By George N. Schmidt

    Since Chicago began selling its “school reform miracle” story locally and then across the USA, reporters for the major Chicago media have been careful to spot political patronage hiring, clout, and corruption at just about every entity of government in Chicago and Cook County — except at the Chicago Board of Education.

    But by 1998, one of the jokes at the new headquarters of the Chicago Board of Education at 125 S. Clark St. was that more and more people were coming into the field of education “from the Hall” (meaning City Hall, north of CPS along Clark St.). “The Hall” means any entity of Chicago or County government (Park District; Forest Preserves; City of Chicago; Cook County) where patronage is being investigated.

The executive and educational talents of Gregory Minniefield (above, at the November 15, 2006 meeting of the Chicago Board of Education) were discovered by the Chicago Board of Education in mid-2001. Michael Scott took  the job of President of the Board on July 1, 2006, after serving with the Chicago Park District. Minniefield was hired from the Park District as an educational administrator on September 2, 2006 by CPS. Minniefield is no longer with CPS, but his most recent position (as of December 31, 2006) was “Senior Manager” at an annual salary of $110,000 per year. By 2001-2002, Minniefield was  “Deputy Chief of Staff” (at $92,000 per year), and during the 2004-2005 school year, he was being paid $109,000 per year in that job. Minniefield was one of dozens of CPS administrators who came into top jobs via patronage and clout.  

    Prior to her most recent departure for Atlanta (after a lengthy tribute at a meeting of the Chicago Board of Education), Hosanna Mahaley Johnson was one of the ten highest paid executives at CPS — even though she had never taught in a Chicago school. At $145,000 per year, Johnson was in charge of the privatization of public schools through charterization. Her official biography stated that she had caught the eye of Mayor Daley while an intern at "The Hall” and rose quickly at CPS.

No sooner had Cook County Board President Todd Stroger (above right, at an April press conference announcing the restoration of 61 custodians to their jobs) begun cutting position from the County budget than the Chicago Sun-Times and other media discovered a large number of $100,000 per year patronage workers on the Cook County payroll.  The same media who portrayed the Stroger family (Todd Stroger’s father John had been County Board President for years) as presiding over a budget filled with expensive (and presumably corrupt) patronge workers continues to proclaimed that the story down the street four blocks from the County Building, at “CPS,” is one of miraculous educational “reform”— with no patronage or clout politics polluting it.  At an April 16, 2007, press conference (above) Todd Stroger (above right) joined Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart (above left) to announced that a private contract to clean the County Building with “We Clean” was being dropped — and County custodial workers rehired. In the middle of the photo above is Betty Boles, who heads the County Division of SEIU Local 73, one of the unions that helped lead protests against the cuts of Cook County workers. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt.