What Paul Vallas learned early about the school reform biz

Rauner gives Vallas fat contract to fix Chicago State.

“High-performing individuals with decades of specialized experience and knowledge do not limit their ability to contribute to the greater good." -- Paul Vallas

Paul Vallas was never an educator, but he was a quick study. He learned from the start of his stint as Mayor Daley's schools CEO in 1995, the power of government contracting and that there was good money to be made in the school reform business. He also came to believe that the future of school reform belonged not to the system's bureaucrats, but to the outsider corporate reformers, wealthy, powerful, self-interested billionaires and outside consultants who they patronized.

After Daley gave him the boot from Chicago and through a series of unremarkable stints as district school chiefs in Philly, New Orleans and Bridgeport, Vallas assembled a team of loyalists (mostly former Chicago school bureaucrats) and developed a strategy for injecting himself and his brand into struggling urban school districts, in order to do "the greater good". The game plan involved using political clout to place his lieutenants into power in selected districts and in return, having them bring in the big-ticket Vallas Group to "reform" district schools from the top-down. It also included a heavy dose of replacing public schools with privately-run charters and weakening or completely eliminating union collective-bargaining agreements.

It was a plan that included perks and kick-backs to district leaders as in the case of former Vallas partner Gary Solomon, who along with former Chicago schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett, is now doing heavy prison time on fraud and corruption charges in the Chicago SUPES scandal.

Byrd-Bennett worked as a consultant and lead teacher for The Supes Academy and worked as a consultant for Synesi Associates, the consulting company founded by Vallas and Solomon. Vallas not only hired Solomon and his companies when he worked in Philadelphia, but brought Solomon with him to New Orleans.

From an earlier Sun-Times story:

Urging that the then-newly formed Synesi be hired in 2007, Vallas told officials the New Orleans school system didn’t have anyone who could do the work, according to documents from the New Orleans district. And in his “justification for an external contractor” letter, he urged that Solomon’s company be hired without seeking competitive bids.

Sun-Times reporter Dan Mihalopoulos broke a story Friday, exposing the unlikely relationship between Vallas, the erstwhile Chicago Democrat Party machine operative, and billionaire Republican and future governor of IL, Bruce Rauner. Actually, a bit of old news. But he evaded the whole Vallas/Solomon connection.

Nearly seven years ago — when Rauner wasn’t yet a politician, just a wealthy private investor with an interest in public education and a friend in the mayor’s office — Vallas corresponded with and met with him, offering to help create what he described as an “ambitious new school district” in Chicago.

In three letters to Rauner in 2010 and 2011, Vallas offered to work for with Rauner and city officials. Vallas said that school “buildings would be provided to the charters at no cost.”

“Concerning our potential partnership, I would welcome the opportunity to contract with you to assist with your school reform efforts in Chicago,” Vallas wrote to Rauner in February 2011, when Vallas was the top schools official in New Orleans.

 “You once told me that if I ever decided to launch a domestic education business, you would be willing to invest,” Vallas told Rauner. “Based on my research and years in the education field, I firmly believe this is a can’t miss.”

Vallas now claims that nothing came of the plans he and Rauner discussed for the Chicago schools and that his offers to assist CPS, "were rebuffed, as leadership chose to follow Barbara Byrd-Bennett’s vision for the district."

A lot has changed since Vallas first solicited Rauner. Vallas lost his bid to become Lt. Gov of IL and in the process, became a factor in Pat Quinn's election loss to Rauner in the governor's race.

Under the15-month contract Rauner has given Vallas to lead an economic recovery at Chicago State, he is still allowed to continue his private work with the Vallas Group.

Here's what Mihalopoulos' story left out...

Actually BBB's "vision" was Gary Solomon's vision and Solomon's vision was Vallas'. Same dreams but different beds. Solomon’s consulting company advertised that it had “the exclusive rights to Paul Vallas’ model of education reform.” In Philadelphia, he marketed the consulting company as using the “Paul Vallas method of school reform.”

In Chicago, Solomon used his former partner's strategy of installing BBB as schools CEO and then kicking-back to her after she gave SUPES and $20M contract to do principal training.

Solomon later said he used Vallas’ name without permission and it was a “mistake.”

But Vallas had used a similar approach in Rockford, St. Louis, Philly, Rochester, Peoria and other districts and greased the wheels for the Synesi group. Synesi landed two no-bid contracts worth nearly $893,000 in New Orleans during Vallas’ time running the Recovery School District from 2007 to 2011.

Vallas calls his involvement with Solomon in New Orleans a “non-story.” He also says, “New Orleans honored me with the key to the city, while those involved in CPS are about to be locked up.”

He's right and this says a lot about our justice system and media's reluctance to make the connection.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Mary Mitchell

The way Mayor Rahm Emanuel reacted publicly to misconduct allegations against Chicago Police Cmdr. Glenn Evans shows he doesn’t have a clue about what it will take to rebuild trust between cops and the black community. -- Sun-Times

Rep. Luis Gutierrez

"Well, first of all it's clear that playing it safe is what is going on at the White House and among Democratic circles. And playing it safe means walking away from our values and our principles." -- Lynn Sweet, Sun-Times

Bill Gates

“We didn’t know when the last time was that somebody introduced a new course into high school. How does one go about it?" -- So Bill Gates Has This Idea for a History Class ... NYT

Diane von Furstenberg

Clearly, there is work to be done. “I am sure we will seduce the new mayor, too.”  -- NYT Style section, The Courtship of Bill de Blasio 

Former Duncan Press Sec. Peter Cunningham

Education Post also will have a “rapid response” capacity to “knock down false narratives” and will focus on “hot spots” around the country where conflicts with national implications are playing out, Cunningham said.” -- No, Education Post Is Not About Conversation, Curmudgucation 

The post-Newtown view from right field

First grade teacher Victoria Soto was one of six faculty members killed in the Dec. 14 shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.—Rex Features/AP

Rick Hess of the far-right American Enterprise Institute (AEI) claims to be "horrified by advocates and education pundits who seize upon Newtown as a "hook" to place an op-ed or push their favorite talking points and agenda items."

He's not mentioning any names, but it's clear that he's talking about Diane Ravitch who posted a thoughtful and powerful tribute to the heroism of teachers (union members at that) on her blog. Diane's piece was picked up and circulated by lots of other bloggers and tweeters, (including Brother Fred).
Hess confesses, he hasn't written about Newtown because "I haven't had anything useful to say. I'm not a K-12 educator, a religious or community leader, a public official, or a role model. I'm inclined to defer to those who have something to say or inhabit positions of public trust."

In other words, Hess is OK with policy makers moving quickly to strategize and push new legislation and government policies, but is "horrified" that any of us would dare to contribute to that discussion. Some democrat, that Hess.

Of course, what Hess is really doing is staking out his own position. He and AEI have an agenda and that's why he blogging about it, as he should. So should Diane. There nothing disrespectful to the shooting victims or their families about praising the heroic actions of the teachers and other first responders nor is it disrespectful to advocate for gun-control policies or more resources for mental health care in the wake of the Newtown shooting. In fact, had this discussion gone on the way it should, free from fear of political retribution from the NRA and other conservative opponents of gun control, the Newton massacre might have been avoided. Hess' organization has long been in alliance with the NRA in opposition to all gun-control legislation and made no bones about it in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings.

Hess of course, isn't the only one trying to hush up democratic discussion. Teach for America marketing VP David Rosenberg demands that Diane take down her “reprehensible” post. Isn't it obvious that what Rosenberg and TFA find reprehensible is her mention of the word "union."

Jersey Jazzman makes a similar point in his post, "It's Politicizing If You Disagree With Me!".

Blogs & Tweets, where do they go?

Yesterday, I was sending around a provocative piece by WaPo ed beat writer, Bill Turque, on the whole Michelle Rhee fiasco, when suddenly, about 7:30 p.m., his story disappeared. When friends went to the link, they were greeted with some kind of "no longer available" sign. I tweeted around, asking, "what happened to Turque?" Nobody seemed to know.

Had the Post editorial board censored him for revealing the disparity between street reporting and editorial decisions re. Rhee? Did Mayor Fenty and Rhee's big-money supporters demand Turque's head? Paranoia runs deep these days.

But as the sun comes up this morning, (everywhere except here in Chicago, I suppose) I see Turque's D.C. Schools Insider column is back on line. Must have been some kind of technical problem, right? But wait a minute. Something has been changed. In the last paragraph of Turque's original piece, he asks:

Are Fenty and Rhee gaming the system by using the editorial page this way? Of course. Is this a healthy thing for readers of The Post? Probably not. Is it going to keep me from doing my job effectively? Nope.

Damn! That was the very line I had pulled out and tweeted about yesterday. But when the column reappeared this morning, the entire last paragraph was missing--except for, "Is it going to keep me from doing my job effectively? Nope." Luckily, I had made a copy of Turque's original column.

Now that last question looms large. As the old saying goes, just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they're not trying to get you.

Another disappearing Act

This one, not nearly as significant, although still Rhee-related.

On Tuesday, I had a little, not-so-friendly exchange with ed gadfly blogger, Alexander Russo. Russo, in his TWIE blog, had launched a broadside against Rhee's critics, charging them with opportunism for jumping all over the D.C. superintendent for saying:

"I got rid of teachers who had hit children, who had had sex with children, who had missed 78 days of school."

Russo continued his Tweet assault, with the lead-in "I'm no Rhee apologist, but..."

When I responded, Russo took me to task for criticizing Rhee's stupid remarks claiming, I was "defending bad teachers."

But by Wednesday, all of Russo's blog posts about Rhee's statement had vanished along with all of Russo's Tuesday tweets about Rhee. When I and several other bloggers asked him if he had removed them, Russo simply tweeted, "Nope. They're still there."

They aren't. Russo made them go away. Why? Was he embarrassed? If you go to his blog now, you will find a dateline from Sept. 3 instead of his apologies for Rhee's remarks. Strange!

IN THE MAILBOX

Go Eagles!

We have a few college students online from college of Georgia Southern University and we love your blog postings, so well add your rss or news feed for them, Thanks and please post us and leave a comment back and well link to you. Thanks Jen , Blog Manager,

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

Ravitch on N.Y.'s testing "Ponzi scheme"

Diane Ravitch has gone through some big changes as a result of Bridging Differences, her diablog with Deb Meier. In her latest post she joins Fair Test in saluting Meier and then recounts her own transforming ideas on standardized testing and the ways test scores have been misused to "punish kids, teachers, and schools and to mislead the public." In the process, she exposes the "institutionalized lying" behind the magical statewide jump in test scores.

More news for Ravitch watchers: She tells me she has split from the conservative Fordham and Hoover think tanks. Welcome news. Nice going, Diane.

The bad joke that was "Ed in '08"

In case you were wondering whether that $25 million or so that the Gates and Broad Foundations invested in ED in '08 paid off, Strong American Schools, which managed the program, is here to tell you that the campaign "has helped turn the need for education reform from a low-priority campaign issue into one of the Obama administration's top policy priorities." (Politics K-12)

Not SmallTalk

According to a 2008 survey by Technorati, which runs a search engine for blogs, only 7.4 million out of the 133 million blogs the company tracks had been updated in the past 120 days. That translates to 95 percent of blogs being essentially abandoned, left to lie fallow on the Web, where they become public remnants of a dream — or at least an ambition — unfulfilled. (NYT)

Mayoral mythology

Mayoral control has been Arne Duncan's mantra as he tours from state to state. It makes no difference to Duncan what the unique conditions are in each city or even if the local mayor is behind bars on corruption charges or hopefully on his way. "Put the mayor in charge," cries Duncan, even if the mayor is the head of a corrupt political machine and dreams of using the schools as his own private patronage system.

Diane Ravitch posts about the "myth of mayoral control of schools" at Huffington:

Our schools are too important to hand them over to the sole, unchecked control of a single elected official. Checks and balances are not exactly a dangerous innovation. They are an essential element in a democratic society, and they are as essential in the operation of our school system as they are in every other part of our governmental structure.

Protecting blogger rights

New York State’s shield law, which protects the right of news reporters to refuse to testify about information obtained through newsgathering, would be extended to “journalist bloggers” under a bill introduced by State Senator Thomas K. Duane and Assemblywoman Linda B. Rosenthal, two Manhattan Democrats. (City Room)