Rauner took my 'czar' advice seriously

Czar Purvis

Sun-Times headline reads:

Rauner paying education czar $250k from agency that funds autism, epilepsy services

Gov. Rauner must have read my Tuesday post -- the one where I go after the Tribune's editorial board for proposing that Chicago put a turnaround expert at the top of the school system, with "Mussolini-like powers to execute and implement."

I think my point was -- there's something about editorial recommendations that have the words Mussolini and execute in the same sentence...

As you may remember, I pointed out that they could have just said, "You know. We really need an education czar," and no one would have blinked. 

Well, it appears that Rauner actually took my czar advice seriously. Anyone who knows me would have told him not to do so. 

Anyway, the new czar's name is Beth Purvis. As you might expect, she's a former charter school director, a post which makes her eminently qualified for the czar's job. She served as CEO of the Chicago International Charter School, a network of 15 schools in Chicago and Rockford.

What Natasha Korecki's S-T article doesn't tell us is that it was Paul Vallas and Synesi that greased CICS and Purvis's entry into Rockford. Connections, anyone? You out there, reporters?

Unfortunately, Czar Purvis' quarter-million-dollar salary is being taken directly from Rauner's brutal budget cuts, otherwise known as “the Good Friday Massacre.” In other words, she's living off money that should be going for autism and epilepsy funding. 

I hope she chokes on it.