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Monday, January 11, 2010

Chicago Public Schools chief Ron Huberman has not one, but two cars paid for by you - chicagotribune.com


Chicago Public Schools chief Ron Huberman has not one, but two cars paid for by you - chicagotribune.com:

"In mid-October, Chicago Public Schools chief Ron Huberman made a special trip to Springfield to implore legislators to restore funding cuts that were aggravating an already painful budget season.

What he didn't mention to legislators was how he got there, in the literal sense. The schools chief drove himself in a 2009 Ford Escape hybrid that costs taxpayers more than $800 a month. That vehicle is in addition to the Crown Victoria that Huberman rides around in while in Chicago; the school district leases it for about $1,000 a month, not including the driver's pay. Huberman, who was appointed a year ago, makes $230,000 a year.

While previous school chiefs Paul Vallas and Arne Duncan both had a car and driver, neither had an additional vehicle leased for them by the nation's third-largest school system. For that matter, the leaders of the nation's two largest school districts don't have that perquisite either.

In a tough year for the city's schools, with nearly a thousand layoffs expected and millions of dollars in program cuts, some are questioning the necessity of two cars for a CEO who"