Bridgeport No Palace For Vallas, Says Decision To Leave Easy

Each of you is entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts; though you do have a perfect right to connect verifiable facts together in whatever story that seems consistent and congruent to you. That is one value of diversity of experience, culture, education, etc. In this context, verifiable does not mean a lie or falsehood repeated so often as to seem factual.

My attention has been on City finances for close to five years yet I seem more famous for wearing bow ties or shaking a snow shovel while seeking an explanation for the profound failure of public facilities last budget year. That is strange to me. It means more than four years of monthly budget reviews, annual CAFR reviews, and fighting for more OPEN, ACCOUNTABLE and TRANSPARENT behavior in the City Council and with Boards and Commissions has fallen on too many deaf ears.

While at a BOE meeting several years ago I listened to Maria Pereira hold forth on the lack of fiscal info and accountability of the Ramos administration. I understood her comments and saw the same behavior on the City side.

And then I attended the Charter hearings and knew the Mayor was not accountable on too many fiscal issues, so why should citizens expect better performance from him if he appointed all BOE members? So I supported the NO vote that retained citizen voting rights for the BOE.

I had watched the multi-year BRBC exam of BOE activity and therefore was surprised in the first several meetings where Paul Vallas spoke, handed out info and answered questions from the public. His was a voice that appeared knowledgeable about public education in an urban scene. He was energetic and concerned about kids. He talked about balancing the budget (without school closings or teacher layoffs but through more efficient positioning of resources).

I heard him several times before I approached him individually to ask some questions. I read the five-year plan. I saw the budget numbers, including grants and including info on numbers of employees posted accurately, regularly, on time and balanced.

Wow! What a difference in behavior when compared to the City side. But the various BOE representatives have not pursued finances at their meetings. It’s a shame they left all that understanding to Paul Vallas. Meanwhile Vallas attempted to create the foundation for reform, for change, and for better outcomes for students.

As we know, he was confronted by persons who contested his ability and experience to apply different approaches to this failing urban district. He was accused of many things that never proved true. The accusers never suggested a PLAN B alternative that would be financially balanced. And they did not address Mayor Finch and the City Council regularly to address their failure to provide the “Minimum budget requirement” for public schools this year. Why not?

How did that local neglect by the City look to Vallas critics? They ignored it. Vallas was an easier target to get fixated upon then the Mayor. And you could malign the man with accusations of not being in town, while the truth of the situation has been his presence for more hours and more days than past leaders. His activity in Haiti happens to be appreciated by Bridgeport Haitians who know what public education means on that part of the island of Hispaniola with the French tradition.

And the “privatization” warnings have created real fear although who can point a finger at Charter School advocacy independent of parents? And out-of-town money? It has been present in funding the campaigns against him through the Education Association, teacher union money from folks who for the most part do not live in Bridgeport AND minority party funding and commentary, also mostly from out of town. How has this been different from the criticism of “hedge fund money?” And the accusation of fiscally bogus behavior benefiting Vallas buddies? Lots of hot air by people who SHOOT first without being fact ready, or having decent aim at the whole picture.

When it comes to national searches for those familiar with poor urban environments, we need to remember the teacher unions formed an alliance with the minority party out of fear for jobs and status quo. (If that is not true, where was their alternative plan early on, advanced with public discussion, and funded with attention to youth and to taxpayers? Such alternative planning advanced at BOE meetings would have helped this community more than the “agenda gotchas” practiced by some.)

So Illinois has opened an opportunity that has been welcomed by many in the Chicago press who remember Vallas’ competent and fair-minded activity for all people, including union members in the past. And we in Bridgeport will lose the sense of what his multi-city experience means to good contracts with and for professional educators I am afraid.

And what does a community do when families are not present to support their students, to vote for representatives, and to learn who, what, why and how of the paths of public money spent daily without stand-up behavior? Stay tuned to see what Bridgeport does. Personnel on CC and BOE are changing. What will they pursue? Time will tell.