Jonathan Pelto reports that Paul Vallas and his allies are determined to fight the court ruling that ousted him from his job as superintendent of schools in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Ironically, the law he violated was written to make it easier to gain approval for him, despite his lack of the legally required qualifications.
As Pelto writes:
“The facts are simple enough;
Thanks to Governor Malloy, Commissioner Pryor and the Connecticut General Assembly, on July 1, 2012 Connecticut’s law concerning when the Commissioner of Education can waive a person’s need to be certified, in order to hold the title of superintendent of schools, was changed to make it easier for Paul Vallas to stay as Bridgeport’s superintendent of schools.
“The original law had been written to accommodate Steven Adamowski, who in 2007 had wanted to serve as Hartford’s superintendent of schools despite not having the necessary certification. At the time, a law was written to allow the state’s commissioner of education to waive the need for a superintendent to have certification if the individual was a certified superintendent in another state and met various other requirements.
“But Paul Vallas was never certified to hold any education position, in any state, so the Malloy administration proposed changing the law to allow the commissioner to waive Vallas’ certification requirement if he served for one year as an acting superintendent and successfully completed a “school leadership program” at a Connecticut institution of higher education.”
Vallas ignored these minimal requirements and patched together a quickie course. This proved unacceptable to the judge.
We will watch to see what happens on appeal.
The lawyer in this case is a former judge. This never happens. They really know procedure and what it takes to stand up to appeal as that is what they had to think about in every decision. One thing a judge does not like is to be turned over on appeal. This former judge seems to be dedicated to this case and situation. That is good for the case as this will be a hard to overturn appeal from the way the case was presented and the way the judge did their decision based on the law and the lack of following the law. Now what we will see is if they can get to the appeals court and then the State Supreme Court and it then becomes a political sleeze decision instead of a legal decision. We shall see. I read the decision and it is very good and based on the law.
They should start a counter movement – perhaps they have – and overturn both laws. The idea that you can run an institution without any training in it is absurd. This is yet another example of the vanity of intellectuals.
I’m not sure Paul Vallas qualifies as an intellectual.
Arne Duncan is the United States Secretary of Education and only has a Batchlor’s Degree in Sociology! He paved the road for a lack of credentials and is definitely not an intellectual.
Not the vanity of intellectuals but of politicians and political hacks!
Maybe he can sign up for one of those TFA 3- courses-taught-by-TFA alumni- and-one-research-paper masters degrees.
It’s time for Vallas to head back to elementary school, as a student. That is where we first learn to play by the rules and to not have a tantrum when we lose. CT “reformers” are playing “Calvin Ball” with democracy. Enough is enough!
Seems like other governors have taken the same plays from Connecticut’s playbook. These unethical appointments of cronies and ALEC actors needs to be stopped. Hopefully, this brave judge’s action will give others the strength and hope to fight back. As Diane said, “resistance!”
Read about the rally for the employment of one man in a city in CT. Please note attendees were from the mayor’s office with Achievement First supporters and the event was held in a church run by the BOE president who is also a preacher of some sort.
They rallied about 30 people; some were probably required to be there.
Finish breakfast first or you may not want to eat afterwards. Paul is compared to a knight on a white horse or a firefighter rescuing people during a terrorist attack. The boys are falling all over each other hoping to win his admiration. It’s a bromance on steroids.
Check out the comments….people have this one pegged.
Oh and by the way check out Paul’s quotes about the great Vallas.
The man is certainly impressed with himself.
http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Supporters-turn-out-for-Vallas-4641619.php
Valerie Strauss did a post on this on The Answer Sheet; yesterday two highly pro-Vallas comments magically appeared among the other critical ones. Attempt at damage control, perhaps? And not a particularly good attempt, either.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/06/29/why-judge-ordered-paul-vallas-removed-as-bridgeport-schools-chief/
Pennsylvania waived the requirements for David Hornbeck to be superintendent of Philadelphia schools. He held two degrees: law and divinity. Several years later, the state took over Philly schools because they weren’t being run properly. Still, our schools outperformed those run by Paul Vallas in Chicago.
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