CHICAGO – Friday, Chicago Teachers Union’s President Karen Lewis made it clear she nor the union is happy with Governor Quinn’s 2014 running mate pick Paul Vallas, saying the former Chicago Public School CEO is for almost everything the CTU is against:
“The Chicago Teachers Union has supported Governor Quinn in the past because of his commitment to grassroots organizing, publicly funded public education, and collective bargaining. For these reasons we are concerned about his choice of Paul Vallas as a running mate. His choice takes us in the wrong direction for public education in Chicago and Illinois.
“While he was CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, Vallas pioneered the corporate driven education model in our city. His policies continue to devastate our schools system, which recently suffered 50 school closures, deep, and painful school budget cuts, and the loss of thousands of experienced school staff are key tenets of the Vallas model.
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“Vallas ushered in an era of massive expansion of standardized testing; the privatization of public schools through outsourcing and charter school expansion; and the devastating policy of school turnarounds, which resulted in the firing of scores of black and veteran teachers.
“In a 2010 interview with John Merrow on PBS, Paul Vallas appallingly stated that he did not see any downside to charter school proliferation, believed that there was not enough faculty turnover in education, and did not see a need for collective bargaining.
“Just this week in Bridgeport, CT, the school board election results were viewed as a referendum on Vallas’ tenure as an unaccredited district administrator.
“In consideration of this list of concerns, we hope that Vallas will move to support proposals for an elected representative school board in Chicago, and also denounce privatization schemes that have done nothing to increase academic achievement or address the needs of students who need the most in Chicago, Philadelphia, and New Orleans.”
Authored by the Illinois Review
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