Investigative reporter David Sirota reports here on what happened during Paul Vallas’ superintendency of the Chicago public schools.
When he led the Chicago school system, mayoral candidate Paul Vallas took actions that resulted in more than $1.5 billion being transferred out of the city’s budget-strapped public schools and to some of the wealthiest individuals and banks on the planet, a new report shows.
Now, Vallas is in an election runoff against Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson to lead the city of Chicago, with big support from wealthy investors and other corporate interests — including from executives at law firms and banks that benefited from the controversial financing methods he used as CEO of Chicago Public Schools from 1995 to 2001.
With less than two weeks left before the April 4 election — which polls show is a tight race — Vallas has faced little scrutiny over his tenure as the Chicago Public Schools chief, even though he helped create a slow-moving financial disaster for America’s fourth-largest school system.
With Vallas at the helm, Chicago Public Schools issued $666 million worth of so-called “payday loan” bonds, according to a report from the Action Center on Race and the Economy (ACRE).
The interest payments on the bonds totaled $1.5 billion. A 2016 analysis from the Texas Comptroller’s office found that the type of bonds Vallas issued can be three times more expensive than traditional bonds — meaning that Chicago Public Schools could have faced up to $1 billion in additional interest payments above a normal rate.
That $1 billion is almost exactly the budget shortfall that former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the current Ambassador to Japan, cited as justification to shutter 50 Chicago public schools a decade ago. Some of Emanuel’s largest donors, like Citadel hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin and executives at private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners, are currently backing Vallas.
“[Vallas] got Chicago Public Schools into really bad deals that we’re still paying for a quarter century after he left,” said Saqib Bhatti, the co-director of ACRE. “And the fact that his strongest base of support comes from Wall Street should in and of itself be a big red flag.”
Please open the link and read the rest of the story.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Thanks for posting this. Voters need to understand that not all Democrats are “the good guys.” With our two party system we are often left to vote for the person that we believe will do the least amount of harm. People should question the motives of corporate Democrats, and Vallas is a perfect example. He has already caused Chicago extreme financial hardship. The city closed fifty public schools from Vallas’ fiscal recklessness. Anyone that serves the interests of Wall St is generally someone that will not serve the people well.
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Vallas May be a Democrat in name only.
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A “DINO”.
We can only hope for their imminent extinction.
Might be a matter of semantics or maybe I don’t know enough of him; but I don’t see Vallas’ actions as “reckless”. At best he wants to relegate the public school to second or third class status. At worst he wants to eliminate them entirely.
It’s a well thought out and executed plan.
This has been going on for decades. Relentless. The more I see of it, the more I think it’s a matter of big money saying, “We have the money and people in place to outlast you”.
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I would not take David Sirota’s word about anything.
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For those of us who are Progressive, David Sirota is an insightful writer and investigative reporter whose words are golden, such as his 2014 Wolf of Sesame Street report on how John Arnold paid PBS to pass off his personal pension reform agenda as if it was news. I think his writing is right up there with Thom Hartmann’s.
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Sirota is a liar. And that has nothing to do with his politics
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Why don’t you like David Sirota?
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He’s a snake. He worked for Bernie Sanders while posing as a journalist, and wrote articles trashing Sanders’ rivals for the 2020 nomination, without disclosing he was employed by the Sanders campaign. And that’s just one example.
He went after Beto O’Rourke for taking campaign donations from fossil fuel companies, when in fact the money was from individuals who owned some stock in such companies. He said these were corporate donations, which they weren’t.
When he found out that the Sanders campaign was going to publicly (and quite belatedly) announce he was working for them, he deleted 20,000 tweets from his Twitter account. Not the actions of someone with nothing to hide.
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I thought he openly worked as a speechwriter for Bernie.
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He worked behind the scenes for a long time before being exposed, all the while writing hit pieces on Sanders’ rivals in his role as an “independent” journalist. As the citations I provided make abundantly clear.
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Sorry, but you did not post any citations about Sirota.
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Claiming this without providing evidence makes you look like the one who is the liar. I provided an example of Sirota’s truthful reporting which was so spot on that PBS decided not to air the biased report on News Hour, as had been planned, & they returned the money to Arnold. What’s your evidence?
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The Wolf of Sesame Street:
https://ourfuture.org/20140214/is-pbs-being-paid-to-join-the-plot-against-pensions
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“ As the citations I provided make abundantly clear”
You have the floor on this one, jsrtheta. You cited some examples but didn’t provide sources to back them up. I did some digging but my plate’s pretty full at the moment so wasn’t able to get much below the surface in terms of article. Can you set us up with some links?
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I put two links into my initial response. Those should suffice, because I think you know how to use a computer and do research.
Or you can talk to someone who has worked on Democratic campaigns.
This is what I feared, btw: the hijacking of this thread.
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Maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t see any links in your post(s).
I don’t see where there’s any hijacking going on here. You questioned the integrity of the person who authored the piece that’s being quoted I’m this post. Im asking for your sources. Both completely relevant to the thread.
Politics is often a dirty business. Not much surprises me. I just want to be sure of information I’m being given before using it to form my opinions.
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You apparently aren’t, since I don’t see my post on this either.
Let me repost them. Once I find that post I wrote.
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My apologies to all. I thought I had posted these, but I can’t find that post anywhere. For that I certainly do apologize.
The first two below are what I thought I’d sent yesterday. The last is just a bonus cite:
https://www.editorialboard.com/sirota-is-worse-than-conway/
https://floridapolitics.com/archives/187827-david-sirotas-inaccurate-reporting-history-proves-partisan-democratic-slant/
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/03/bernie-sanderss-new-speechwriter-has-controversial-past/585547/
Again, I’m sorry for the mixup.
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Thanks for the links.
I don’t know anything about the first two news sources, but I’m familiar with and often read thoughtful and what seem to be accurate articles in The Atlantic. I’ll do some more research on my own as well.
Like I said: politics can be a dirty (sometimes disgustingly filthy) business. Other times, not. With lots of gray areas in between.
From this thread, my initial thoughts on Sirota is that he did us a huge service with The Wolf of Sesame Street expose but, from what I’m reading here; crossed the line in the political theatre during Bernie’s run for the presidency.
An imperfect man. Doesn’t negate the good he’s done, though. As with everyone and everything else I read and hear about; I’ll do my best to keep an open mind.
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He may have done good things. But that doesn’t change his status as a deceptive person.
I recall a lot of accusations against him from the 2016 elections, but they aren’t showing up, perhaps because they’re already consigned to the Internet Archive.
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I don’t see any links. Where are they?
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Btw: Although I remember the Wolf Sesame Street incident very well and was thankful for the outcome; I wasn’t aware that David Sirota was involved in the reporting until now, through ECE Professional’s posts and link.
That is to say that you’re directly refuting ECE’s slant on the man’s believability and I’d like to know why. I’m open to hearing where you’ve gotten your info from and hope you’ll be forthcoming.
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I remember David Sirota exposing the funding of the PBS documentary that was supposed to persuade the public that public sector pensions were a rip-off and a failure. Billionaire John Arnold put up the money. PBS returned his $3.5 million.
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Right. Very big deal. I just didn’t know of Sirota’s involvement in the expose. I’m not someone who’s followed his career, but that link definitely gives him a thumbs up in my world.
But if jsrtheta has some solid info that supports his negative opinion; I’d like to see it. Knowledge is power.
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Here is a description of Sirota’s work exposing the billionaire behind the attack on public sector pensions:
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2014/2/17/1278263/-PBS-WNET-took-money-for-pension-coverage-now-check-out-the-Gates-Foundation-and-the-Common-Core
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Thanks!
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Nor should we forget that Vallas still refers to charters as PUBLIC charter schools and blames CTU for many of the problems facing the schools. Vallas tries to tar Johnson as bought by the union. When a fellow democrat levels that charge, you really have to stop and think. It is becoming quite obvious who holds Vallas’ reins. Let’s have an honest conversation about who will owe what to whom.
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No Democrat would accuse another Democrat of being “bought by the unions.”
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Today, The Thom Hartmann show had repeated negative comments about Paul Vallas and what a phony baloney DINO he is. One caller pointed out that Vallas is for school privatization and charter schools at the expense of the actual real public schools.
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This needs to be amplified every day.
Vallas should be asked every single day where all the money went when he took out of the public school system and gave it to privatizers. He should be asked why he won’t take responsibility for the bad decisions he made that have hurt so many school children.
He should be asked why voters should trust him when he attacks the teachers union every time he is asked to explain where more than one BILLION dollars went. He should be asked why after reporters asking him at every single stop where all the money went, he is still refusing to answer. He should be asked if he is trying to protect the billionaires who donated to his campaign because they know Vallas will continue to divert funding for public school children into donors’ pockets.
He should be asked why voters should TRUST him when he would rather blame a classroom teacher making $60,000 a year than answer truthfully about why one billion dollars was given to his friends.
Or the media should continue to make the issue about how Chicago police must be given free reign to be as racist as they want because only by being racist can Chicago be safe. There are few journalists left — just stenographers.
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