babbitz is Rahm's new Chief Transformation Officer. What the hell is that, you ask? I'm not sure. In all my years working in and around public school districts, I've never heard of a Chief Transformation Officer. But according to CPS' announcement, Todd will "oversee the newly created Office of Strategy Management (OSM)."

What the hell is the OSM, you ask? Again, not sure. I've never heard of an OSM. But according to CPS' announcement, it has something to do with, "implementing the rigorous Common Core Standards and improving accountability systems at all levels."

What makes Todd qualified to implement rigorous Common Core Standards, you ask? Well that one's easy. Like Arne Duncan, Todd's mother was a teacher. But that's not all.  Todd also worked for McKinsey & Company. He was also the Chief Marketing Officer, Benefits Outsourcing for Hewitt Associates and previously served as a partner at the Chicago-based law firm of McDermott Will & Emery, focusing on antitrust law.

A perfect choice for the CTO of the OSM at CPS. Wouldn't you agree?

My only advice to Todd  -- be careful. The last major appointee at CPS was the new Chief Education Officer, Barbara Byrd-Bennett, and she has disappeared completely from view. Maybe she's hiding behind those file cabinets.


6 comments:

  1. Todd comes from McKinsey & Company, which will always be infamous for supplying Enron with the "smartest guys in the room," including its President Jeffrey Skilling, now serving a 24 year sentence in the federal pen. I bet that's transformational.

    ReplyDelete
  2. And Todd's pay is coming from the CPS "disposable income" fund? Perhaps it's the same area of the budget that last year found $150K for each school that capitulated quickly to the longer school day. Unbelievable!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey, what ever happened to that Portfolio Manager who was hired for beaucoup bucks with Gates money a couple of years ago? You know -- whathisname who was supposed to decide which schools to open and which to close. How bloated can one bureaucracy get, especially when they're selling off whole chunks of the system to private companies?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dizzy from turnaroundsJuly 29, 2012 at 8:52 AM

    Anon,
    I think you're talking about Chief Portfolio Officer Oliver Sicat. He might be the go-to guy if your company wants to get into the turnaround business like AUSL or Bain Corp.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yes, they call Sicat, "the closer."

    ReplyDelete

Agree? Disagree? Let me hear from you.