…records show that Rauner was a key player in the group and that the group played a key role in bringing the executive training program to the public schools.
Rauner's family foundation gave the Chicago Public Education Fund $500,000 in 2012, according to federal tax records, and Rauner said Monday that he and his wife have given the fund "many millions of dollars" over the years. Rauner also was chairman of the nonprofit for a time and said he served on the board for at least 10 years.
In 2012, the Chicago Public Education Fund issued a news release saying it provided $380,000 to fund the first year of the SUPES Academy program, which it described as a "pioneering effort to create the nation's first district-based academy for managers of principals."
The Rauner-connected group also stated that "following a successful first year supported by The Fund, CPS absorbed the cost" for the program during the 2012-2013 school year and that CPS "is further expanding the program during the 2013-2014 school year to become the primary source of support and development for all CPS principals."
In her statement, the fund CEO said the nonprofit organization has made more than $50 million in grants over the past 15 years, primarily to organizations working with teachers and principals in Chicago's public schools.
"In 2011, our organization made a $380,000 grant to SUPES Academy for a one-year pilot program to train CPS network chiefs and their deputies. Network chiefs are the CPS employees who supervise and manage school principals," Anichini said. "In 2012, following the completion of that pilot program, we declined a request by CPS leadership to provide a second year of funding for SUPES Academy training of principals. The Chicago Public Education Fund, its directors, and its staff have had no involvement with SUPES Academy since 2012."
The Chicago Public Education Fund is made up of a broad list of the area's most influential politicians and business leaders — all of whom have made restructuring education a top civic priority over the past decade. Many have become key political supporters of Rauner, Emanuel or both.
Indeed, Rauner was a board director and is currently a director emeritus. Last week, the governor's hand-picked board of education named Tony Smith the state's new superintendent of schools. Smith, who has spent most of his career in California, was appointed to the fund's board of directors last year and was on Rauner's transition team after the November election.
Launched in 2000, the group was first led by then-Chicago Tribune Publisher Scott Smith. Rauner joined the board the next year and later was its chairman before becoming an emeritus member of the board, along with future U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, who is a former member of the Chicago school board, and current school board President David Vitale.
Others currently on the nonprofit board include Ken Griffin, CEO of Citadel, who has financially backed both Rauner's and Emanuel's campaigns; Mellody Hobson of the powerful Ariel Investments; Helen Zell, wife of real estate magnate Sam Zell; Susan Crown, a principal of the Chicago investment firm of Henry Crown & Co.; and Beth Swanson, a former top education deputy to Emanuel.
"But the investigation, I hope that the potential wrongdoing that I've read about didn't occur," Rauner said Monday. "I don't know. But I hope anybody that did wrongdoing gets fully prosecuted."…
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