The Huberman 16

Now we know why Daley brought Ron Huberman over from the CTA. He's an efficiency guy, not an educator. And he's "loyal." That's important with all these federal investigations going on in and around City Hall.

His job--fire thousands as a way out of the budget crisis. His first big administrative "shake-up" includes the naming of the "Huberman 16," to "cut waste."

According to the Trib:

The team is heavy on business background. Many have management and consulting experience. Four of them served at the Chicago Transit Authority when Huberman led the CTA for Mayor Richard Daley.

The first 1,000 heads rolling supposedly belong to non-teaching staff and administrators. But when the dust clears, you can be sure that the empty cubicles will belong mainly to those who take the CTA down town, take the calls and are school support staff--not those who drive a Lexus and make huge salaries to manage contending departments. Of course there is lots of waste down on Clark Street and out in the district. Getting rid of the AIOs is not bad. But that happens every few years and the school oversight structure is usually just given a new name while keeping the same top-down style of work. How about ramrods for the new ones?

And shouldn't we be thrilled at Huberman's creation of the new high-paid positions -- chief performance officer and deputy for performance management technology. New performance chief Sarah Kremsner was brought over from the CTA.

Please just don't tell us that "performance management" has anything to do with improving teaching/learning.

How many thousand teachers and principals are next on the chopping block. How high can class sizes grow? Stay tuned.