CTA Chief Tapped for CPS

Mayor Richard Daley yesterday announced his selection of Chicago Transit Authority president Ron Huberman to replace Arne Duncan as Chicago Public Schools chief after Duncan’s departure earlier this month to serve in President Obama’s cabinet as education secretary.

Huberman, 37, is a former chief of staff to the mayor and was head of the city’s Office of Emergency management and Communications. His background is in law enforcement, where he rose from police officer to assistant deputy superintendent. He has served as CTA president for two years.

Huberman lacks any background as an educator, but Daley has preferred individuals he considers strong managers to lead CPS. His first appointment to the post after Illinois gave control of the school system back to the city in 1995 was Paul Vallas, who had a financial background. Duncan, who had served as Vallas’ deputy chief of staff and previously managed the Ariel Education Initiative, replaced Vallas.

The reaction to Huberman’s appointment likely will be mixed.

“We were hoping the mayor would appoint someone with a strong background in education since we face so many challenges as an urban district,” teachers union president Marilyn Stewart said in a statement. “However, we will work with whomever the mayor sends, and we look forward to continuing a collaborative partnership with CPS.”

Huberman takes over the district as it prepares to shutter or reorganize more than 20 schools. CPS is the largest district in the state and the third largest in the country, and is struggling to keep its massive $5 billion capital program on track amid a long drought in new state spending.

The district decided last year to delay a new-money bond sale to help save on debt service and to dip into reserves to close a deficit in its $5.14 billion operating budget for fiscal 2009. The draw on reserves will bring the balance in that account down to $380 million in the next budget. Fitch Ratings last spring revised its outlook on the district’s A-plus credit to positive from stable. Moody’s Investors Service rates the district A1 while Standard & Poor’s rates it AA-minus.

It’s unclear who Daley might tap to replace Huberman at the CTA. During his tenure there, he oversaw a difficult fiscal period in which the transit agency raised fares to counter a drop in tax collections. Huberman and CTA board chief Carole Brown, a public finance banker, successfully lobbied state lawmakers for a transit bailout package early last year that included a sales tax increase in the Chicago area, an increase in the city’s tax on real estate transactions, and a pension bond issue.

The CTA is the second largest mass transit system in the nation. Brown has also publicly made known her interest in joining the Obama administration.

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