Is it even possible to criticize Trump’s fascist education plan from the right? Well, Paul Vallas gives it a shot in a commentary in Wednesday’s Chicago Tribune.

Vallas currently serves as a policy adviser at the right-wing Illinois Policy Institute and as CEO of The McKenzie Foundation, a charter school start-up group. Its founder, John McKenzie, is a renowned educator (just kidding). He’s a wealthy real estate developer who’s relying on Vallas to help him build a national chain of charter schools. Big mistake, John. Vallas has left a mess behind him everywhere he’s gone, from New Orleans to Haiti with stops in Philly, Bridgeport, Chicago, and towns in between.

* * *

In his Tribune piece, the former Chicago Public Schools CEO and failed mayoral candidate is somewhat critical of the Trump administration’s investigation into Chicago Public Schools’ Black Student Success Plan. The administration opened the investigation Tuesday into Chicago Public Schools, alleging anti-white discrimination related to the Success Plan.

However, Vallas’ critique is not so much about protecting the plan from the MAGA white supremacists as it is about replacing “failing” CPS schools with privately run charter schools and vouchers. Also high on Vallas’ agenda is busting the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU).

Vallas writes:

Federal efforts would be better spent intervening, even through the use of a consent decree, to dismantle an education system that locks poor, overwhelmingly minority students into archaic education bureaucracies based on their income and ZIP code. The goal should be simple: Let funding follow the student, empower parents to choose the best school for their child, and give local school leaders the authority to select the right model for their neighborhoods.

Our union-beholden lawmakers also capped the number of public charter schools and gave the CTU the tools to weaken and shut them down. This, despite charters serving 54,000 students in Chicago, 98% of whom are Black and Latino.

A couple of points need to be made here:

• Vallas' claim that CPS schools are “failing” based on standardized test score averages is misguided. It’s the worst possible way to evaluate schools and teachers because it ignores a key reality: test scores correlate more with family income than with schooling. His comments usually target districts with high concentrations of low-income students, rather than addressing the broader systemic inequities that impact educational outcomes.

• If one were to examine only the test scores from the wealthiest U.S. public school districts, they would rank among the highest in the world, while poorer districts would rank among the lowest. This is not to minimize the role of teachers and school environments in childhood learning and development. But higher-income children often receive better nutrition, healthcare, and early education, leading to stronger cognitive development.

• Charter schools and vouchers do not outperform public schools by any measurement, and many of them underperform the public schools they have replaced. Student outcomes vary widely based on ___location, available resources, school quality, and individual circumstances. This has been confirmed by many studies, including my own.

• Vallas claims that the CTU is working to “weaken charter schools and shut them down.” But that’s not the case. The teachers’ union in Chicago has been successfully unionizing city charter schools and recently came to the rescue of a chain of charter schools marked for closure.

In other words, he’s blowing smoke. Why? Most likely to prepare for another run for public office. Some losers never know when to hang it up.

His poke at the Department of Education’s intervention was just a head-fake. His views on education align neatly with MAGA and Trump’s push to shut down the DOE entirely and to privatize public schools. The same goes for his attack on teacher unions.

Leave a comment