Since Chicago Public Schools’ previous CEO Arne Duncan became Barack Obama‘s Secretary of Education, there’s been a vacancy for the spot.
Mayor Richard Daley finally appointed someone to the position yesterday — Ron Huberman:
Already, [Huberman] has drafted a plan to bolster school security and laid the groundwork to install — first on the business side, then in the classroom — the elaborate performance-evaluation system he used as the mayor’s chief of staff and as CTA president. It produces a daily report to answer: “How’d we do yesterday?”
“Education is not that simple or clear where you can measure it daily, but there are meaningful ways to produce information that will help us make better decisions,” he said.
Huberman is even making the most of his daily commute, talking with high school students on the bus to find out “what puts the sparkle in their eyes.”
“They immediately share with me their MySpace page, Facebook page, HotMail, Google,” said Huberman, whose mother is a retired high school teacher. “This is the language by which kids operate. How we can harness technology to enhance the educational experience is something we need to explore.”
Sounds like he’s passionate about education, which is a key quality for someone in his position. It’s something to hold on to, at least, considering he has no actual classroom experience. But truth be told, I don’t really know that much about him. Reading that article about him in the Chicago Sun-Times was only the second time I’d even heard of the guy.
When was the first time?
That would be yesterday afternoon, when I heard about his appointment from the Illinois Family Institute, a conservative Christian group.
What did they have to say about him?
This week Illinoisans were greeted with the news that the new CEO of Chicago Public Schools, Ron Huberman, self-identifies as homosexual. Mayor Richard Daley’s choice as head of the third largest school district in the nation, one that serves more than 400,000 students, has revealed both his ignorance about and involvement with sexual perversion.
This is exactly what students who already suffer from significant disadvantages don’t need: a leader, and therefore role model, who affirms sexual deviance and who in his personal life volitionally engages in immoral conduct.
What a terrible example he sets, particularly for young men. I’m sure that Huberman possesses many admirable traits, but his sexual conduct is not one of them. There are no perfect people, and therefore there can be no perfect leaders, but possessing flaws and affirming immorality are two entirely different things.
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Chicago’s children deserve far better. They deserve a leader who demonstrates discernment, wisdom, and integrity in one of life’s most profound aspects: sexuality.
I used to think even the worst of Christians said you could be gay … as long as you didn’t act on the “sin.”
IFI doesn’t even want him to have this job.
(I’m sure you can guess their stance on any atheist or Hindu in a position of power as well.)
What on earth do they think he’ll do? Spread “the gay” in all the schools? Sodomize everyone during board meetings? Or — even worse — make CPS schools a safe haven for gay students?
At least Huberman has the right attitude about it:
To parents who might be uncomfortable with a gay CEO running the public schools, [Huberman] said, “There are always those who will look to divide us. I’m focused on what unites us. What I believe unites every Chicagoan is the need to have a world-class educational system for our kids.”
How sad that IFI believes getting a world-class education system in place isn’t the top priority when hiring a public school system’s CEO.