Sure The Education Sucks But Look At This Swell Cappuccino Machine!

The Chicago public schools are red faced. No, they are not embarrassed because they are turning out students that cannot read, write and do arithmetic – such is standard fare for them. They are embarrassed because the reason why they are turning out students who are continually below average in basic skills required to do most basic jobs has been revealed once again.

We now have the story of how the schools spent nearly $70,000 on cappuccino machines that, low and behold, many of the schools did not request or even know how to use.

Chicago public school bureaucrats skirted competitive bidding rules to buy 30 cappuccino/espresso machines for $67,000, with most of the machines going unused because the schools they were ordered for had not asked for them, according to a report by the CPS Office of Inspector General.

That was just one example of questionable CPS actions detailed in the inspector general’s 2008 annual report. Others included high school staffers changing grades to pump up transcripts of student athletes and workers at a restricted-enrollment grade school falsifying addresses to get relatives admitted.

In the case of the cappuccino machines, central office administrators split the order among 21 vocational schools to avoid competitive bidding required for purchases over $10,000. As a result CPS paid about $12,000 too much, according to Inspector General James Sullivan. “We were able to find the same machines cheaper online,” he said.

“We also look at it as a waste of money because the schools didn’t even know they were getting the equipment, schools didn’t know how to use the machines and weren’t prepared to implement them into the curriculum,” Sullivan said.

Does any of this come as any surprise to anyone that is paying attention to how liberals spend public money? And make no mistake these fools in charge of spending this money are indeed liberals because only a liberal would fiddle as Rome burns or, in this case, buy cappuccino machines while their students are not even getting basic educations?

But I will make a bet with you. This little “incident” will not deter future frivolous expenditures from the morons in charge of the Chicago schools. If you think that it will, you haven’t been paying attention much have you?