Thread by @writesaacson

Paul Vallas boasts of his 5 years as chief of the Philadelphia Public Schools. But a close look at his tenure there shows that when he hastily departed Philly, he left behind depleted finances, federal investigations, & failed, heavy-handed school safety policies. A thread: 1/14

In 2007, Vallas’s final year in Philadelphia, school district officials announced a surprise $191M deficit. The City Controller reported incompetent financial management, “stonewalling on requests for information,” and “questionable reimbursements.” inquirer.com/philly/opinion… 2/14

The Governor’s office found that under Vallas “the Philadelphia School District overspent its budget in each of the last 4 years & failed to use sound financial management controls that would have signaled trouble earlier,” leading to the huge deficit inquirer.com/philly/news/br… 3/14

Even though Vallas was leaving a ruinous financial situation behind in Philly, he still negotiated for a generous payout as he left for his next job — privatizing the New Orleans school system. The Philadelphia city controller protested, saying... inquirer.com/philly/hp/news… 4/14

..."the norms from the world of corporate governance clearly indicate that Mr. Vallas failed in his fiscal responsibility as CEO, & as a result is not due any additional compensation for having left the school district with a budget deficit estimated to be as high as $200M." 5/14

Despite such concerns, Vallas did indeed receive additional compensation of $180,000 shortly after decamping to New Orleans. This was at a time when other former school employees were being forced to wait 5 or 6 months to receive their last checks. inquirer.com/philly/hp/news… 6/14

After Vallas’s time in Philly, an audit found “widespread misuse” of $138.4 million in federal grant funds to the school district under his watch, resulting in a court ruling that the district had to pay back $7.2 million to the U.S. government. inquirer.com/philly/educati… 7/14

The U.S. Inspector General audit “said money intended to educate low-income students was spent on things such as catering, a mini-fridge, a microwave oven, greeting cards, and salaries and benefits for employees who had nothing to do with the grants.” 8/14

Vallas also had a heavy-handed, ineffective approach to school safety. He called for assigning two armed police officers to each high school, but was rebuffed by the police commissioner, who said “I don’t want to make schools armed penitentiaries.” securityinfowatch.com/education/news… 9/14

Columnist Fatimah Ali wrote upon Vallas’s departure from Philly, “Your military approach to education has merely exacerbated an already difficult climate. Your newly created disciplinary schools really aren't working — they simply feed more kids into the prison system.” 10/14

The late Fatimah Ali also summed up in her column: “Educators from Chicago tried to warn us, but no one listened. You strode in five years ago, overpaid, self-serving and arrogant, and pretended to care about our children"... inquirer.com/philly/opinion… 11/14

..."We've heard you on the radio, blowing smoke & mirrors, when you should've been crunching those numbers… So now, with your own pockets well-lined, you're leaving our schools with a multimillion-dollar deficit." inquirer.com/philly/opinion… 12/14

Paul Vallas is trying to convince voters that his past record as a schools chief qualifies him to be mayor. But his philosophy of privatizing schools, his practice of policing students, and his history of fiscal mismanagement, show that he is wrong for Chicago. 13/14

Brandon Johnson is a former school teacher in Cabrini Green & at Westinghouse College Prep. His 12-part education plan provides a vision antithetical to Vallas’s approach in Philly & elsewhere. It shows that — for Chicago schools — #BrandonIsBetter. brandonforchicago.com/issues/educati… 14/14