Q&A: Consultant Sunny Chico urges parental involvement
Earlier this year, a D.C. government agency paid a Chicago consulting firm $89,995 to participate in a one-day parent-engagement conference. The agency used D.C. tax dollars to pay the fee — which included a half-hour keynote speech, three 45-minute parent workshops and hundreds of copies of parenting books to be given to conference attendees — though other speakers that day volunteered.
As The Washington Post has reported, the Office of the State Superintendent of Education hired the firm without soliciting or considering other bids. The agency selected SPC Consulting based on a recommendation by Chief of Staff Jose Alvarez, a top agency official who knew the firm and its founder from a previous job in Chicago.
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The founder and head of SPC Consulting is Sunny Chico, a former U.S. Education Department official who contracts with school systems. She is married to lobbyist Gery Chico, who ran for Chicago mayor in 2011 and serves as chairman of the Illinois State Board of Education.
Chico answered questions by e-mail about her firm, its parent-engagement program, known as “You: Your Child’s First Teacher,” and about her thoughts, generally, on the state of public education. Her responses are reproduced below.
What do you think is the most important aspect of public education today?
SPC Educational Solutions (SPC) was created to help all forms of education: