A Connecticut teacher named Linda who comments frequently on the blog decided to research the record of Paul Vallas. This is her summary:
“I have been keeping track for a while now…easy to goggle Vallas and Pelto, Ravitch, Mercedes Schneider, Philly Notebook, George Schmidt, substance news.
Vallas launched the nation’s most extensive experiment in privatization, which was evaluated by the RAND Corporation.
Here is RAND’s report on Vallas’ foray into the “diverse provider model.”
Click to access RAND_RB9239.pdf
“The major findings of the analysis of achievement effects under the diverse provider model in its first four years of operation are as follows:
http://thenotebook.org/summer-2007/07119/vallas-leaves-changed-district-again-tumult
VALLAS FACTS: Philadelphia schools ‘bankrupt’? Only because austerity politics of the ruling class dictate that lies and the policies of ‘standards and accountability’ have been an expensive failure
http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=4386
VALLAS FACTS: ‘The Paul Vallas I Knew’… Paul Vallas and the origins of the corporate ‘school reform’ policy to eliminate black teachers and principals in Chicago.
http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=4397
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
http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=4370
Indianapolis, $18 million
Click to access revised-reco-and-provider-info.pdf
See claims page 10 and 11:
NOLA debunked:
Here is the deception: “combined school districts” means RSD and the 17-school Orleans Parish Schools (OPSB), which was primarily magnet schools turned into selective admission charters. Attempts to make RSD look better by combining its data with that of OPSB is nothing new. See this post:
Also, the “50% decrease in dropout rate” is an inflated stat; also, it does not include the fact that the definition of “dropout” was changed to exclude students who after dropping out decided to attend education programs (like night school). See this link:
http://www.thepelicanpost.org/2011/04/11/louisiana-dropout-rate-falls-31-percent/
Another word regarding Edison Learning (pg 13 of report): Jeb Bush used the Florida teacher pension money to bail out Edison, a company that never succeeded in what it said it could do: raise student scores for less money:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leonie-haimson/chris-cerf-there-you-go-a_b_835180.html
New Orleans’ Recovery School District: The Lie Unveiled
The school- and district-level data presented in this post unequivocally demonstrates that the state-run RSD is hardly a miracle. It should be an embarrassment to any reformer insisting otherwise. And it should come as no wonder why RSD doesn’t even mention school letter grades on its website.
The history of the state-run RSD in New Orleans is one of opportunism and deceit, of information twisting and concealing, in order to promote a slick, corporate-benefitting, financially-motivated agenda. It is certainly not “for the children.”
To other districts around the nation who are considering adopting “the New Orleans miracle”:
Reread this post, and truly consider what it is that you would be getting: A lie packaged to only look appealing from afar.
Paul’s program in New Orleans was not to rebuild public education after the hurricane, but to create a privatized system of schools.
The NOLA miracle that wasn’t:
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I read this stuff and I am of two minds. I think that Diane must be right when she says that this madness will end, because it is so obviously crooked. At the same time, I wonder how it will ever end, if it was allowed to progress this far. What will it take?
Ron, Ponzi schemes are amazingly profitable. Everyone wants in. But they always collapse. Always.
That’s what I’ve been thinking. It isn’t a bubble, but at some point the charter school music will stop.
Thank you, Linda, for doing what the NY Times did not–find the facts. He left us holding the bag here in Philadelphia and has been on a path of destruction since. If there were good and honest reporting, this man would have been put in mothballs after Philly. But they are saps for his egomaniacal hype.
All credit and congrats to Jon Pelto, Mercedes Schneider, George Schmidt, Diane Ravitch and all the others writers/researchers.
Three cheers to the electronic grafitti artists!
Send this to that uncritical reporter, Javier Hernandez! Hernandez repeated the old chestnut about Vallas leading 3 other districts, plus Haiti and Chile (for a few million on the side, it’s like I’m working pro bono said the selfless Vallas). No one could point to those districts as having moved forward–except maybe the intellectually- and morally-challenged Arne Duncan. Duncan needs to be sent packing ASAP, and the Obama girls must be enrolled in a charter school through High School. Enough with foisting this insidious reform nonsense on other people’s children.
I did after receiving this response to my questions:
Thanks for sharing your views! I appreciate your feedback. Rest assured that I took pains to ensure that the article included a variety of viewpoints. The story was not meant to be an exhaustive look at Mr. Vallas’s time in other school systems. It focused on his work in Bridgeport and his record there. Thanks for writing.
Best,
Javier
—
Javier C. Hernández • Reporter • The New York Times • 620 Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018 • ph: (212) 556-1599 • javier.hernandez@nytimes.com • @HernandezJavier
Esto es para el Sr. Hernandez: Eres un cojudo, o mejor dicho un chingodo. Chupas lo que te dan, eh?
Please translate.
Chingado no chingodo
This is for Mr. Hernandez: You’re bastard, or better said, an effin male whore. You suck what they give you, eh?
A significant amount of credit goes to the CAREFUL reader, synthesizer, and communicator par excellance.
I met Paul Vallas back in 98 or 99 in Chicago. Speech Mayor Daley was giving to new teachers. Afterwards meet n greet, and being Vallas announced he wanted to hear our concerns and help however he could, a long line formed to meet with Vallas. At first I was impressed that he would take the time to do this, and he had an assistant dutifully taking notes as teacher after teacher would give him requests. I waited maybe 15 minutes and as I approached him I noticed 2 things: 1) that he was tall, and 2) looking over her shoulder, I could see that his assistant wasn’t writing down anything related to the prior teacher. Just random scribbling. Paul listened to my question, the assistant took notes (?) and he had me recite my phone number and I was told he’d get back to me right away. Needless to say no further contact was made.
It’s all an illusion. An illusion of leadership, “reform” and empathy.
He is the savior in his mind.
It should be recalled that Vallas was appointed CEO of the Philadelphia School District in 2002 right after the Pennsylvania state government’s takeover of the system under the School Reform Commission. As Superintendent Vallas presided over the largest experiment in privatization up to that time with the turn over of 40 schools to Edison Schools, Inc. and other schools to other charter companies. The plan was for Edison to eventually take over the entire school system but this failed due to massive community opposition and financial troubles of Edison. All ties with Edison were cut in Philadelphia by 2008.
However, lessons were learned. The appointment of Arlene Ackerman in 2008 as Superintendent brought a renewed assault on Philadelphia’s public schools with starvation of funding for public schools and the build up of charters. Ackerman was on the Board of the Broad Foundation while Superintendent in Philadelphia. She had been the first head of the Broad Superintendents’ Academy before becoming Superintendent in Philadelphia. In 2009 the Broad Foundation issued its School Closure Guide which outlined how urban school districts should close public schools and how to manage community opposition.
For details of this history see “Who is Eli Broad and why is he trying to destroy public education?” at:
http://www.defendpubliceducation.net/
(A link to the School Closure Guide is in the article.)
But…I don’t get it.
I thought this blog was just a lot of “populist froth” and a bunch of teachers (women?) “whining” and “venting feelings”. I thought several manspaliners had very certainly pointed out that there was no data and documentation to be found in the comments, just a bunch of oversensitive and irrational gabbing about issues.
Linda…what have you done?
Too much for my lady brain!
Too much for my lady brain! (Love to Samantha Bee)
Sarcasm off.
As always, well played Linda!
Congrats and thank you.
What’s a “manspaliner”?
after the Hurricane in Haiti, Vallas implemented the Shock Doctrine agenda to privatize the schools.
Here are two articles:
Haiti Schools Run By Neo- liberal US school chief (Vallas)
http://www.teachersolidarity.com/blog/haiti-schools-run-by-neo-liberal-us-school-chief/
—
Shock Doctrine schooling in Haiti:
https://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/09/09-13
Also here is some info on Vallas returning to Chile to continue the privatization push of public education decades after the ‘Chicago Boys’ brought privatization to Chile:
http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=2439
Thanks….added it to the list that just keeps growing.
Yes, thank you very much. “Shocking” reading even for one who has been following Vallas.
To the author of “Wait, What?” and all other readers:
Imagine such a sordid tale in the land of Sammuel Langhorn Clemmens?
PLEASE correct me if my facts are not straight. Let me understand this:
1. Superintendent does not by law qualify for his position in an LEA.
2. Board and greasy slime-composed lawyer get him put into the position anyway, ignoring the law.
3. Citizens’ group sues to oust the superintendent based on a simple credentialing and licensing requirement and wins.
4. Superintendent and board, with the blessing of the Governor, appeal the case.
5. In the appelate court, Mr. Vallas once again loses.
6. Board and Superintendent are now appealing to the Connecticut Supreme Court, but with the one twisted perverse, Soviet style maneuver in which the original goo-and-used car-oil-salesman-attorney has now been appointed as a judge to this very same Supreme Court.
7. Said attorney-turned-Connecticut-Supreme-Court-judge is not recusing himself from the case.
Is this true, or is this some soap opera novel, some tela-novela where the mouths of the players don’t quite match the lip synching/looping . . .
Is this the United States, or is it some country our country usually invades to correct the suffering country’s lawlessness and absence of democracy?
Is this the same Connecticut that houses one of the nation’s most beautiful examples of old world architecture in the state capitol building in Hartford?
telenovela-one word feminine singular
Estimado Duane,
Gracias por corregirme … se me olvido (no puedo poner el accento encima de la “o” final que se necesita en la escritura. . . . sabe Ud. como manipular el teclado por hacerlo?)
I just type in “word” and use the insert function. A little slow but it works. Or you can just make a page in “word” of whatever program you use and the copy and paste each letter as needed. I don’t know how to do this in this program and I don’t know the old fashion hit a couple of keys at once approach.
LETTER: Why Can’t Vallas Meet Requirements?
7:13 PM EDT, July 23, 2013
Regarding the editorial on Bridgeport Superintendent Paul Vallas, “Why Make It So Difficult?” [July 22]: A more accurate question might be, “Why Has Paul Vallas Made It So Hard For Himself?” True, the most significant issue here is improving the Bridgeport school system. However, the “overly strict certification requirements” referred to in the editorial were modified nearly two years ago to accommodate Vallas for his monumental charge and were miniaturized again as recently as April this year.
If Vallas cared so much for the Bridgeport Public Schools, why did he place himself — and in effect the school system — in this avoidable jeopardy? As mentioned in the New York Times article to which your editorial refers, Vallas compares the state’s certification requirement to “saying Michael Jordan can’t coach basketball because he doesn’t have teacher certification.”
Although the editorial advises against succession planning now, what happens if the Connecticut Supreme Court finds against Vallas? Would there be some harm now in asking every Bridgeport educator who has been recognized for their excellence by the Bridgeport Public Education Fund over the past five years to share their thoughts?
Great teachers might not be Michael Jordan, but they sure know how to fulfill certification requirements while educating and inspiring our children.
Pete Spain, Bridgeport
http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/letters/hcrs-15872–20130722,0,3234163.story
“Vallas compares the state’s certification requirement to ‘saying Michael Jordan can’t coach basketball because he doesn’t have teacher certification.’”
The difference being, of course, that Michael Jordan has a verifiable record of being an excellent basketball player, while Vallas…
…Vallas might more accurately use an analogy involving a demolitions expert not being allowed to build an apartment because he doesn’t have the necessary training.
I can’t believe Vallas really compared himself to Michael Jordan. Doesn’t make sense. Vallas was never the best player of the game ever. And even so, did Michael ever coach? Bo Schembechler was a small man, without much of a record playing, but he was a great coach. Hmmmm. Charlie Rose was a great player and a great coach, BUT now he’s signing sport paraphernalia in Vegas. This Vallas must be a real piece of work. Ah, the good old days in Connecticut.
You can believe it. I heard it. Not much that he says does make sense. He is, indeed, a real piece of work, and, if we can only limit his ability to do more “work” elsewhere.