Chicago Public Schools spends $70,000 on espresso machines

Tax dollars (not) at work: Five months after the 30 machines were purchased, 22 remained unopened, one disappeared and three were being used at two schools -- though not in the culinary arts program for which they were intended. (Chicago Tribune | Sun-Times)

Comments

[sometimesilie]

wow. that's a waste. Corruption in government, the public sector, financial services has become the rule, not the exception. And whenever anyone gets caught there's always finger pointing and, usually, at most, a slap on the wrist. Yet if you're some petty thug and rob someone of $20, it's jail. I get that, but why isn't it maximum security state prison when the amount is $20,000,000? Why? Does this has something to do with USA is #1?

[cherie]

Why would a culinary arts program even need an expresso machine....let alone a multitude?

Shouldn't they be focused on learning to COOK?

[zombie00x]

This being Chicago, I'm sure there's a completely rational explanation for why the schools needed $70k worth of coffee makers... you know, like they were purchased from a brother-in-law's company, or the employee that made the purchase got a free $5 gift card with purchase over $70,000. Chicago, and the majority of Illinois, is comically corrupt.

[Me]

Chicago politics, gotta love it!

[sometimesilie]

I think Franz Kafka could do good things with this story and Illinois politics in general...

[RockyMtnMac]

Accountability.

[G-Man]

"Corruption in government, the public sector, financial services has become the rule, not the exception."

While stories like this certainly irk me that's not really a fair statement. Of course you're never going to read in the news about someone actually doing their job well, only when something like this happens. Same with stories about the police. A few bad apples and people assume every cop is on the take.

Don't ask me to explain why a high school culinary program needs espresso machines though. I'd think they have enough to learn about cooking, baking, etc. that they don't need to learn how to grind and pack coffee beans.

[sometimesilie]

yeah, that's the problem G-Man. Especially for people who don't work in those sectors, the impression is that more people are on the take than are. What frustrates me more is that when this stuff is eventually uncovered, the culprits seem to get off light- reduced sentences at minimum security prisons- because they are from "good" backgrounds yet the damage they leave in their wake is usually far worse than some petty thug.

Philadelphia has its own ongoing circus trial with our State Representative, Vince Fumo. The guy is so slimy and crooked you can't even look at him directly or your eyes will slide off. Every day something do- usually something financial, in the millions- comes out. It's been ongoing for months now, with everything from an alleged attempted shakedown for 50 *million* dollars from Verizon for licenses, etc., to allegations of attempted neighbors' dog poisoning.

[MONKEY JERK]

ANOTHER FINE EXAMPLE OF OUR TAX DOLLARS FOR EDUCATION AT WORK.

[Phranqlin]

I'm mystified why someone thought it was a good idea in the first place to buy fancy espresso machines for high school culinary arts programs. I mean, how hard is it to operate an espresso machine? That the school district then promptly lost the machines is icing on the cake.

They would have been better off spending the money to sponsor internships with local coffee shops. While it probably would be corrupt too, at least the kids would get some work experience out of it.

[angrysockmonkey]

wide awake kids are well educated kids.
please lets think about the children

[troschne]

cherie--ESpresso, not EXpresso. Sorry--one of my biggest pet peeves--ranks right up there with when people say, "expecially".

That 70 large could have paid for a teachers salary, funding an arts/music program, purchased sports/gym equipment--I could go on, but you get the picture...

[G-Man]

One of the other problems with the public sector is they don't seem to have any incentive to save money. I've seen it in the gov't offices I've worked for and schools people I've known worked in. They are given a budget and trust me they know to spend every nickel or else they lose that money and might have the budget reduced the next year. Of course I've seen the opposite side in the private sector where they try to squeeze every penny out of the business that they can that they end up pissing off all the employees, the good ones end up leaving, and they are left with a bunch of idiots who have no clue what they are doing.

[Torgo]

Personally I support the one espresso machine per child policy. They would be more fun that a bunch of laptops.

[twerp]

I didn't start loving coffee until college. It's still kind of cool though. Sorry to all of the opposers--I'm a former Barista and a current coffee junkie. The espresso machine I want costs around 5k.....I don't see myself ever buying it but hey, it's my dream.

[G-Man]

Twerp - If you love coffee try roasting your own. Ever since I bought an air roaster and roasting my own green beans all other coffee tastes like crap by comparison.

[Clubber]

They are using Al Gore math here...
"30 machines were purchased, 22 remained unopened, one disappeared and three were being used at two schools"

22+1+3=26 What about the other four? Oor if "three were being used at two schools" meant six total then what about the other one?

[Anna]

Business as usual in the Chicago Public Schools!
Just think...the entire nation will soon be rewarded with Chicago's previous "Head School Master" later this month.
Espresso Machines for Every Classroom!!

[Kelly]

I'm told that caffine actually calms down ADHD kids. Perhaps that's the logic here??

[angrysockmonkey]

how many kids with ADD does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

[Kelly]

How many?

[Krash]

Yet another good reason to bring back public pillories and stocks for criminal punishment...and facial tattoos, too.
Just think, You're a non-violent, first-time offender, and you get extensive public recognition!! If you deal with other people's money and you defraud them, you get a tour of the stocks every day and a nice tattoo for several years or more.
Just think, these people can go home with an ankle bracelet every night and NOT cost us more in prison and jail expenses.
I like MY plan...Vote for me!!!

[RockyMtnMac]

Me too Troschne!
I also hate people saying "Pixburgh".

[DCer]

I was on the PTA board at a poorly-performing elementary school and these kinds of idiotic programs are absolutely beloved by teachers. I was SHOCKED at what really stupid plans came out of not just the central administration, which everyone presumes is staffed by numbskulls, but what really terrible and illegal ideas came straight from teachers.

One teacher hit me up for $100 on the playground and kept badgering me about it like it would make me "pay up" until I went home and filed an ethics complaint against her with the school board. She wanted to get reimbursed for property of hers that was damaged three years earlier that she never filed a report about three years earlier. Then she was really angry with me for reporting this to the school board because she, naturally, caught hell for it.

Let me tell you, even my son's really excellent teacher stole kids toys they brought to class and kept them in her desk. I explained to her that this was illegal- she dismissed it- then I explained to the principal that this was illegal and the principal, of course, told her she had to send all the toys home. Sorry your class was disrupted, but that doesn't magically make theft legal. (and no, my kid wasn't involved)

[DCer]

One of the other problems with the public sector is they don't seem to have any incentive to save money. I've seen it in the gov't offices I've worked for and schools people I've known worked in.
--------

Most of us in the business go out of our way, even taking pay cuts, to work for a gov't supervisor that saves money to create a good product. Seriously.

[Sheila]

"Culinary arts" high school programs don't need espresso machines. Some scam was involved here --not education for "the children."

Ditto, Troschne, and don't get me started on language mistake pet peeves.

[merkin4]

I've seen this happen all too many times in government agencies or government funded organizations. They manage to exercise some fiscal restrait until week 52 of the fiscal year, and then somebody decides if they don't spend all their allotted money by the end of the year, they won't get it again next year. So, somebody has to start spending cash with wild abandon. New 22 cubic foot side-by-side fridge, delivered to the teacher's lounge or the staff break room. King-size beds for a group home resident without a bedroom big enough, simply because that was the most expensive mattress they could find and it was a quick way to blow through two grand. Big screen TVs. New office furniture. Full truckloads of office supplies, just so the budget doesn't get cut the following year. As a taxpayer, it makes me sick and ready to slap somebody.

When I was in 4th grade, my elementary school brought in a huckster with cases of Hershey bars for us to peddle. See John. See John sell. Sell, John, sell. See John get prizes for selling candy. The teachers took the proceeds and bought a microwave and coffee machine for the teacher's lounge. I never participated in another fundraiser at that school again, and neither did my younger brothers.

[Nauip]

Wow. 10 seconds and 1 search on Google turned up a 60$ espresso machine. I could have gotten them 1600+ machines for that money.

[Soo]

maybe so, Nauip, but would they come with that obscene-waste-of-taxpayer-money smugness?

That may be a deal-breaker.

[outofsalt]

Yeah, and when you vote down a school budget, you get maligned for being against the children. Give me a break. Call me insensitive, but I'd rather the bigwigs stop squandering other people's money so that elderly taxpayers don't have to eat cat food.

[angrysockmonkey]

do you want to go out for ice cream?

thats how many kids with ADD it takes to change a light bulb

[twerp]

We have no places around here where one can purchase green coffee beans. It's important to insert the word "coffee" in my last sentence.

[espresso machines]

This really makes me mad. If they were going to use them fine. What they should have done was bought only a couple, or a few, and gauged how they did. If they needed more, then they could purchase however many more they wanted.