The fight over schools, standardization, Vallas
Superintendent Paul Vallas is either saving Bridgeport”™s public schools or is unfit to lead, piloting the district on a crash course to disaster. For better or worse, his supporters and detractors can agree on one thing: Vallas is bringing a business sense to managing the troubled school system.
In the last 18 months, Bridgeport Superintendent Paul Vallas has closed the district”™s $12 million budget deficit, increased school funding, created plans to open five new schools and purchased laptops and new textbooks. He”™s done so without any layoffs.
Vallas said he”™s been able to balance the budget primarily by implementing a business-like approach through standardization, streamlining and testing. He”™s instituted methods for purchasing in bulk, monitoring employee overtime and adjusting bus pick-up times to save millions of dollars.
“I make no apologies for bringing modern business practices into the district,” Vallas said. “There were probably a hundred things the district could have been doing more efficiently, costing money and contributing to the inefficiencies of the district.”
The Bridgeport school system has the largest achievement gap in the nation, two thirds of the schools are failing and only 10 percent of third graders are reading at proficiency, Vallas said. In addition, Bridgeport residents pay some of the highest property taxes in the state.
To his critics, Vallas may be too business minded. Individuals from the Connecticut Working Families Party, which has organized the lead campaign to kick Vallas out of his position, have even accused him of corruption. They say he”™s failed to turnaround schools in his previous roles and is trying to privatize the system to generate profits for a select few.
The campaign to fire him is intensely heated. A retired judge and education activist filed a lawsuit in April contending he is unqualified for the position. By state statute, a superintendent must hold an education degree, which Vallas does not. He was hired based on his experience instead.
Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis ruled in July he was unfit for the position; however the state Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case by the end of the summer. Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch said Vallas has his support. The school system is planning to open three academies focused on science, technology, math and engineering, a military academy and an alternative learning school for struggling students. Bridgeport students can now take college courses at nearby universities as well.
“I want to keep Paul Vallas here fighting for our kids,” Finch said in a statement after the court ruling. “I”™m confident an impartial, higher court will give Bridgeport kids some of the justice they have long deserved.”
However Lindsay Farrell, an executive director of the Working Families Party, said she fears Vallas is too profit driven and that his budgetary techniques will land the schools into further debt once he”™s gone, as is now the case in the Chicago and Philadelphia school districts where Vallas previously worked.
“We don”™t want to be sitting here, 10 years from now, trying to undo the damage,” Farrell said.
However Vallas denies he is to blame for the budgetary issues in Chicago and Philadelphia. It”™s been several years since he”™s worked at either district and both have had several superintendents since he left. He also denied the claims he”™s trying to privatize the Bridgeport school system by opening charter schools, which he did in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina when the public school system was wiped out.
“If they can”™t attack your record they have to reinvent it,” he said. “If you repeat it enough, people think it”™s true.”
Vallas said often the accusations against him are so outlandish they don”™t merit a response. The Working Families Party has accused him of working only part time so he can tend to his education consulting firm The Vallas Group, and of awarding contracts to people he personally knows through his business. Vallas has denied these claims as well.
“My time really needs to be spent implementing these reforms,” he said. “The clock is ticking. A child”™s life direction can be altered in a single semester. There”™s no wasting time.”
Education experts differ on many of Vallas ideas. Some say change takes time and that Vallas is moving too quickly. Others dislike his efforts to streamline curriculum without discussing the issue with teachers. Many more argue against the idea of testing more all together.
“Testing causes teachers to teach what is tested and to neglect what is not tested,” said Diane Ravitch, an education policy analyst and research professor at New York University. “Schools reduce time for or eliminate the arts, physical education, history, civics, science, etc. because they are not tested. When scores matter so much, people cheat. Teachers teach to the test. None of this is good education.”
Ravitch, who is the author of several education books, said she couldn”™t comment on Bridgeport schools specifically, but said Vallas is “no saint,” repeating the problems seen in Chicago and Philadelphia.
“I like to put my ear plugs in and focus on the mission ahead,” Vallas said. “I think what we”™ve accomplished in short order has been remarkable.”