REAL school reformer Paul Vallas on Bill Ayers and Obama

In 1988, then-Secretary of Education Bill Bennett called Chicago's public schools the worst in the nation. Outside of Chicago's education bureaucracy, few disagreed with Bennett's statement. By 1995, Daley realized if he was going to keep middle-class Chicagoans from bolting to the suburbs so their kids could get a better education, he had to fix Chicago's education sinkhole. So Hizzonner Junior convinced the Illinois General Assembly--then run by Republicans--to put the schools under Daley's control.

A school CEO was appointed--Paul Vallas.

Also in 1995, the Chicago Annenenberg Challenge was founded. Barack Obama's friend, unrepentant ex-terrorist Bill Ayers, secured $50 million in funds to improve Chicago schools, independent of Vallas' work. Obama was the first chairman of the CAC, and it remains his only executive experience.

Chicago schools improved under Vallas' stewardship. Not a lot, which is one of the reasons we moved to Morton Grove in 1999. The schools are much better here.

What did the CAC accomplish? The New York Post tracked Vallas down.

"There was a total lack of accountability. If you went back and asked, you'd be hard-pressed to find out how the money was spent," said Paul Vallas, the city's school superintendent when Obama chaired the Chicago Annenberg Foundation from 1995 to 1999.

Annenberg spent $49.5 million, mostly on grants to 211 public schools that partnered with community-based groups. But despite collecting millions, those schools performed no better than other public schools, a study found.

Once again, this is Obama's only executive experience.
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"Very little of the money found its way directly into the classroom," Vallas said.

Most frustrating, Vallas said, was that Annenberg under Obama and Ayers funded groups that fought his mission, under Mayor Richard Daley, to impose uniform standards and stricter accountability in low-performing schools.

Vallas ran for governor in 2002 as a Democrat. I was (and still am) a big supporter of Jim Ryan, the Republican candidate for governor that year. But Rod Blagojevich, who will probably be indicted on corruption charges next year, won the Democratic primary and the general election.

Illinois would be in better shape under a Vallas administration as opposed to the Rezko-tocracy we've been living under since 2003.

Hat tip to Reverse Spin.

Technorati tags: Politics Bill Ayers terrorism Obama Barack Obama Election Democrats education Blagojevich