Rangel takes U.N.O. into the lucrative charter business

Juan Rangel

Sunday's NYT has a Chicago News Coop story, "A Lifetime of Close Ties and Growing Influence," about U.N.O. which has become the mayor's front group in the Mexican community. The machine boss is Juan Rangel, who successfully took U.N.O. into the charter school operating business.

While the city's neighborhood schools are being strangled by budget cuts, Rangel's ties with the mayor and his political clout in Springfield has charter operator U.N.O. sitting pretty. According to the Times:

The group, which ran a single charter school until 2005, now has 11 and expects to open another six within two years. In 2012, U.N.O. will have a total budget of about $95 million, the organization’s executives said. The vast majority of that financing will come from government sources, including $52 million to run existing schools and $33 million to build the new ones.

My favorite Rangel quote comes at the very end:

"I guess I’ve never understood the concept of being too powerful.”