Many who post and comment on this blog have been critical of Paul Vallas. All have their own reasons, but much criticism has focused on the tales of “saving” Chicago, Philadelphia, and Néw Orleans. The latter two turned privatization into a “reform” strategy.
But there is another side to Vallas, which came as a comment by a reader:
She writes:
As we know, nothing in life is black or white which is how I view Paul Vallas. I worked for Paul at the Chicago Public Schools as the Director of Policy and Program Development. Specifically my role was to identify and obtain non-traditional, sustainable funding for school based social and health services. Why? Because Paul Vallas felt that unless you addressed the holistic needs of children, you weren’t serious about students’ reaching their full academic potential.
I realize it is extremely simplistic to frame education policy in short phrases but for purposes of making a point, I will take that liberty. One of the most critical debates of our time is how do we effectively educate children/youth- especially those in large urban school districts. On the one hand, there are those that believe that it is all about the “effectiveness of the teachers” as measured by the outcomes of standardized tests taken by their students in one day. On the other hand, there are those of us who believe that unless you address the impact of poverty, the most incredible teachers imaginable will be compromised in their efforts to enable their students to reach their full academic potential.
Since I judge leaders by their actions and not their words, Paul Vallas exemplified the position that educators must address the impact of poverty on students lives. Since Paul knew that some kids were failing because they literally couldn’t read the blackboard due to not having eye glasses, he started CPS’ Vision Program in which students who failed their vision screenings were bused in a school that had been set up as Vision Center in which students received full exams and eye glasses on site- all for free. The Vision program continues to serve thousands of students at CPS-95% of whom needed glasses. But since Paul knew that students couldn’t attend school regularly if they didn’t have access to a doctor, he funded the KidCare Program- a school based enrollment program for free and low cost health insurance. School based enrollment in public benefit programs continues at CPS by the Children and Family Benefits Unit who enrolled over 13,000 students in food stamps/SNAP and Medicaid/SCHIP Insurance last year.
Paul was also the first superintendent to fund a school based teen pregnancy program, “Cradle to the Classroom”, that was in over 70 high schools. Why did he do that when needless to say, it was not a popular idea in Chicago at the time? Because when advocates showed him the impact of school based programs on attendance and graduation rates as well as the long term outcomes of the teens’ babies, he never hesitated. Cradle to the Classroom went on to become a nationally recognized program. Paul also understood the impact of violence on students’ ability to thrive and learn.
As a historian, Paul understood the risk of people becoming desensitized to children and youth being murdered or struck down by a stray bullet. So he funded the Youth Outreach Workers to not only mitigate the potential for violence by having school patrols before and after an incident of school based violence but also to address the psychological and economic needs of the victims’ families and their peers. Specifically, Paul ensured that students were buried with dignity which meant that when needed, CPS paid for the whole funeral- first with Paul’s personal funds and then later with the Childrens’ First Fund created for that purpose. To try and help with the grief of the victims’ friends and teachers, crisis workers were immediately deployed to the victims’ schools and grief counseling was provided. He even funded buses to transport students from their schools to the funeral home.
There are many more examples that I could give but hopefully these few illustrate my point. Paul never wavered in his support for these programs even when others said that with strains on school funding, why should CPS fund social and health service programs? They also criticized him for his prioritization of early childhood education but Paul did not waver since he saw early childhood education as the cornerstone of learning and one of the most effective anti-poverty strategies available to educators.
As some would say- Paul marched to his own drum. In my opinion, as well as the majority of my colleagues then working under Paul at the time, we admired Paul’s priorities and guts. Did I agree with all of his initiatives- of course not. But who is perfect which is my very point!! In my opinion, it is not helpful to view Paul Vallas and his legacy through one lens because that is too simplistic and counter-productive in our attempts to learn from history. Compounding that complexity is Paul’s willingness when it really counts to admit to his mistakes such as when Paul stated that the messaging of modern day education wan NOT the problem,but rather it’s the product that is the problem including a reference to the “testing industrial complex”. He even made fun of himself by saying that this might sound like Nixon going to China hearing this from him. Do some of us wish that he had realized and admitted this sooner- of course. But its better late than never and its only one part of the story.
Paul Vallas drove education in Chicago, Philadelphia, and New Orleans into the ground. In the running of a school district, Paul Vallas is a fiscal nightmare– a continued nightmare for the districts he has left.
He is a fiscal nightmare and yet it is his skills at “balancing the budget” that he touts very frequently as the main reason why he is of value to Bridgeport, a city that he never got to know before enacting his “standard” programs and purchasing–without bidding–from his “regular” suppliers. Who would order British Literature texts for a school that did not even teach Brit Lit in 12th grade?
I have never heard of a pedagogical practice called “doubling up” (and was told–so I can not substantiate–that it originated from Vallas since he would have liked to have had “double” time in math and English as a student.) This year some 9th and 10th grade students were assigned to “labs”–that substituted for a class as electives like Family and Consumer Science and Business were taken out of the school–that had no curriculum (or materials until quite some time into the school year) and it was not necessarily those students who needed the most “remedial” work.
(Do read Jon Pelto on Easy IEP. Here is one entry and there is a wonderful search engine:
http://jonathanpelto.com/2013/05/06/vallas-no-bid-special-education-software-deal-in-bridgeport-continues-to-be-a-disaster/ )
My exact words. Thank you, Ms. Schneider.
“Paul’s willingness when it really counts to admit to his mistakes”…unfortunately we haven’t seen that side here in CT…read the article below…actually it is quite the opposite. He is the victim and stuck in the middle.
The court case, he said, was instigated by the Working Families Party, a union-funded group opposed to the state’s school takeover.
“This is just another attempt to block us from instituting reforms,” he said. “There’s a lot of intra-district conflict going on, and I’m caught in the middle.”
As for the course at the center of the case, Vallas said state law required a superintendent to be certified in Connecticut, but allow the state board of education to determine certification requirements. Vallas’s course was approved by the board, he said.
“Measuring effectiveness by seat time is a little silly,” Vallas said. “What am I supposed to do, run Bridgeport and sit in a class for 13 months?”
Vallas said he expects to run the district until sometime in the next school, which will require him to negotiate the next collective bargaining agreement. After that?
“I go in, fix the system, I move on to something else.”
Would that something else be the financially broke state of Illinois, where Vallas still has a home, and where he ran for governor in 2002?
“Let’s just say I’m still registered to vote (there),” he said.
Source: http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/Paul-Vallas–213999671.html#ixzz2Y03PIZ7v
Also, he loses credibility when he LIES. The suit was filed by two citizens, not the working families party and he KNOWS that.
He is manipulating the public and attempting to throw the union and teachers under the bus….his standard MO.
He’s in survival mode now (his rep) and the kids are props.
“What am I supposed to do, run Bridgeport, and sit in a class for 13 months?”
Precisely the problem – he shouldn’t be running Bridgeport before he’s sat through those classes.
As for the board approved measure – it sounds by all accounts like a sham that required very little actual work from him.
We have minimum standards to protect the public good. There is no one so exceptional or unique that having what most would consider to be a MINIMAL education in an area that has enormous impacts on millions of students and teachers means that yes – the rules apply to you too.
Also, see below. He says he can run three school districts, NOLA, Haiti, and Chile, but he can’t sit through an Ed leadership program, which was designed just for him?
The law was changed in CT for him, no other superintendents, and he didn’t follow it and now he wants a free pass just because he is Paul Vallas?
http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2011/02/recovery_school_district_super_1.html
“But who is perfect which is my very point!! ”
No one, and that is why we give a lot of tax dollars to the SDE to ensure that we at least follow specific criteria to hold and maintain our certification.
And will the same latitude be given to CT teachers next year under the new Gates USDOE mandated evaluation policy?
I wouldn’t cry for Paul. I’m sure some district is chomping at the bit to bring him in.
Hmmm…this person was the Director of Policy and Program Development. I wonder how many teachers share these same opinions. More important, how many parents and children are grateful for all that Mr. Vallas did while in CPS, according to the former Director of Policy and Program Development?
He has the same core group go with him place to place. If he loses future gigs because of the court ruling and all the bad press, so does he or she.
Just google Paul Vallas and Jon Pelto or Vallas and Ravitch.
His track record is catching up with him and his brand is tainted.
Even on his turnaround page (see below) he capitalizes EXISTING in reference to teachers.
I guess wiping out eveveryone’s job in NOLA wasn’t such a great idea.
Check it out:
Click to access FX-MM19746-20120606-1.pdf
The core group followed Vallas to New Orleans.
New title?
Sandra Kase
Chief AdministrativeOfficer at Bridgeport Public Schools
See the group that travels with him and their hefty salaries:
http://jonathanpelto.com/2012/07/30/the-vallas-jobs-program-connecticut-residents-need-not-apply/
The results are supposed to speak for themselves in an accountability based world. His results are abysmal and he has taken no steps to correct his understanding of education or how to provide a meaningful one for students – it is the height of hubris to believe that one is infallible and will “go in and fix the system” when that person has NO ties to that community, NO grounding in education or teaching practice and NO idea what the ramifications of say sacrificing classroom supplies for children’s eyeglasses will have.
The problem is obviously not enough funding – we shouldn’t have to choose between (and I realize this is an arbitary example) providing basic classroom needs for children and providing basic health needs – they need both.
Is he allowed to make mistakes? I think we can all agree no one is perfect – however – teachers are being directed to get their act together within less than a year after being “identified” by junk science and to somehow remedy things that may be outside their control. How can Vallas ask for leniency in his weaknesses while attacking teachers with weapons they don’t understand fully yet (nor does he I suspect).
I will not say he did not implement any meaningful programs in CT. I will say that however well meaning those programs are, to just point to those overlooks his impressively horrible track record in making lasting meaningful changes without breaking the bank for children and putting so much extra work on teachers that they cannot do their jobs effectively.
Can your children not learn if they can’t see the board? I agree it’d be a problem – there’s no doubt about it. If that same teacher now has 45 children to teach that can all see perfectly – will the children still receive a better education?
What’s left out of this is that such budgetary choices sound great in isolation, but when you have to weigh it against other things that impact a child’s education, the choices don’t always stand up. Ideally we don’t have to make these horrible, horrible, choices, but, his record says that he does not make good ones that lead to strong sustainable communities in schools that meet the needs of their highest need children.
As someone else who worked with Paul for 6 years in Chicago, I saw first hand the change in attitudes by colleagues at both the central office and schools. For the first time in many years there was a vision that students could learn and that supports were needed for those having difficulty learning. Without any state or federal funding, he started alternative schools for students that have dropped out or were looking for smaller environments to learn. Those programs continue to be in place in Chicago, and were recently expanded. It should also be noted that while he was in Chicago, there were relatively few charter schools – their number increased after he left; the same is true for Philadelphia. While the number of charter schools certainly grew in New Orleans while he was there, most would agree that the city’s configuration of schools is not a model to replicate. Rather it was the product of a horrific storm that destroyed public education as we know it – and needed to be rebuilt in record time. It’s easy to cast stones against Paul, because he has been out front, vocal, and aggressive – but these are traits that has made him one of our nation’s most well-known and respect change agents for public education.
Sue Gamm
former Chief Specialized Services Officer – Chicago Public Schools
Sue Gamm,
That is not quite right. Paul Vallas launched the nation’s most expansive privatization experiment in Philadelphia. Evaluators at RAND said it failed; the district schools did as well or better than the privatized schools.
Paul’s program in New Orleans was not to rebuild public education after the hurricane, but to create a privatized system of schools.
Interesting their full court spin is out right before the appeal is heard.
If he goes down, so does his team…a loss of $$$$$ for the traveling deformers.
And they succeeded at that, didn’t they.
Yes, Robert and remember Arne’s heartfelt quote…”Katrina was the best thing to happen to New Orleans.”
Unless you died, were injured, became homeless or orphaned.
“Rather it was the product of a horrific storm that destroyed public education as we know it – and needed to be rebuilt in record time.”
The storm did not destroy the townships and schools nearly as much as an institutionalized willingness to not invest in proper infrastructure that would have prevented and mitigated the majority of damage. Ask the engineers in Holland how they keep their country out of water. They’ve already advised us but not enough people here listen.
And such consequences did destroy the public school buildings, but the public school system was destroyed by politicians and opportunists.
And why shouldn’t it have been? Low income people of color are an easy and profitable target.
You know, Linda, I remeber that quote distinctly now that you bring it up. I also remember what Barbara Bush the elder said about all those people staying housed in a stadium after the storm was over. I also recall Rhee calling the children at Newtown “Our most precious assets”. . . .
These people need to be arrested and jailed.
Yes, Barbara’s comment was that they “had it pretty good here” on cots in the Astrodome, then she flew off to her mansion in Kennebunkport.
Barb basically said that it was pretty good for them because they were used to poor housing conditions.
I think she had at that point accidentally ingested one of her pearls. It went to her head.
Hmm, apparatchiks get an inkling of The Dear Leader’s mortality, panic ensues and suddenly Diane’s blog lights up with testimony to Mr. Serial School Killer’s humanity, rather than his smash-and-grab record.
Good, their defensiveness is a sign of their vulnerability. Despite the immense wealth at their disposal, their castles are built on sand, riven with dynamics and contradictions that will bring them down. In the meantime, the vandalism continues.
It is both tragic and criminal that children are having their school years stolen from them, that teachers are being robbed of their profession, and that communities suffer the wounds of losing stable public institutions.
All sacrificed to this money and power grab cloaked in reformist cant.
Superb! Outstanding! Bravo!
Paul Vallas is a first-class charlatan and carpetbagger. He should never, ever been allowed to run any school district anywhere. What does it tell you that the man was not qualified to be a principal but was allowed to be superintendent? His title in Philadelphia had to be CEO because he had no degree in education. But the media sure did love him. Until he left Philadelphia with a $73 million deficit.
It sickens me that people could defend him.
Anyone who thinks that what happened in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina was “needed” is blind to the realities of neoliberalism or unaware of Milton Friedman’s op-ed in the Wall Street Journal at the time, which was a call for profiteers to see the disaster as an opportunity to privatize education there, while residents were still reeling from trauma and before most had returned to the city. I would suggest reading Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.
In Bridgeport Paul Vallas gets some good grades for bringing in better business/financial practices and for energy, ideas and leadership with some (if not all) constituencies. But in his hustle to get things done, he blew off a state law designed to help him get the education certification he lacked for our state. He spent money without following state bidding contract laws. He trimmed special ed funds that may violate some student IEPs. He tried to eliminate parent involvement councils that had to be reinstated. His future in our biggest city is uncertain. But if he stays, he best abide by our laws rather than cutting corners.
Gailj2, you present the exact argument that is always made: Vallas has great ideas and leadership but I honestly cannot see them. I cannot point to any improvement that has been made under his watch at my school. Rather, I can see and feel the “decline” and with the cuts that he has made to school course offerings and professional staff such as guidance counselors, I do not expect to receive NEASC accreditation again. Would you please clarify what ideas and leadership you have seen? I am really befuddled and look forward to your response.
I would not be surprised at all if Vallas was a mixed bag. From what the author describes without any real devil-in-the-details, his efforts under those horrendous circumstances were commendable.
But when you go food shopping, are you buying the container of fresh, unblemished blueberries, or are you buying a container that has a mixture of rotten ones and some very plump and perfectly good to eat?
If you’re paying full price, should you not be getting only some that are good and some that are putrid.
Valls needs to play by the rules . . . . they were set up for excellent reasons.
To those who defend Paul Vallas– perhaps, in the beginning, he WAS really trying to do the right things, and I have heard the same (at that time–I must again stress–in the VERY BEGINNING) from some of my CPS teacher, psychologist & social worker friends who were there. (He was pretty humble and wasn’t like Arnie Duncan, who went around telling people that he was going to be the next CEO of CPS.) However, defenders, as to the absolute destruction Vallas has since wrought, I have four words for you:
“Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Oh, and two more: “Money talks.”
His cavalier comment here shows the reader how committed he is to a community and their long term welfare. It’s all about Paul:
“I go in, fix the system, I move on to something else.”
As the person who wrote the original post, I would like to clarify. As I stated, no one is perfect and I am addressing one component of Paul’s leadership. It is not my role to take positions on the ins and outs of what is happening in Connecticut- that is your struggle. One that I stay abreast of but not one that I think i have the right to comment on.
Thus I personally want to stay focused on what we can learn about Paul’s leadership since I am not sure what blogs you all read or who you work for but I don’t see allot of school districts prioritizing the social, emotional and health needs of our students. Please tell me about them since I am still doing this work for my living at CPS so I would love to contact those districts. But don’t spend allot of time on that since I can tell ;you that in large inner city school districts there are few to none.
Also I am trying to point out that it is not helpful to look at everything from an either or position. For example, the programs I referred to like the Vision Program were really liked and embraced by teachers and clinical staff not just by Paul. Why? Because teachers also understood that it was easier to teach a kid if he could see the black board. They also knew and appreciated the fact that their student who witnessed his cousin being shot to death was actual able to come to school and even learn because he was in grief counseling. With no grief counseling, who can learn especially if it’s the 3rd death that this student has observed. And sadly, he is one of many in that classroom to be living with this level of trauma- day in and day out.
Additionally, i feel sad that we tend to look at things as teachers salaries vs. social services. As the richest country in the world, why are we fighting about this??? There is plenty of money to have both and it is not Paul Vallas who determines federal spending policies. BUt what amazed me about Paul is that he tried to make it work anyway because he cared about kids and the challenges that teachers had deal with everyday because of lack of accessible services.
Excuse my redundancy but the point of my posting was not only to point out things about Paul Vallas that many don’t know but to also express my outrage that as someone who works in education, in the front lines, I think it is sad that these programs that address poverty are labelled NON_TRADITIONAL SOURCES OF REVENUE for public education. They should be seen as an integral component of education.
The very point of the article is that there are many in power that don’t care about this reality because they would rather bash teachers for not solving the problems of the world. I am not one of those people and when Paul was at CPS, nor was he. Otherwise, why would he have approved of there programs. Why would he have taken flack for starting and maintaining them? And why did he hire me? I was hired to find sustainable funding for these programs so that they would last. Thus, the largest source of funding for these programs did not nor does come from the general fund i.e. away from teachers’ salaries. It comes from federal and state revenue that up to Paul’s tenure were never seen as services to be provided on site at schools. So it was and continues to be a win win: better for kids to succeed; easier for teachers to teach; and doesn’t take money from the general fund. Paul deserves allot of credit for supporting and believing in this work.
Well, we’re not feeling the love here in CT.
I can tell you one thing for sure it has NOT been EASIER for teachers to teach. It has been chaos. If you read the other posts, lengthy examples were provided.
Posted originally by Bridgeport Educator on a CT blog to a reader who said time will tell:
I don’t know where or from whom you get your information Mr. Lee, but there is no time left to tell for Bridgeport students. They must be freed now from this gang of thieves. Here is Vallas’ legacy: Go into any of the three high schools and see the apathy, frustration and fear in the students. The students know that they are not getting an education. They are sad and starving for discussion and essays, for reading and questioning real literature and historical and topical documents. They wonder where their teachers have gone. They spend day after day completing tests and being called out of class for rap sessions with college students, for pilot programs for test companies, comprehensive test practices for textbooks and curriculums and to visit college courses and support fund raisers.
Teachers are left out of all district decision-making. Questions to the administration are met with anger and punishment and sarcasm. It is a clear “like it or leave it” atmosphere. Courses that have had high enrollment and were successful are eliminated because they didn’t start with the Vallas gang and replaced by the same class with a new name. Music, drama, and specials have no budget. Certified staff and faculty positions for Graphic Arts, Electronics, Print shop, Woodshop, Clothing, Foods and Child Care have been or are being eliminated. Guidance counselors, nurses, drug counselors, librarians, literacy and math coaches are being cut or totally eliminated.
There has been zero funding for libraries and little or no funding for pencils, toner, general school supplies, copy paper or basic classroom materials. Substitutes are rarely called so students are herded into the gym or cafeteria or auditorium with few if any certified staff. Student IDs were never completed this year. Special Ed records were never brought up to date because the new Vallas software never quite worked.
What ever happened to “Safe Corridors”?
Next year the high school schedule is absurd. Students at Central will have 4 full days of straight classes and one full day of essentially substitutes or study hall. This is to allow their teachers to meet for a day of PD. What PD will it be? Will it be the latest Gates or Broad flavor of the month? Will it be purchased to funnel more Bridgeport public money into a private corporation? More money being spent on out of state/ out of district snake oil programs. Also do you remember state mandated School Governance Councils? They were mocked and ignored. The Parent Center dismantled.
There are no directors for areas of academic discipline; therefore no one oversees the English, history, art, music, reading or math departments. No department meetings. No sharing of ideas or lessons. No one is responsible for the reading programs in the elementary schools or for any professional development or training. A comprehensive and completely new curriculum along with very expensive textbooks was purchased, but no training or practice was ever completed. In fact no teachers were a part of the decision making in the purchasing. But highly paid, $300.00 -$500.00 a day consultants from Vallas’s out of state coterie sit in empty and unstaffed libraries reading education articles on their computers and meeting teachers to hand them the articles.
This administration hired a football coach with a record that includes rule breaking, suspensions and cheating. But at some point even he had to get a certificate to be a coach. Mr Lee, if all this doesn’t make Bridgeport parents and taxpayers realize this administration has only contempt for them, I don’t know what will.
It is apparent Vallas is neither academically nor morally qualified to lead children? Bridgeport students and residents are and will continue to be his victims if we don’t heed the verdict.
Mr Lee, the state certifies, licenses or credentials nurses, manicurists, lawyers, arborists, LPNs, hair colorists and so many more, but perhaps with regard to our students no license need exist as long as one is a friend of Malloy or Pryor. (As is certainly the case in most Connecticut charter schools.)
The last 18 months have been chaotic, confusing and demeaning. There is no time to tell any more.
I can attest that all of the above is true. I had never heard students refer to school as a prison before this year.
Diane–
I have commented elsewhere on what I have seen. Perhaps this just-out opinion piece from The Connecticut Post will provide a “flavor” of what the Vallas “experience” has been.
http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Hugh-Bailey-The-miracle-turnaround-specialist-is-4649167.php
I have heard Vallas comment on the financial gains to be made during the next round of budget negotiations, which seems to be his primary focus–as he tells us time and again.
Yes, it’s also when the teachers’ contract negotiations are up; it is slash and burn time while he and his posse maintain their hefty salaries.
Interesting perspectives about the same event and time period.
VALLAS FACTS: Racism and corporate ‘School Reform’… Paul Vallas began to purge of Black teachers, administrators, and other staff from Chicago’s public schools as part of corporate ‘school reform’… The Paul Vallas I knew, by Dr. Grady C. Jordan
[Editor’s Note: The following article originally appeared in Substance print, March 2002, and on line in the debut Web edition at http://www.substancenews.com — the “old” substance Website, which has been replaced by http://www.substancenews.net. The article was by Dr. Grady C. Jordan, who had served as high school superintendent in Chicago prior to corporate school reform. Dr. Jordan was forced out of CPS by Paul Vallas, as he describes below. But Dr. Jordan was one of the first of hundreds of Black school administrators — and thousands of Black teachers and other school staff — to be forced out of their jobs by corporate school reform as it was pioneered in Chicago between 1995 and 2001.
http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=4371§ion=Article
Interesting perspective about the same events and time period.
VALLAS FACTS: Racism and corporate ‘School Reform’… Paul Vallas began to purge of Black teachers, administrators, and other staff from Chicago’s public schools as part of corporate ‘school reform’… The Paul Vallas I knew, by Dr. Grady C. Jordan.
http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=4371§ion=Article
“During his four years in New Orleans, Vallas oversaw a post-Hurricane Katrina takeover and transition that converted most New Orleans public schools into charters.” From http://www.nola.com/education/index.ssf/2013/06/paul_vallas_former_new_orleans.html
Diane, in the months you’ve been writing your incredible blog, I could count on one hand the numbers of times I’ve disagreed with you, in fact, that statement would be true even if I lost the majority of fingers on that hand.
But on this one, alas, I will earnestly disagree with your conclusion.
As you know, here in Connecticut we’ve been battling Paul Vallas and his pro-testing, pro-charter, pro-privatization agenda since his arrival in December 2011. We deeply appreciate all the attention you’ve given our battle. Readers need on search for the name Vallas on your site or go to mine, Wait. What? to find fact after fact after fact about his on-going efforts to undermine and destroy our local education system.
His transgressions have been so great, that a retired Connecticut judge, Carmen Lopez, led an effort to bring a lawsuit – a lawsuit that recently determined that Paul Vallas lacks the qualifications necessary to serve as the superintendent of schools in Bridgeport, Connecticut and that he must vacate the position immediately. A hearing on whether he can stay while he appeals that decision is coming up this week.
During the court hearings, Mr. Vallas and Connecticut’s Commissioner of Education, Stefan Pryor, made a series of incredible claims about Vallas’ successful track record in Chicago, Philadelphia and New Orleans. The rhetoric was long on hyperbole and short on facts and what facts were provided turned out to be misleading claims, half-truths or worse.
I don’t know where the information comes from that Paul Vallas “was also the first superintendent to fund a school based teen pregnancy program,” but it sounds exactly like the type of statements that were recently made in court, under oath, but were simply not true.
I’m sure we can identify the first school based teen pregnancy program, but we can be pretty sure it wasn’t the one Paul Vallas funded.
For example, the Teen Outreach Program (TOP), which apparently began in St. Louis, was a school based program that began in 1976, twenty years before Paul Vallas was named CEO of the Chicago School System.
The one thing we’ve learned in dealing with Paul Vallas is that he certainly isn’t hesitant to toot his own horn…. But whether those statements are factually correct is a whole other story.
I’m reminded of his recent statement, which you covered, in which he claimed that school relied to much on standardized testing… this coming from the man who took Bridgeport from one major round of annual standardized testing to four major rounds – including three new “benchmark testing” rounds that took weeks away from educational programming and eventually was cancelled due to computer problems associated with the $10 million, no-bid contract that he signed for testing and textbooks.
OK, maybe I’m stupid and not understanding your point but I would say that you appear to agree with Diane’s conclusion? Diane just presented the arguments of Vallas’s defenders for the sake of elucidation and further debate. She has certainly made it clear that Vallas was an overall net loss for the schools that he “Rheeformed.”
Vallas taking credit for programs already in place, e.g. students taking college courses or a school already funded to be built, is standard operating procedure. When teachers are having to buy their own copy paper, he then switches the budget line to the individual schools so that it does not reflect on him. I believe we have $38 a student for supplies, etc.budgeted.
Jon, I did not write the statement “In Defense of Paul Vallas.” That was a comment on the blog by someone who identified herself as his Director of Policy and Programs.
I printed it so as to allow his allies to have a chance to speak.
Printing it was not an endorsement.
Non-traditional and sustainable are usually oxymorons. The best case scenario is you find a wealthy donor who is willing to – up front – put up a whole bunch of money to fund something over multiple years – and god help you if you have cost overruns. Ideally the program is then seen as successful and picked up by the government – but that’s not typical except if there are a whole lot of people pushing it – and those people usually need to have money to be made off of it or money to lose from it.
For state and federal revenue sources – those sources have tended to come with a whole lot of strings attached – either directly as in RttT or indirectly as in back room agreements. Please do tell us exactly – why is it lawmakers would suddenly be willing to pay for certain programs that they were unwilling to in the past – while underfunding public schools?
I do not see Vallas’s investment in classrooms or in schools and especially not in public schools.
How does Vallas know what needs fixing before he lives in a community?
Can he just look at the structure and see “democratic school board” check, “public schools” check, “wealthy donors looking to weaken said district’s teacher’s union” check. He can then go in, alienate all stakeholders, get some extra money from people who would like nothing better than to see public schools become profit centers, implement a whole lot of radical, unproven, largely untested reforms that are attached to that, declare a win for the community, and move on as the reforms prove harder to change and have more staying power (contracts, laws, and basic infrastructure changes) vs. the programs which are more readily discarded when times get tough.
This is a PR game for Vallas and he knows how to play it – unfortunately he never learned how to run a school district in a way that doesn’t look for quick fixes and selling out communities for his benefit so he can tout bringing in private dollars in bargains that would make the devil blush.
I am one of the biggest people against the actions of Parent Revolution and yet at a board meeting when the board was asked if they would allow a Parent Revolution representative to speak on a Parent Trigger issue I was the only one in the room who yelled out “Let them Speak.” I did this for the same reason that Diane Ravich has this blog today “Let them speak, where are we at actually or supposed to be?” I believe in both sides. That does not mean I buy their arguments it is that what is to be afraid of in the competition of ideas. We are never afraid of presenting our view against any others, what for?
Vallas has been one of the worst things in education since 1995 when he and Daley took over the Chicago Public Schools. Daley, Vallas and Obama over at the Annenburg Foundation started the privatization and ruinization of the Chicago Public Schools. They destroyed the budget and when you do that you destroy the district as it takes money for programs. He destroyed Philadelphia so bad he was refused permission to spend another penny. Then this so-called hero goes to New Orleans for the biggest destructive effort ever on public education the totally failed “Recovery School District.” Now he is breaking the law in Bridgeport even when they made a special plan just for him he still cannot follow the law and now a retired judge has brought forth a case on his law breaking. Ask yourselves “When was the last time you saw a retired judge bring forth a case much less a law breaking school administrator case. Almost never is the answer.
It is time for the crooks to go such as that liar Deasy at LAUSD who has a phony PHD and work record. Let’s throw all the bums out including Duncan who lied to the State of California to push mayoral control. I have the letters and financial pages to show that when Daley and Vallas took over in 1995 there was a surplus not the stated $1.8 billion debt. And by the way when they took over Chicago had instituted a computer financial program on every school in real time for all the expenditures to prevent overspending and moniter by the district and outside agencies in real time. Had to throw that away on the path to destruction didn’t they.
When you take Daley, Vallas, Duncan, Obama et al in totality on education they are the worse when the facts on the ground are looked at. As a friends grandfather taught him ” I hear real good, but I see a whole lot better.” Don’t listen to the rhetoric but to what they do. It is that simple. Does anyone out there look at the detailed superintendents final budgets and then at the audited actuals? Doesn’t seem like it to me as I never see them quoted to prove points and without this they will kill you every time as you will not know what is going on.
At the risk of being hyperbolic:
… and Mussolini made the trains run on time.
Hyperbole is great . . .
Yet when the business community proposed that the school system (Yes, the idea came from a group of businessmen.) could save money by having the buses run more often and alter the starting time of elementary schools, the change was made after the public was presented with four alternate plans. The public comment allowed was limited (do not remember details of how). Why would businessmen be spending their time thinking about how the schools could save money? Where will the saved money go (if there indeed will be a savings are the buses are being used more)? Paul Vallas has bragged that he balanced the budget and that is what he is most proud of–even if the conditions Linda presented from Public Educator above exist.
Well-said. When these reform types, with Obama and wife at the head of the line, start enrolling their children in KIPP or Achievement First schools or other charters staffed by TFAers and TFA alums, with rigid, oppressive (and possibly illegal) discipline practices, I might be willing to hear about the “good side” of Vallas’s and Duncan’s and Obama’s reform ideas. But not until then.
Michelle Obama has a nerve going on about children’s health and weight when these reformers, funded by programs such as Race To The Top, force children to spend endless amounts of time doing test prep, filling in bubbles, or banging on computer keyboards. Sasha and Malia are not consigned to that!
I understand the need for presenting the “other side,” but it isn’t as if reformers like Vallas, Duncan, Kopp and the rest do not get mostly laudatory and propagandistic press all the time, despite their negative impact on communities and on children. What is next on Ravitch’s blog: Michelle Rhee’s Girl Scout Troop Leader telling us how many grannies Rhee helped across the street?
Fager’s defense of Vallas is lengthy–giving so much space endows it with a certain credibility. Fager–who has identified herself in comments–cannot be serious in attributing so many programs to Vallas–many have existed in troubled urban districts, especially after “social safety nets” have been shredded by years of neo-liberal reforms. School-based health clinics are a wonderful improvement on school nurse services, but the school nurse has almost always had a place in public schools. Some of the services Fager mentions are funded through both corporate philanthropy (which is often a tax break for a greedy, neighborhood-destroying developer) and teacher, staff, and community donations–why is Paul Vallas getting the credit for such initiatives?
I suppose you could take many individuals from the corporate education reform camp and find this or that program that they initiated that was innovative.(Although I can’t for the life of me figure out anything Michelle Rhee has done for education even for show!)
The bottom line is all of them think they do not have to follow democratic procedures and transparency. They do not see themselves as public servants for the community, but the community as a market place for corporate profit and their high salaries. Even though Vallas supports “teacher evaluation” he thinks he is above the law and does not have to follow the legal strictures of qualifications in Bridgeport for his position. He can only get away with this in today’s political climate where money and who you know qualifies someone to run a school district. This alone shows his fitness for office.
In Philadelphia, he initiated the drive by corporate interests for privatization by undemocratically bringing in Edison Schools to run 40 public schools in 2002. Even though he left Philadelphia seven years ago, Vallas still has questionable contracts such his company’s Easy IEP which all Special Education teachers must use, with the District. Under present circumstances it is impossible to find how if these were no bid contracts and how his company got them.
Philaken–
I hear you. I would “bet” that these contracts were no bid and you can follow them in Bridgeport due to the meticulous work of Jonathan Pelto. As I referenced above:
(Do read Jon Pelto on Easy IEP. Here is one entry and there is a wonderful search engine:
http://jonathanpelto.com/2013/05/06/vallas-no-bid-special-education-software-deal-in-bridgeport-continues-to-be-a-disaster/
Hmmmm? After reading all 50 posts, minus my own, seems to me Mr. Vallas is indefensible.
Linda,
I try to keep the blog open to different views, even those I don’t agree with. That’s what freedom of thought is about.
I know you do. You are very kind.
I couldn’t resist summarizing. Goodnight 🙂
Linda: I agree with you that Paull Vallas is indefensible. And I agree with the comments by Diane and George Buzzetti [above] about keeping this blog open to people of different views.
The two are related. The best place to have an open and thorough evaluation of Paul Vallas is on this blog. Why? Because not one of the “edufrauds” [thank you for this term!] has a forum like this. It’s not in their FUDbook. The ends they seek severely limit and prohibit open and democratic discussion.
But the very fact that members of the educational status quo are feeling compelled to react to this blog, and even very occasionally attempt to explain their actions on it, is testimony to their weakening position. They are beginning to sense the ground move under their feet and predictably are attempting to find individual salvation from the consequences of their own behaviors and policies.
For those who follow other blogs, think of Gary Rubinstein’s and Anthony Cody’s efforts to engage TFAers and charterites/privatizers in extended discussions that never—to my knowledge—end well for ArneRhee&Co.
And now we hear that some of the edufrauds are going through some rough times. A downgrading of their public status. Occasional criticism. Not all the $tudent $ucce$$ they are used to. Can’t get as much fawning media coverage as they are accustomed to.
Where were their pity parties for the vast majority of parents in Adelanto, CA, or for the staff at Wiegand Elementary, or for the substitute teacher fired by John Deasy for doing what she was required to do?
While this might sound harsh, the edufrauds should spare us the histrionics. Be accountable, that’s a start. More importantly, be responsible. Own up to the terrible consequences of your policies and behaviors.
In all honesty, I am not holding my breath.
Just my dos centavitos worth…
I am glad that Paul thinks the way you think he thinks–that’s a tongue twister–his legacy is horrible–no success–only ruins left behind in his wake–here is what your hero should do–get out of education totally at the top–give some of his millions to the poor he has identified in his city–and humble himself by serving as a volunteer mentor to students in the system on a daily basis–give up the Gold and serve those left behind in a personal way–not from the Ivory tower he sits in at present–a fraud for certain( no certification, no nothing) an embarrassment to CT–needs to go away and work in the projects for 5 years face to face and on the ground with the people he says he serves–wont ever happen for then he might get dirty and actually make a difference in someones life–other than his own–Tom
Paul Vallas prided himself in ridding Chicago of social promotion, which he accomplished by imposing high-stakes testing, so thousands of children were not promoted based on their standardized test scores. As a result, “the ELEMENTARY dropout rate climbed by 86 percent” (emphasis added): http://www.chicagoreporter.com/issue/2001/06/silent-dropouts
To clarify, I don’t know for sure if that’s a causal or correlational relationship between high-stakes testing, grade retention and the rise in elementary school drop outs, which occurred in Chicago in the 90s, while Vallas was CEO . However, I do know from working with elementary school teachers there at the time that a lot of teachers had expressed concerns about middle-school age students who were retained in grade, due to Vallas’ high-stakes testing policy, were turning 16 and spoke about dropping out –many of whom actually did so. (The state has since raised the drop out age.)
By the middle of the 20th Century, reporters were trained to check for accuracy, not to simplify reality into “two sides to every story” stuff.
“If your mother says she loves you, check it out!” was a motto of reporting that came out of Chicago.
It’s a compliment to Diane Ravitch’s blog that Paul Vallas dispatches one of his former minions to blow smoke into the eyes of people taking a closer look at the actual Vallas record.
Diane Fager’s versions of the wonders of the Paul Vallas record typifies the way in which Vallas has always tried to manipulate the media. He does it by working directly himself or through surrogates, often former subordinates like Fager. When I read the original anonymous testimonial, I thought it came from Cozette Buckney; Phil Hansen is no longer available to sing Vallas’s praises because he’s dead… The Vallas fan club has been around (and usually well compensated) for a long long time.
One of the wonderful things about the educational leadership career of Paul Vallas was how intensely he worked the press.
From the day he was announced as the mayor’s choice (because of his “business acumen” ????) to head Chicago’s schools (Vallas’s actual private sector business experience had been at his family’s suburban restaurant; his other work was overseeing patronage as Chicago’s Mayor’s Budget Director, the job he had before he became the Business Roundtable’s choice for the first CPS CEO), Vallas was intense about his publicity stuff.
Reporters who wrote (or spoke) even a line that wasn’t to Vallas’s liking would either hear from him directly (often in late night phone calls) or from a well-paid surrogate (as in the present case). Those who asked him impertinent questions (or who laughed at the absurdity of his claims and hypeactive posings) usually got the “I’ll get back to you on that…” stumper that was patented here in Chicago. Those of us who actually published the facts about Vallas’s regime (most famously for me, the actual content of the CASE tests Vallas had spent millions of dollars on in Chicago) could expect enormous pressure (in my case, a million dollar “copyright infringement” lawsuit and termination for “copyright infringement…”) and usually (as in the case of Grady Jordan, who wrote about Vallas’s racism) slanders or worse.
One day, the Paul Vallas event will become a case study for reporters to study in school, just as the Harvard Business School uses case studies. But for now the whole spin cycle is still spinning, so we’ll have to continue adding to the portfolio now that the Connecticut courts have added a new chapter.
For the rest of the USA, Paul Vallas is the first reason to quarantine anything or anyone emerging from Chicago as a “school reformer.”
But there is a fine history to all this…
And since Diane Ravitch is a historian first, it’s fun to do the history here in the present tense.
Paul Vallas became “Chief Executive Officer” of Chicago’s public schools in 1995, as soon as the (Republican majority) Illinois General Assembly had passed the “Amendatory Act of 1995” beginning “Mayoral Control” of large, largely minority urban school systems. The Amendatory Act was the beginning of it all, and Paul Vallas was the first of the non-educators to get the top job of reforming public education.
Even before Vallas took over the public schools of Chicago, he was spinning his narrative with the help of certain reporters who had opted for good storytelling over accuracy and boringly checked-out facts.
I remember the Chicago Sun-Times, in an early “Who is Paul Vallas?” story, quoting Vallas’s Mom — yes, his mother — about how hard he worked at high school football because our humble hero was not very talented but always substituted hard work and grit for whatever… That motherly endorsement came as if that, for some reason, was why he should, with no education experience (but with a long record as a Democratic Party and City Hall hack), become the head of the nation’s third largest school system.
This episode is just the latest in one version of the Vallas Spin. Testimonials.
The other (which has probably happened, but Our Pal Paul is too humble — and/or too busy busy busy — to go directly to Diane Ravitch…) is to call the person making the original report.
By the time Vallas’s star was rising in Chicago, the media were in decline. Chicago’s City New Bureau (for decades the training ground for reporters in Chicago) was terminated. No longer would reporters (from famous ones like Mike Royko and Kurt Vonnegut to the average street reporter) be taught that reporting began and ended with accuracy under the famous motto: “If your mother says she loves you, Check it Out!” No, by the time Vallas was creating his clip files, a reporter could quote Vallas’s mother with a straight face and not have an editor send her back to basic training! By the time Vallas was finally dumped by Mayor Daley in May – June 2001, even the Vallas media manipulation machine had worn out its welcome and Vallas’s frenetic phone calls to favored reporters weren’t taken as a good thing any longer. Also, some of the reporters who had done Vallas’s dirty work (based on “inside” dirt against Vallas’s enemies) were also leaving the business. (I go once a year to spit on the monument to one of those guys, a reporter who turned pundit and ended his career disgraced by the number of times he ran Vallas’s slanders as his own words in the Sun-Times…).
Vallas was out in Chicago in July 2001. He told the press he was going to relax and spend some time with the kids, maybe play a little baseball blah blah blah. At the time, I told people it was really sad for Vallas to pull that one on his own kids, since it was clear he was already looking to make a political bed for himself in Illinois or Chicago. Sure enough, within a few months, Paul Vallas was running for the Democratic Party nomination for Governor of Illinois. During that time, we published an extensive refutation of just about every claim Vallas was making, including a resume padding (he claimed “teaching” experience he never had and that stuff about eye glasses) and some typical tall tales (nobody ever saw that “600 page…” thingy Vallas supposedly authored, for example, just as nobody has ever seen evidence of this claim by Vallas’s person here that Paul was a “historian”)…
Anyway, we’ve reprinted some of those old articles at http://www.substancenews.net this week just so readers in 2013 could note that had people been paying attention to the accuracy of the facts in 2002 (and before, as we published them in Substance) maybe Philadelphia, New Orleans, and now Bridgeport would not have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars (or more) on the Vallas Hoax. But the method hasn’t changed, as we can see here. A humble saint Paul Vallas is, whose entire life has been dedicated to the children, Paul Vallas’s has. Often in history these kinds of versions of reality get treated unkindly in fiction. I’m thinking of Gradgrind in “Hard Times” or so many of the others satirized by Charles Dickens. But Paul Vallas and his Vallasizations of reality (as well as the “Vallas Method”, most recently exemplified here) are still costing public school districts dollars and time. So it’s worth returning to a story about which the facts have long been clear.
“If your mother says she loves you, check it out!” still holds.
Wow! Unbelievable the hoax has lasted so long. Your full length expose should be national news….a must read for all:
VALLAS FACTS: ‘The Paul Vallas Hoax’ in the March 2002 Substance exposed every lie, half-truth, and self serving utteration of Vallas… But it took other places a decade to check out Vallas’s nonsense and try to stop his ‘school reform’ nonsense
George N. Schmidt – July 03, 2013
[Editor’s Note: Substance had the story first, with all the facts. Paul Vallas was a fraud ten and fifteen years ago, in 1998 or 2002, just as he has been exposed to be in 2013 in Connecticut. But the facts were ignored for more than a decade. And during those years Paul G. Vallas (and at times his so-called “team”) cavorted around the country, pushing the toxic sludge of corporate “school reform” across the USA (and even into other nations). How did it happen? Basically, the majority of reporters (and school board members) simply recycled Vallas’s own versions of reality, carefully selected from a pile of news clippings from Chicago. The contrary evidence was ignored, while members of the Business Roundtable and other plutocrats pushed Vallas on one school district after another.
http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=4370§ion=Article
When Vallas was CEO of CPS in Chicago, he was a glutton for photo ops. I never saw anyone before or since Vallas who was on the news as often as he was –AT LEAST once a week, if not more often, every week, year after year.
BTW: Considering the good work that Mr. Vargas has done in the area of social services for inner city kids, I wonder whether he’d be interested in running for the post of Public Advocate? Bill DiBlasio has done a great job in that area, here in NYC. It seems that Mr. Vargas has some serious contacts and is adept in this area. He could make a positive impact.
DEREGULATION.
Can we talk about how urban education deregulation (and some of the racism of that) fits into this? Looking over the actual record (Chicago, Philadelphia, New Orleans) it’s time for some historical facts now that questions are finally being raised about all these corporate school reform miracles — and miracle workers.
As the discussion on this blog (and elsewhere) has evolved, one of the things that’s become clear to me is the importance of deregulation of the public schools in this context.
Paul Vallas would not have been eligible to substitute teach in Chicago prior to 1995, but under the Illinois Amendatory Act (which singled out Chicago and the Chicago Teachers Union for these special treatments) suddenly a guy who had been the City of Chicago budget chief (at City Hall) was the best choice to become “Chief Executive Officer” of the nation’s third largest school system.
And Vallas’s colleague at City Hall (the mayor’s “Chief of Staff”) was the best choice to be President of the so-called “Chicago School Reform Board of Trustees” (that’s what the law called the Chicago school board for a couple of years). Since 1995, Chicago has not had a “superintendent” of schools, like most school districts in the USA. Chicago has a “Chief Executive Officer” for our schools, aping the corporate fetishes of that era.
Chicago Public Schools is now on our sixth CEO: Vallas (1995 – 2001); Arne Duncan (2001 – 2009); Ron Huberman (2009 – 2010); Terry Mazany (interim, 2011); Jean-Claude Brizard (2001 – 2012); and Barbara Byrd Bennett (2012 – today).
Richard M. Daley had a penchant for appointing unqualified white guys, but that became more and more of an issue.
When Rahm Emanuel became mayor, he realized that the mayor could no longer appoint some white guy with no education credentials as Chief Executive Officer here. So Rahm searched, with the help of the Broad Foundation, and found two Black people from out-of-town, first Brizard (from Rochester) and then Byrd-Bennett (whose last job before Chicago was destroying the Detroit public schools). Rahm dumped Brizard after the Chicago Teachers Strike of 2012 and put in Byrd Bennett.
It’s been 18 years since the person in charge of Chicago’s public schools taught or principaled in a Chicago public school. Deregulation and privatization have been the agenda the whole time (along with a few other thingies, like “military schools” and some brief fashions that were dumped, like “small schools”). Mayoral control deregulated who could be the top guy, er. person.
And with Vallas that string of outsiders began.
After all, everyone knew that a CEO was better than … whatever.
But Chicago deregulation didn’t stop at the very top, and one of the things I’ve noticed in reading the Vallas apologetics here is that Vallas continues to profit from his willingness to hire people for executive positions in CPS who like him had no experience teaching or principaling in Chicago.
They won their “Race To The Top” thanks to mayoral control and deregulation, and so they were very highly paid patronage workers of the kind for which City Hall has long been famous. Not all of Vallas’s apologists and cronies were outsider patronage people (Cozette Buckney and Phil Hansen had actually been teachers and administrators before moving up with Vallas) and were unqualified for their jobs before 1995 — just more and more of them. Usually the majority.
By the time Vallas left CPS in 2001 (and Chicago in 2002), we were beginning to note that the best qualification for an administrative job in Chicago was nothing. The less experience you had in local teaching or administering, the more “qualified” you were for an executive job in CPS.
It became patronage in the purest sense. Experience in a Chicago classroom or in running a school (the principal job) was a negative, as a review of the top people shows, going back now more than a decade.
America: Beware.
One of the ironies of all this is that the rest of the country has been seeded with these people from Chicago since then.
The formula is simplistic: They do a turn in Chicago, get “rock star” on their resumes (after all, it’s CHICAGO so they have to have done great things) and then move on to top jobs elsewhere. If you’ve been some kind of “chief” in Chicago, that’s rock star proof.
More and more of them then turn around (that word here is odious) and become Vallas apologists as well. But the list gets longer every season, and just the past couple of months we have three people who served (some briefly) as Chicago administrators who then were hired by other school districts — even though they had never taught a semester in a Chicago classroom or run a school as a principal for a day!
Rick Mills was hired by Vallas when he retired from the U.S. Army and then went from Minneapolis (where he had a Vallas-type credential flap) to Sarasota (where he is now chief of their schools). The “Colonel” is now recycling his Power Point version of reality down in Florida.
Jennifer Cheatham was hired by Arne Duncan and wore various top hats (her last in Chicago, far as I can tell, was “Chief Instruction Officer”) before she got hired to be Superintendent in Madison, Wisconsin. We haven’t seen her Power Points from Madison, but have a hunch.
And Steve Zrike did less than three years in Chicago (arriving here from Boston or somewhere in New England) as a “Chief of Schools” before decamping back to somewhere in New England.
They are just a few out of about a dozen I can name who all have the same reality: Hired in Chicago from outside to highly paid jobs. Resume padding around Chicago for a time. Decamp to elsewhere.
All three of them benefited from the fact that the old rules had been thrown out. It used to be that to become an administrator in Chicago, you had to have served six years as a teacher, earned a MA, and passed an administrator exam. A Chief Financial Officer had to have a separate state certificate.
And that’s still true across most of Illinois. Those who can’t prove they know how to teach in the state, can’t lead school systems.
Except in Chicago.
Sooo…
Whenever anyone pipes up, here or elsewhere, about the greatness of Paul G. Vallas and about how the “prooof” is some such program that Vallas supposedly did in Chicago, at least it’s worth the time to check the credibility of the source. If the person praising Vallas was one of the dozens of people who benefited from deregulation and then Vallas patronage, at least that should be noted.
Vallas will continue to compare himself to Michael Jordan or George Patton or whomever (I haven’t been around lately to get the updates; probably there are new ones beyond those). After all, some people become school reform “rock stars” and shouldn’t be questioned or challenged about anything they say, do, or claim (either directly or through their grateful proxies).
Vallas came to his work in “education” from Chicago’s City Hall during an era of deregulation, union busting, privatization and teacher bashing.
For some reason, both Vallas and his fans like to leave that fact out when discussing various “Vallas Miracles” (or lesser good works) as this story goes on and on and on…
Deep gratitude to all who have further clarified the Vallas “story” (with its fictional aspects) in Chicago and elsewhere–including the two additional posts from 7/6. I learned much that I did not know (of course), including how much deregulation is CENTRAL to this take-over process (Thank you, George Schmidt). It is not just TFAers and those who promote them but putting in place many others like Vallas (or “trained” by him) who are unqualified at THE VERY TOP. I am adding deregulation to my edureform vocabulary.
The elephant in the room is this:
Even if Paul Vallas HAD completed the mandatory course for being superintendent, this still would not, necessarily, have made him fit for the position.
We’ve gotten so bombarded by this obvious national takeover (beyond shame on you, Barack Obama and Arne Duncan) of our public education system that we’ve forgotten the incredible need for experience in all levels of education.
A general who has seen battle will be less willing to commit troops than a young congressman/woman who has never been tested. A superintendent who has taught and then served as a principal will be much more judicious in his or her choices of what needs to be maintained and what can be put aside as a result of budgetary considerations.
Slash and burn is the order of the day and the mark of the ignorant who’s primary interests are not necessarily the needs of the American public. You might just as well put Jughead at the helm of the Nimitz. There’s no experience here. It’s such an obvious thing and, yet, the movement plods on with the support of the media and the huge money that drives it.
Regarding the original premise that Mr. Vallas has promoted social programs that have benefitted the kids: Ms. Fager is in a position to attest to the good that’s been done there. I have no information to refute her testimony and I definitely see the good that such programs would bring. I work with inner city kids and it’s a very, very, very hard life they lead.
With that said, Diane; I have to say that these ideas, though laudatory, are not the brainchild solely of Paul Vallas. You’ve ignited a bit of a storm here because of the amount of harm that he and so many others like him with so little educational experience have done to our system in the name of “reform” We hear our Regent’s Commissioner stating that the kids are finally doing real critical thinking in our schools, as though this has never happened before. Incredibly insulting comments from our LEADERS. Comments that we know are false and misleading. We know because we’re teachers. We’re there, doing it, and have been for a long time.
I’m tired of the reformers patting themselves on the back when they get something right, as though they’ve just invented the light bulb. Praise for Paul and you, as well, on the good work you’ve done in those areas. Let’s keep up the good work and get back to restoring our public education system. A nice place to start would be appointing people with experience and expertise in the field of education.
Wait, gitapak, are you talking about VALLAS or VARGAS (Supt. of Rochester, NY P.S.) in your 7/6 11:30 AM comment?
LOL…I’m talking about Vallas.
Vargas is a pitcher on the Anaheim Angels who I admire. I had just found out he had to have a blood clot removed from his throwing arm. A multitasking glitch. Sorry.
I’d be curious about Ms. Fager’s take on the idea, though. I know it’s not as high profile or well paid position as Superintendent, but it’s still an excellent post from which some really exciting changes can be initiated and developed. Ms. Fager’s showing us the socially conscious side of Paul Vallas and I’m impressed.
Sue Gramm wrote: “Compounding that complexity is Paul’s willingness when it really counts to admit to his mistakes,” yet when the Chico Consortium for School Research released their findings showing little or no real progress in Chicago under Vallas, his reaction was “I don’t know what planet they’re on.” http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-09-30/news/ct-met-cps-reforms-0930-20110930_1_terry-mazany-cps-jean-claude-brizard. These are hardly the words of someone open to learning from their mistakes.
An indispensable part of the defense made of the work record of Paul Vallas is his experience. Lots of it. Varied. Tried and tested, he is [think Yoda, STAR WARS].
But what, inquiring minds want to know, does the Chief Errant Officer of EduExcellence himself think of “experience”?
It is only fair, I think, that he be judged by his own standards. Otherwise he is a hypocrite, and his fan base will have nothing of that. So it’s on to the Times-Picayune of 2009 [link provided below for the four paragraphs immediately below]:
“Critics charge that the lopsided distribution of new teachers puts the most vulnerable students in the most untried hands with little or no backup. But others, including Recovery School District Superintendent Paul Vallas, say the novices’ willingness to put in long hours, try new strategies and work collaboratively often outweighs the drawbacks.
“I think experience can be overrated,” Vallas said. “You like to have experienced people, but that’s no substitute for energy, innovation and ability.”
Most educators, of all ages, however, argue that a blend of experience levels serves children best.
“Young teachers need someone who can help them when they are floundering, and can show them how to handle a classroom,” said education historian Diane Ravitch. She says a significant number of teachers in a school should have five or more years of experience.”
Link: http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/02/many_orleans_schools_have_lack.html
So strike “experience” from his defense. Looks like the Emperor has no clothes. And without clothes, well, as Mark Twain said:
“Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.”
Or is an abundance of “energy, innovation and ability” in hastening the rack and ruin of different school districts an acceptable substitute for “experience”?
Perhaps not, if you don’t learn from your mistakes: “Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error.” [Marcus Tullius Cicero]
🙂
I work in a school that has many very young teachers:
1) Energy: lots of it. I love it.
2) Innovation: tests, tests, tests. Common Core State (right…) Standards. Completely scripted out textbook and on-line curriculum programs that, not so coincidentally, are conveniently aligned to the CCSS nearest you. Many other guidelines that must be followed. There’s precious time available for innovation under these circumstances.
3) Ability: sure. Many of us have ability. Old and young. If we go by his quote, then it looks like Mr. Vargas, at 60 years of age, might be about ready to hand over the reigns to some raw City Hall recruit. Old and in the way, Paul.
I can’t tell you how many young teachers come to me for advice and guidance, just as I did when I first started. And I learn from them as well. The teaching programs they’ve been through have developed over the years. It’s a reciprocal relationship.
There is one very important aspect of “experience can be overrated” that Mr. Vallas is leaving out: tenure. The new teachers do not have it and are afraid to say anything negative for fear of retaliation and being fired. And, believe me: they have plenty of negative things to say. No paycheck to help pay back their college loans, pay the rent, buy food and clothes.
That kind of control, to my view, is what we’re talking about, here.
gitapick: “That kind of control, to my view, is what we’re talking about, here.”
One of the best single sentences I have read on this blog since it started April 24, 2012. It fits in perfectly with Data-Driven Decision-Making aka DDDM aka the 3Ds. How do you undercut teacher advocacy for students? How do you enforce obedience to educrats? If you are a charterite/privatizer who loves DDDM, you literally pick the “data points” where new teachers are most vulnerable and make sure they understand that they have to “go along to get along” or they will be unable to repay college loans, pay the rent, or buy food and clothes.
“The beatings will continue until morale improves.”
😦
“The beatings will continue until morale improves.”
Perfect
“…we can whip the horse’s eyes, and make them sleep…and cry”
What’s bothersome to me is the concept that this business model will so improve production on the part of the teachers. That fear of being easily fired (tenure does allow for firing a teacher, btw) and competition for merit pay increases will “fix the problems” in education.
Anyone who’s worked in a corporate managerial environment will see the holes in this philosophy. There’s as much if not more dead wood sitting behind the desks in the office place (management and union) as there is in the world of unionized education.
And competition, though it might be effective as a driving force in an adult business environment, becomes more complex in the area of education. We need to lead by example in the teaching of cooperation and trust so that the children can learn how to integrate those two traits/skills into the area of competition. To learn the concept of fair play.
Should this be the last comment on this post, I would just like to reitrate my earlier statements which, I believe, bear repeating. Perhaps when Vallas started out, he was a different person–more humble, more concerned and more being about the kids. Yes, Diane Fager, I, too, was blown away by his Vision Program, one which I also urged administration & faculty to promote in my own suburban school district. But–really, Diane Fager–the man became carried away with himself. Why, indeed, did he lose his gubernatorial bid in Illinois? He didn’t like to fly, and would not fly around the state, visiting all those important “other” areas (you know, those not Chicago) in Illinois. Gee, does one think that kind of arrogance is really going to win an election? Then, later, all of the “miracles”–New Orleans, Philadelphia, Haiti.
No, sorry, it’s all about the power, the perceived “success,” and the money, LOTS of money…NOT the kids. “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” “Money talks.”
I strongly suggest you read Chapter 4 of an excellent new book, The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking, by Oliver Burkeman–“Goal Crazy: When Trying to Control the Future Doesn’t Work.”
Sorry–that’s reiterate. And, gitapik, my last paragraph above applies perfectly to the last two you wrote in reference to the corporate/business environment.
I just ordered Burkeman’s book. Thanks.
Anyone willing to respond to the WSJ?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323936404578581622299782636.html
I already wrote to the reporter, no response.
WSJ will always defend the pretenders and the privatizers.
Just another entity feigning concern for the poor brown children while supporting the destruction of public schools and the teaching profession (if they are experienced and unionized).
I’m not subscribed. The WSJ is good for some news. I don’t think they’d be unbiased on this one, however.
At the heart of the rejection of Paul Vallas and other education reformers (David Coleman, Arne Duncan, etc) is this underlying problem of credibility. In these days of education reform, teachers want one of their own, someone who has been in the classroom, to make the important decisions that impact the policies they must implement. They want someone who in an emergency has located a custodian, pacified a school secretary, or accessed a website looking for an alternate to a missing substitute’s lesson plans. They want someone who knows the difference in classroom management for 9, 15, 24, 30 or (heaven forbid) 37 students in a class.They want someone who who has managed to surmount the disruptions of the school day including PA announcements, field trips, pull-outs, drop-ins, assemblies, and students who go on vacation at critical points in the school year. They want someone who has sat through hours of professional development for the “initiative of the year… or month… or day”. They want someone who had all of these experiences and who also has the necessary coursework, undergraduate or graduate, in education.
In this current state of educational reform, teachers want reformers to come from the ranks of their own. In this current state of education reform, classroom credibility counts.
Excellent analysis and I love your words, which could become a slogan: classroom credibility counts.
Well said. So well said.
This model of administrator has not and is not working out. You don’t need a former teacher in an administrator position, you need someone who can run a mid-large organization. You need someone who can allocate resources where they are needed, such as funding programs that work and getting rid of ones that don’t (like the OP mentioned in this article). All the things the OP listed that Vallas did while in Chicago is exactly the things a top administrator should be doing.
We have teachers in my district who spend money out of their own pocket to buy school supplies while hundreds of boxes of school supplies remain unopened and undelivered at the central warehouse. You need someone to fix THAT problem. We usually don’t receive our textbooks until after school starts – sometimes well into the 2nd six weeks of school. You need someone to fix THAT problem. We have computers that have been ordered and not set up because there is no one who knows how to set them up and their is not enough bandwidth to support the computers anyway. You need someone to fix THAT problem. We have thousands of dollars worth of food thrown out every month, money that could be spent on after school activities/tutoring/teacher assistants/etc. You need someone to fix THAT problem.
An administrator is someone who should be fixing system wide problems, not individual school problems. The principle of the school should be able to handle and solve all the problems you mentioned. If the principle is unable to solve those problems, than the administrator needs to find someone who can. THAT is the role of an administrator.
I’m also curious how someone who has been running school districts for 16 years is unqualified to run a school district. Is a piece of paper really more important than 16 years of experience? Is a piece of paper going to suddenly make Vallas a better administrator?
This is another example of why the general public views us educators so poorly. This is another example of educator defending a dumb idea. Anyone outside of education would look at this situation and question how someone who has been doing a job for 16 years is not qualified to continue to do the job because the don’t have the “right” certification”. As long as we continue to defend dumb things, we will continued to be viewed as dumb.
Some of our wounds are self-inflicted and until we recognize that, trust from the general public will continue to wane.
Why shouldn’t the superintendent have the knowledge of a teacher and principal under her/his belt? You really don’t believe that’s important? In my mind, it would make for more informed decisions and rejections of bad suggestions.
Actually, Connecticut HAS a certified position that addresses the role you describe: School Business Administrator. That is a role that Vallas could have had with his education and experience.
This CT certification requires that an individual:
Hold a bachelor’s or master’s degree from an approved institution with a major in business administration or public administration, and completed course work in law, accounting, finance, management, personnel and informational systems; OR
Holds a bachelor’s degree from an approved institution OR a master’s degree or sixth year degree in education administration, having completed 12 semester hours of credit in school law, school finance, school plant planning and operation, school business administration, budgeting and resource management, personnel, collective bargaining, systems analysis and operation; OR
In addition to holding a bachelor’s degree, three years of experience in public or private business administration, educational administration, or public administration, which involves at least six of the responsibilities listed in the school business administrator regulations.
I believe that a Superintendent of Schools should come from the ranks of educators since he/she will be implementing educational policy. There must be someone at the top who has experience implementing a philosophy of education, not someone who opens boxes, hooks up computers, or supervises food management as you would have this person do.
I would suggest that your district needs a school business administrator.
The State of Connecticut really isn’t as dumb as you think in requiring certifications. These certifications insure a trained work force for the state which is has been ranked 5th highest in the nation in education.
In response to your question, “Is a piece of paper going to suddenly make Vallas a better administrator?”, I respectfully respond that no piece of paper will make Vallas a better administrator.
I am simply not that dumb to believe otherwise.
Also, what some of his “supporters” don’t seem to realize is that Stefan Pryor, our commissioner and Vallas’s buddy, rewrote the law so Paul could take an abbreviated 13 month leadership program to be certified.
The legislature passed it. Our governor signed it and then Vallas didn’t follow it.
He blew it off.
Now, he wants special exceptions to a law written JUST FOR HIM.
As if Vallas would ever defend a teacher who let their cert lapse or didn’t follow proper procedures and if the union defended said teacher.
Apparently some of us are more equal than others. Now he is concerned with repairing his tainted image.
Not matter how the court case plays out, he will be gone as soon as he can get a new gig…the sooner, the better.
He has no commitment to Bridgeport, Connecticut or any community.
CT Post oped today. Start planning for a post-Vallas school system:
http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Start-planning-for-post-Vallas-school-system-4660133.php
Paul Vallas spoke at length the day he recommended that the Chicago Board of Education fire me for “copyright infringement” at its August 2000 meeting. I sat there and watched, as I had before and have since, as the Board went through its rubber stamp motions. But usually, the smarter people knew enough to keep their mouths shut. Not Vallas. He went on and on about what he called the “Hypocratic Oath teachers take…” and how I had violated it by publishing the CASE tests in Substance to demonstrate that Vallas and his cronies had wasted more than a million dollars of education money in Chicago developing the most ridiculous tests in history. By a vote of the Board that day, I was fired after a distinguished 28 year teaching career on the motion of a guy who couldn’t last one semester in one of our hard core inner city classrooms. Phony then, he was, and phony now. Only at that point he was just at the beginning of the arc of his power and prestige — thanks to the corporate media and the party line of corporate “school reform.”
It’s good that 2013 is different, but we need to remind ourselves that this disease was allowed to spread across the USA during those decades, and the damage has been unprecedented. Not since Mississippi, Virginia and other states closed their public schools in the earlier era of white supremacist corporatism have school children suffered so much deprivation at the hands of those who rule. And not since the 1950s and early 1960s have so many Black teachers and principals been driven out of their professions by political hacks like Paul Vallas and his successors.
But this afternoon, I’m still remembering Vallas’s crazy guy speech when the Board voted to fire me. Only a non-teacher with a room-filling ego could have done that performance, but it was worth the wait for me to watch it. Vallas, then and now, can prattle so aggressively that a lot of people at first (a) either try to believe him or (b) realize quickly that they are with one of those crazy people and act accordingly.
Vallas is a product of the era of corporate “school reform.” He may be one of the more bizarre of those, but he is just another cog in that machine, just as his successor Arne Duncan (appointed by Vallas to a mid-level job; equally unqualified and with no teaching experience) was and is. The proliferation of these snake oil salesmen and women (let’s not forget D.C., Philadelphia and of course Atlanta) is a by-product of an era.
Now that era is ending. Vallas’s power will be history soon, and his career can be studied like the exhibition he has always been. It will be one of the better case studies in the arrogance and abuses of corporate power — and “CEO” adulationization.
That’s why we decided this month to slowly reprint the stories we reported about Vallas over the years, from his fraudulent claims to have been a “teacher” (we spent weeks tracking down each silly iteration of that one) to his pontifications about doing it all “for the children.” I dug out my copies of the “Chainsaw Paul” and “Chainsaw Al” stuff just to refresh my memory, and re-reading the Forbes hagiography about Vallas (April 1998, “Chainsaw Paul”) realized that the basic script for those fictions has changed little.
Looking back on it, from the beginning (Vallas began in Chicago in 1995), it’s clear that the whole thing was always about teacher bashing. Big parts include privatization, union busting, corporate management mythologies and, as the Chicago Teachers Union has been exposing most aggressively nowadays — racism and racial segregation. We don’t yet know whether the schools of education and the courses in education history will do case studies of bugs like Paul Vallas (and let’s not forget, his “team” of kleptocrats). Hopefully, the next generation will be inoculated not only from the Shake-And-Bake nonsense of Teach For America but also the pressure of corporate lies behind the careers of crooks and con artists like Paul Gust Vallas.
Posted on a ct blog:
Vallas is going to get every last drop of milk from the public teat he can before he’s dragged off its sagging bosom. It’s really pathetic to watch this grown man knowingly, intentionally and willfully violate our laws and claim he doesn’t need to follow them because he’s special. Vallas got special class treatment and then, couldn’t even abide by that which is what has brought it to this point. When you become the story instead of our children, it’s time to go.
Amen to all that teachcmb56 says. I will add that principals have told me that Vallas does not understand the role of a principal in a school and, in addition, he micromanages them. He dictates policy throughout the district for all grades at the same time, something unprecedented before his arrival. Never where elementary and HS schedules and activities aligned, which facilitated the dates of testingl
Just wait until the test scores are released and they can’t find a way to spin “growth”. His days are numbered at $900 a pop.
FYI: “Principal” is a school administrator; “principle” is what was being tested in the Vallas case.
I was trying to figure out, Linda, what you meant when you stated that Mr. Vallas had 16 years experience as school district superintendent, which made him qualified to run another one.
Then I realized you were talking about his tenures in Chicago, New Orleans, and Philly.
I honestly thought you were talking about experience he’d had prior to these debacles. Obviously we’re in disagreement as to the positive effects he had in any of these roles.
I’m sorry…where did I say that? I’ve linked some articles but I never stated he was qualified to run any school districts. Are you sure it was me?
I think you mean KatieC
In my 16 years of teaching in 3 different districts, I have never meet a competent Superintendent (I have been through 7 different supers). They have all been flash with no substance. They fly in, crap all over the place and then leave for the next “big” job.
Having teaching experience made absolutely no difference.
Because Vallas had/has no teaching experience, he is forced to rely on what his teachers advise (which is what the OP said and what I have heard about him. My sis-in-law taught in NOLA).
I don’t know what your experience is, but the 7 Superintendents I have been though have never, NEVER been interested in what teachers have to say. They are only interested in what the “experts” have to say….who btw, have no teaching experience either but no one seems to have a problem with that.
They have all been flash with no substance. They fly in, crap all over the place and then leave for the next “big” job.
I don’t think you realize it, but you just described Vallas perfectly. Take advice from teachers? Are you serious? He dictates. Teachers are stepford test prep drones and kids are widgets. His days are numbered one way or another.
I’ve seen all of what you’re talking about, Katie, in terms of the waste, misappropriation of funds, poor planning of infrastructure, etc. It’s been going on throughout my entire 20 years of teaching.
Fraud, corruption, and incompetence are not confined to the field of education, by any means. I’m sure you know that.
People are often assigned to high level positions involving the appropriation of large sums of cash for reasons that are not exactly “noble”. One has to look at the people who do the hiring to get an idea of what that’s about.
You’re right: teaching credentials won’t guarantee a competent administrator. That’s where the hiring process comes in. An effective admin should have knowledge of the field he/she is assigned to as well as extensive upper managerial experience,
While it’s true that having a credential doesn’t guarantee you will do a good job in some professional work, corporate school reform — from TFA to Vallas and Duncan — has been unabashedly proclaiming that amateurs are always better than professionals. By any historical measure, that’s simply ridiculous, so there is little or no point to continuing along those lines. There are bad military officer, bad cops, bad firefighters, bad doctors… even some bad teachers (although I love the movie “Bad Teacher” and am still recommending it)… At every point, history shows that society needs a way of replacing poor professionals, whether it’s George Mc Clellan being replaced by Abraham Lincoln or dozens of colonels and generals being replaced by the Roosevelt administration in North Africa, Italy, and the “ETO.” But they didn’t replace these professionals with unqualified loud mouthed amateurs. Sane leaders recognized that a professional soldier needs to be replaced by another with similar experience, etc.
What we discussed here in Chicago yesterday (at Substance’s monthly meeting) and I decided to do today in relation to the “Vallas Thing” (actually, the most recent Vallas explosion; they’ve been happening since he was CEO here more than a decade ago) was how to get at the policies that Vallas was implementing — what he was actually doing instead of all those things he said he was doing.
And the “bottom line” (to use one of their favorite phrases) is white supremacy. From the beginning of his tenure in Chicago through his destruction of the United Teachers of New Orleans through today Paul Vallas has been eliminating black teachers and principals from urban school districts behind the smokescreen of “reform.” Today, in 2013, we are looking at a city and school system here in Chicago that has eliminated schools for black children and teachers and principals who were black — in huge numbers. By the time Rahm Emanuel took over that project (and dramatically closed 49 elementary schools, the vast majority of them black, two months ago), the policy had been going on for a long time. But it did not begin with Rahm, or would it end if we eliminate him and his school board. Chicago’s ruling class established this regime of so-called “standards and accountability” via the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club locally and the Illinois Business Roundtable at the state level.
With these historical facts in mind, we reprinted this morning Grady Jordan’s “The Paul Vallas I Knew,” one of the first comprehensive analyses of Vallas’s racist policies, originally published in 2002.
This reply is to express my deep gratitude to George Schmidt for the courage and tenacity that you have demonstrated (and role-modeled) through a long career. Your re-examining and reprinting of the “Vallas Thing” so that we all have a deeper historical understanding has been invaluable. White supremacy strikes again. I look forward to reading the Grady Jordan piece.
Thanks, George.
This shell game that’s going on in NYC is just more of the same. There are less and less schools for the charter rejects to go to. The vast majority of the displaced kids are black. The schools that they end up being admitted to get overcrowded. Angry. Violoent. Test scores go down. Then that school is closed and the cycle continues.
It’s beyond disgusting.
For those who don’t want to navigate the substancenews.net site, “The Paul Vallas I knew” is at http://www.substancenews.net/edit_article.php?page=4397§ion=Article
George, this is the message I got…can you try again?
You are not allowed to access this page.
Click here to return to the main page.
I just hit the hot link, and it came up for me. If the link doesn’t provide the article, readers can go to http://www.substancenews.net, where the article will remain at the top of our “left” column for the next seven days. (Our main news column is our right column, with major commentary arising daily on the left).
Thanks for letting us know about “Page not found…” It happens now and then, especially when someone with lots of power gets angry at us.
My apologies, Linda. Yep. I was talking to Katie.
By the way he had the title of CEO in Chicago, not superintendent and he still has not earned that title here in CT even though regulations were rewritten just for him, so that reduces the alleged 16 years.
The data has been duly recorded and filed. Thank you, Linda.
😉
If I linked this already I apologize, but if you have time do read and check out the comments;
http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/Start-planning-for-post-Vallas-school-system-4660133.php
Just posted:
http://www.courant.com/news/education/hc-vallas-supreme-court-0712-20130712,0,1936144.story
Paul Vallas is a trailblazer and Bridgeport Public Schools and the State of Connecticut should be lucky to have someone like Vallas leading their schools. How dare someone play politics with the lives of children’s in that community by trying to force out one of the most accomplished school chiefs in our nation. Here is a leader who has trained dozens of current school superintendents who are currently running large urban districts -because of him. This is a man who has been mentioned in two presidential state of the union addresses for his leadership and reform efforts. This is the same school superintendent that was invited by elected officials in Louisiana to reform their schools and almost closed the racial achievement gap for low income, minority kids in New Orleans compared to their white counterparts statewide. This is the same school superintendent that was invited by the government of Haiti and Chili to reform their schools and someone in your community tries to remove him because of a class technicality. Really?
Allow me to remind your community, that Paul Vallas has accepted awards from people like President Clinton, the United Negro College Fund, the Manhattan Institute, several colleges and universities and so many others for his work in public schools. This is a man who has been featured in New York Times, Education Week, CBS World News, CNN, hundreds of other publications and news outlets across the United States. When PROVEN transformational leaders like Paul Vallas have to jump through pointless and time-consuming bureaucratic red tape to stay in leadership roles, our public school children will suffer because leaders like him have MANY OPTIONS and the bureaucratic red tape that is currently in place will deter future leaders like him from exploring the opportunity to lead our public schools. I hope your community knows what you have in Paul Vallas and I hope the community in Bridgeport will rally behind his leadership and expertise because he is a rare jewel. Superintendent Vallas has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for public education without any teachers strikes or contracts delays during his tenure and I hope the judicial system will overturn this decision, shut out the chatter and get to the business of educating your public school kids in Bridgeport!
With Warmest Regards,
Michael Johnson, MBA
Non Profit Executive in Madison, Wisconsin