I hate to see Paul Vallas go.
I know, he is not a miracle worker. I know, any successes of the school district in the last five years may have had more to do with the fact that the district had $300 million in additional funding to play with after the state takeover than with the guy at the top. I know, there are people in town who think that he played fast and loose with the schools budget.
But he brought an enormous amount of energy to a job that is known for sapping it right out of your bone marrow. A job that really may be impossible for one person to do.
Really. You put one person in charge of feeding, counseling, protecting and, yes, educating 280,000 kids? Then you give him less per-pupil spending -- and more impoverished, frequently relocating, struggling young people -- than the districts in the 'burbs? Saddle him with a complicated school governance structure that involves for-profit businesses running some schools, community organizations running others, squabbles on the School Reform Commission and you expect -- what?
We expect everything, of course. And we did actually get some of it. We got an increase in test scores, and we got it not at privately managed schools but at the schools that the district poured extra money into. We got the School of the Future in West Philly, which really is a massive and exciting achievement.
And we got some things that people might not have noticed, such as breaking up Kensington High School into three small schools. I remember when Kensington was a constant source of headlines -- who's heard anything from it lately? Students there are suddenly focused on culinary arts and creative performance; it's quiet and successful.
That's just one example. The fact is, there has been energy, activity and effort in the district in the past five years. That's an important improvement.
Filling his shoes will be very difficult. Mensah Dean of the Daily News quoted Vallas saying this yesterday:
"I think the next mayor should play a critical role in the selection of the next superintendent," Vallas said before getting into his chauffeur-driven school district car.
Vallas was one of the biggest names in big-city education. If not him, who?
And so I am sorry to see Paul Vallas have to fall on his budgetary sword, hand over a deficit-burdened, doomsday budget to the SRC and City Council, and go. Without overstating his acheivements or underplaying concerns that some may have about him, it will be very hard to fill this job with someone of comparable energy and stature.
Yet another incredibly tough choice that the SRC faces -- and that the next mayor faces, just as soon as he walks in the door.

Comments (32)
I dont think this is a good thing. Street and other Vallas opponents finally got their wish so I am sure they are satisfied. Sure there was more to be done, but a lot more has happened in the last 5 years than in the previous couple of decades. I just don't know what the Vallas critics want. He doesn't determined the district's funding and yet people are holding him responsible for the budget defecits and cuts. They need more money to keep things going forward, its that simple.
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