Meeks: Next schools chief should be an educator
Mayoral challenger James Meeks urged Mayor Daley on Thursday to choose an educator — not a “placeholder” — to succeed departing Schools CEO Ron Huberman.
“We make a grave mistake of picking somebody just to be a placeholder. We should pick somebody who could actually do the job,” said Meeks, who has led the charge for school funding reform and school vouchers to give parents a way out of schools that fail their children.
“We would make a mistake not picking an educator. Huberman was not an educator. Neither was Arne Duncan. Neither was Paul Vallas. It’s time to place an educator over an education system.”
Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis has accused Huberman of making cost-cutting decisions that impact the classroom from a business perspective, without any input from educators.
Meeks agreed.
“We’ve lost the basic respect of the teachers union because we don’t have an educator. It’s almost as if we’re giving them a chance to say, ‘You’re telling us how to do our job and these things are not even