The following article was selected from the Internet Edition of the Chicago Tribune. To visit the site, point your browser to http://chicagotribune.com/. ----------- Chicago Tribune Article Forwarding---------------- Article forwarded by: Cayata Dixon Return e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Article URL: http://chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/kass/0,1122,SAV-0106070207,00.html ---Forwarded article---------------- Vallas stuck neck out for schools, only to get axed John Kass It was warm in the Tribune editorial boardroom Wednesday when Paul Vallas first broke the news that he was out as chief of the Chicago Public Schools. Vallas was in his shirt sleeves. So I thought I might see the knife handles sticking out between his shoulder blades. But what cut Vallas were news leaks, prompted by the mayor's City Hall operatives. They whisper with unctuous and malevolent tongues and leave no visible scars. For the past several weeks Vallas has been subject to those unflattering leaks to gossip columnists, egging on the media pack, with Mayor Richard Daley doing nothing to back them off. So on Wednesday, finally, Vallas decided to end it. "Am I going? Yeah, I'm going, OK? Simple as that," Vallas said. "I don't want to play these games for another year. ... I've tried not to respond to the anonymous this and the anonymous that or the high-level sources close to the mayor this and the close to the mayor that ... "So you want to know if I'm leaving? Yeah. I'm leaving. Yeah, I'm gonna be gone. End of story. So put it in the paper tomorrow." After six years of breaking his guts to improve a school system that was once the worst in the nation, he said it was over. Others made a fortune from the Chicago Public Schools in inside deals. Former school board President Gery Chico, a top lawyer and lobbyist, ran the board while his law clients got almost $600 million in school business. According to a story awhile back by Tribune education writer Mike Martinez, Chico abstained from voting on board business involving his clients a fantastic 400 times. That's 400 perfectly unmistakable signals, to a rubber-stamp board, that Chico had 400 tasty coffeecakes in the oven. I wonder. What would the media in this town have done if, say, the late Mayor Harold Washington's school board president had clients reaping hundreds of millions in public school contracts? They would have crucified the black mayor and his school board boss. The news pack would have howled and hunted. But most of them ignored Martinez's story. They didn't want to anger the mayor. And when Chico left recently, he got a big wet media kiss. Vallas didn't get rich. And he's out. Still, Vallas took pains not to say anything remotely negative about the mayor or the mayor's fifth-floor agents, who've dangled him out in the media, subject to news leaks and character assassination for weeks now. Anyone else might have been tempted to say something, to heave the resentment off his chest. I would have. But he didn't. He was respectful to Daley, and in the end the schools are Daley's responsibility. The mayor took great political risks in taking over a lousy school system. We should never forget that. So the mayor ought to be congratulated for putting a team in place that attacked the problem and improved the nation's worst school system. Daley also can't make parents love their children or teach them the alphabet and their colors before they begin school. He can't force parents to nurture their babies so they're ready to learn. Daley wants to make changes. That's his right and his duty. But Vallas tried to help those children, and did so, by instituting programs that address the toughest neighborhoods, basically taking the children in infancy and raising them, feeding them, in the public schools. Daley got the credit. Chico got rich off school reform. And Vallas took the risks. But make no mistake about this. He didn't want to leave. He was pushed. By the mayor and his stooges. "We had two conversations," Vallas said of his recent meetings with Daley. "One a couple weeks ago when I asked him, we discussed an end date. Or at least I raised the issue of an end date. And then, of course, earlier this week. "I wanted to finish out the year, but obviously there's things in the newspaper every single day. And the mayor gets quizzed on it every single day." We asked Vallas what he would do. "Well, let's just say that I'm not gonna become a city consultant," adding that he would not lobby on city contracts. "Public service has its own satisfaction. I like all the kids in the schools knowing who I am. I like the feeling I get when parents come up and talk to me about things; I like the reception I get from teachers, honest to God," Vallas said. "That gives me satisfaction." But that's over now. He'll take a few weeks off, perhaps grow a beard, play ball with his children, watch their games and have some fun. And then go looking for a job. "We've always had a middle-class lifestyle, you know," he said. "My wife doesn't have high expectations when it comes to material things like that, you know? I mean, we don't demand much." Perhaps he doesn't demand much. But he deserved more. [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------------------------------------- This is the CPS Mathematics Teacher Discussion List. To unsubscribe, send a message to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For more information: <http://home.sprintmail.com/~mikelach/subscribe.html>. To search the archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/science%40lists.csi.cps.k12.il.us/>
