Latest Chicago Public Schools scandal: Latte Gate

Chicago public school bureaucrats skirted competitive bidding rules to buy 30 cappuccino/espresso machines for $67,000, with most of the machines going unused because the schools they were ordered for had not asked for them, according to a report by the CPS Office of Inspector General. The Chicago Sun-Times reports in the case of the cappuccino machines, central office administrators split the order among 21 vocational schools to avoid competitive bidding required for purchases over $10,000. As a result CPS paid about $12,000 too much, according to Inspector General James Sullivan. "We were able to find the same machines cheaper online," he said.

NCD thinks the CPS employees with the latte monkey on their backs should just send temps out to purchase and bring back their $8 triple mocha, low-foam caffeine-shakes like everyone else does.