Crooked Chicago Public Schools vendor gets 7 years in prison for bribery

CPS school, Northwest Side

Prosecutors asked for a nine year prison sentence. Even that would be not be enough for me. Thankfully this creep wasn't a dean or a teacher at Little Marathon Pundit's high school when she was a student there. More on that in a bit.

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

The mastermind of a massive kickback scandal that took down former Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett was sentenced to seven years in prison Friday.

Gary Solomon, 48, was the first person sent to prison in the scheme that was publicly revealed in April 2015 when subpoenas hit CPS. The investigation snared Byrd-Bennett, Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s second schools chief, but the feds say Solomon orchestrated her hiring to scam the district out of millions.

Solomon even applauded her ascension to the top of CPS — months before it was announced — in one of his many emails to Byrd-Bennett that read, "Congrats Madam CEO!!"

While Byrd-Bennett destroyed her career for virtually no money, prosecutors say Solomon pocketed more than $5 million from the company at the heart of the scandal.

Byrd-Bennett used to be a top official at Detroit Public Schools--which is another miserable failure of an educational system. After leaving DPS she worked for firms run by Solomon as a consultant. Solomon's companies received DPS contracts. Then Solomon worked behind the scenes to get Byrd-Bennett hired to run Chicago Public Schools so she could steer business to him. This is how public education operates today.

The next time someone tells you that a property tax increase is "for the kids" I want you to vomit all over that person.

Oh, about Solomon and LMP's old school.

From the Chicago Tribune in 2001:

The board of Niles Township High School District 219 has reluctantly agreed to award a $50,000 settlement to a former dean accused of sending sexually explicit e-mail messages to female students before he left his position in 1999.

The payment to Gary Solomon of Wilmette, who began teaching at Niles West High School in Skokie in 1992, will end a two-year battle that has already cost the district $200,000 in legal fees, said school board President Robert Silverman.

Part of the agreement with District 219 was that Solomon would never work for them again.

But the pervert moved on to fleece taxpayers in a different way.

Oh, Solomon is a racist too.

From the Chicago Sun-Times lat year:

In an email to a former female student who had recently graduated, Solomon allegedly referred to African-American people as "mooks, shines, burrheads, yard apes, porch monkeys," and several other racially offensive terms.

He also wrote that black people “will never set foot in his house,” according to a transcript of a state hearing held because Solomon initially fought efforts to remove him from the school.

And, in a personal journal he kept on a school computer, Solomon described another school administrator as an “uppity n—–,” a lawyer for District 219 alleged, according to the transcript.

Byrd-Bennett is black.