Getting Rich From Public Education : CPS a profitable investment for Chicago Board of Ed member

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

Companies that Chicago Board of Education member Deborah Quazzo has an interest in have seen the business they get from the city’s schools system triple since Mayor Rahm Emanuel appointed her to the board last year, records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times show.

From 2010 until her June 2013 appointment, the total payout to companies that Quazzo invested in has come to about $930,000, the records show.

Quazzo’s companies have gotten an additional $2.9 million in Chicago Public Schools business in the year and a half since the millionaire venture capitalist joined the board to fill a vacancy left by Penny Pritzker when President Barack Obama named Pritzker commerce secretary.

In all, five companies in which Quazzo has an ownership stake have been paid more than $3.8 million by CPS for ACT prep or online help with reading, writing and math. One of them stands to collect an additional $1.6 million this year from a district contract.

There's more:

Last year — the district’s 2013-14 budget year — records show CPS paid ThinkCERCA, which offers an online teaching aide, a total of $416,210 to help teachers from at least 84 schools and two school networks try to meet the state’s new Common Core standards. So far this year, the payments total about $493,000.

Imagine that.