Former Bridgeport School Principal Paul Vallas Brings Campaign Variance to the Streets of Chicago – Bridgeport® Exclusive

Former Bridgeport Superintendent Paul Vallas is a brave campaigner. Will the payoff reach the top of Chicago politics this time?

Historic Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot speaks out about her political life, crime, and other major concerns.

The only non-minority in the constituency, Ballas leads nine mayoral candidates, according to a recent voter poll. The top two in February’s poll will face off in his April runoff.

Labeled an education fixer, including stints in Philadelphia and Chicago, Vallas first came to light more than a decade ago when Mayor Bill Finch’s administration, with the support of the local school board, took control of a beleaguered city council. It flocked to Bridgeport over a decade ago after a planned state takeover of the school. supreme court.

Valas spent about two years at Bridgeport. In 2014, he ran for lieutenant governor of Illinois, losing the ticket to incumbent Pat Quinn.In 2019, he failed to run for mayor of Chicago. Earlier, in 2002, he narrowly lost the Democratic gubernatorial primary. He is well versed in Chicago politics.

Tall, policy-driven, and media-savvy, who lived downtown a few blocks from his city hall offices, Vallas’ tenure in Bridgeport, though brief, was marked by personality conflicts and controversy. I was full.

While Valas did his job, city voters rejected Finch’s proposed charter amendment question in November 2012, authorizing the mayor’s authority to appoint school board members. Black voters, in particular, with Barack Obama voting for his second term, shunned the call for an appointed mayor rather than an elect.

In November 2013, the Connecticut Supreme Court overturned Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis’ ruling that Vallas was ineligible to teach a school in Bridgeport. Read the decision here. The Supreme Court voted with Stephen Pryor of the State Board of Education to qualify for Vallas, who was recruited into the school system in December 2011 and subsequently given her a three-year contract by the city’s Board of Education. We validated the authority of the Board of Education.

Days before that decision, Vallas announced that he was resigning as head of the Bridgeport school to run for lieutenant governor of Illinois. He declared that Valas’ attorneys’ fees should not be covered by the Board of Education regardless of the case, including the performance of his duties. Ecker represented Valas.

Ecker said many taxpayers’ money was wasted because the plaintiff (Lopez) did not follow the appropriate administrative remedies cited in the Supreme Court decision. “A lot of arrows were shot at Valas by the people. He didn’t follow the law,” said Ecker. “Who do you think broke the law? This lawsuit should never have been filed.”

During his two years leading the city schools, Vallas used his connections in Hartford to recoup millions of dollars that had fled the city in the past. School security, school construction, classroom technology, and more.

As a candidate for mayor of Chicago, Valas ties crime and education together as major issues.

Is this it?