Paul Vallas is superintendent of schools in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He is paid more than $200,000 a year. He also runs a private consulting business that just landed an $18 million contract to reorganize the Indianapolis school district even as he remains full-time superintendent in Bridgeport. The board that appointed Vallas has been declared illegal by a court in Connecticut, but they extended Vallas’ contract so he will be superintendent even if a new school board with a different majority wins.
I know that Vallas saved Chicago, and saved Philadelphia, and saved New Orleans, but it is astonishing that he is able to work full-time in Bridgeport and save Indianapolis at the same time.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Look at Chicago, NOLA and Philly now.
Someone should warn Indianapolis about the Vallas Turnaround circus coming their way.
If this is reform, people shoud start moving.
BEWARE…this is how it works:
When I asked Paul Vallas what made New Orleans such a promising place for educational reform, he told me that it was because he had no “institutional obstacles” — no school board, no collective bargaining agreement, a teachers’ union with very little power. “No one tells me how long my school day should be or my school year should be,” he said. “Nobody tells me who to hire or who not to hire. I can hire the most talented people. I can promote people based on merit and based on performance. I can dismiss people if they’re chronically nonattending or if they’re simply not performing.”
On the latter, a quote from an article Vallas wrote for the aforementioned Manhattan Institute:
We also have flexibility when it comes to work rules, which are decided by the board rather than the state. This has allowed us to do a lot of privatization. Our alternative schools are private schools, as are many of our special-ed schools. Our vocational education programs are also privately run to some extent. And we have contracted out for custodians, lunchroom attendants and the trades. In our system, schools have a choice. If they are not happy with their in-house services, they can privatize them. There’s competition.
http://madisonamps.org/2012/05/23/who-is-paul-vallas-and-why-is-he-comin…
NY commissioner John King could run the UNcommon Charter school chain from NY, be a full time law student at Yale and write his TC dissertation at the same time :). We mere humans, Diane, just do not understand.
Carol,
What’s a “TC” dissertation?
Thanks,
Duane
Here is what one parent in NOLA thought about the Vallas reforms.
At hearings, Karran Royal Harper talks about charter schools to Paul Vallas, New Orleans Recovery Zone school superintendent.
http://parentsacrossamerica.org/2011/02/paul-vallas-gets-an-earful-from-…
Linda, that video made my day. I just got back from my first day back with the students. I had the privilege of hearing Mrs. Karran speak to our school district on south Louisiana and she is normally very composed and articulate. We all need to go off like she did. Priceless!
He worked in Haiti and New Orleans at the same time, so he’s experienced at multi-tasking.
Expensive outside “expert” forced upon Buffalo City Schools by NY Commissioner King: http://www.buffalonews.com/city/schools/article982035.ece
Common trend: the Buffalo Consultant can work from her home in Florida.
As I understand it her expertise is in helping disabled students pass standardized tests and for them to be taught using data management and “research-based” strategies. She may be wonderful but those catchphrases send off red lights and sirens for me.
In classic Doublespeak fashion, Chicago, Philadelphia and New Orleans had to be destroyed in order to be saved.
Define “saved.” Also, as you have so eloquently addressed, the poverty issues that Bridgeport and other urban centers face seem to be ignored as if education occurs in a vacuum devoid of the forces in one’s community.
Posted on the Pelto blog:
http://jonathanpelto.com/2012/08/13/paul-vallas-new-corporate-partnership-signs-18-million-deal-with-indianapolis-school-system/
Vallas spent almost the entire last year of his time as the RSD Supt. in New Orleans out of the country “helping” Haiti and Chile withtheir education systems after their disasters. For some reason, the state of Louisiana didn’t seem tohave a problem with that. He was almost always out of the country during BESE(state board of education) meetings. When a couple of BESE members questioned his continued absence – i.e. how could he be fulfilling his duties as the Supt. Of the RSD when he was out of the country 70% of the time? – they were toldthat it was built into his contract that he could take on other consulting jobs.
They were told “his people” were handling the day-to-day. Only problem was that he was being paid almost $300k to be in charge. Meanwhile, the RSD schools never improved much from before they were taken over, and there were numerous budget problems when the federal disaster aid dried up. (Which is coincidentally when he decided to take his leave of N.O.)
Also, he did the exact same thing in N.O. – brought in numerous “consultants” at exorbitant prices to get things moving, which mostly included no-bid contracts with out-of-state companies for shady educational services. All were people who were connected to him politically or worked with him in Philadelphia and Chicago.
They got rid of the La. people – said they couldn’t afford so many people on staff – and then hired the outsiders at salaries so high as to be laughable. (majority were 25 years oldish, many were TFA with little education experience). He spent money like it was going out of style for very questionable products and services. (See past Nola.com reports on the bus system that cost La. twice or three times what it was costing
in other cities and states.)
And let’s not forget when Vallas got caught driving a state-issued car back home to Chicago every other weekend and having the La.taxpayers pick up the tab on the gas. He claimed he “didn’t know” that he wasn’t supposed to use the state car for personal use. Well, first he claimed that he was “working” on the entire trip, but that didn’t hold up when it was discovered that he was attending Illinois political meetings. He got caught when he wrecked the state vehicle in Ill., which triggered the state legislative auditor to investigate further. But no worries, the State Supt. at the time (Paul Pastorek, a previously high-paid attorney and biggest crook you can think of) offered to pay the state back for Vallas’ gas because he supposedly gave Vallas the authority to drive the car back home – claiming he really didn’t think that was an illegal use of state property?!?!? Geez. Of course, that debt was never really
paid back.
People of CT., please beware. Vallas is bad news. He will suck your community dry and then bug out when the frying pan gets too hot, leaving you with nothing but debts and confusion.
Vallas has no desire to turnaround the Bridgeport public schools. He wants to make money and make his mark, that is all. We are talking about a man who doesn’t see the “value” in paying for alternative education programs, even for students who desperately need them.
This man has reintroduced the violent offenders, including the students on parole that were exited out of the Bridgeport schools into alternative programs, to the general population. Many of us who taught high school in Bridgeport have had students with ankle bracelets and histories of various infractions with the police in our classrooms and we noticed how much calmer the schools became when the more violent offenders were placed in alternative programs in the area. Already, even before the start of the school year in Bridgeport, my former colleagues have told me about severe instances of bullying from these offenders and of security guards and administrators not doing anything to help the victims (who, in many cases, have already been beaten up by the bullies for refusing to turn over their cell phones, Ipods, cash, etc.), even when parents have called the schools. If I were a parent, I would make use of this so-called hotline Vallas set up for parents to call in anonymously to complain about the schools.
Since Vallas is so very fond of the two year teach for a while program, perhaps he will simply hire one of their alumnae to do his job in Bridgeport. After the illegal board extended his contract (which he should never have had because he should never have been hired by an illegal board), why does he need to actually see to things in Bridgeport? He can now safely focus his time on Indianapolis, where he can tout the advantages of two year teach for a while programs while belittling the teachers who have chosen to be there in order to make a difference.
Check out the latest on Pelto, read the full post:
The taxpayers of Bridgeport and Connecticut deserve to know how many no-bid consultants have been brought in to Bridgeport’s $229,000 interim superintendent, and how much these consultants were paid.
Since the vast majority of Bridgeport’s educational costs are picked up by the state, if Vallas refuses to come clean, then Governor Malloy or the Governor’s Commissioner of Education, Stefan Pryor, should step in and force Team Vallas to provide the information.
If the Governor and Commissioner refuse the task, then the State Auditors need to act.
See the full costs of the Vallas team when they come to your school district:
http://jonathanpelto.com/2012/08/16/bridgeport-yet-another-no-bid-contract-for-a-vallas-colleague-comes-to-light/
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