Paul Vallas

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Paul G. Vallas is currently the CEO of the School District of Philadelphia. He rose to prominence as CEO of the Chicago Public Schools (CPS). From 1995 to 2001 as CEO of the CPS, Vallas led an effort that was acknowledged by then President Bill Clinton as a model reform of a large school district. His accomplishments included rising test scores, successful relations with the teacher's union, balancing the budget, and instituting several new programs included mandatory summer school, after school programs, and expanding alternative, charter, and magnet schools.

The position of CEO of the CPS was created by Mayor Richard Daley after he successfully convinced the Illinois State Legislature to place CPS under the mayor's control. Vallas had previously directed the budget arm of the Illinois State Legislature and served as budget director for Daley.

Controversy plagued Vallas towards the end of his reign as CPS CEO. Following criticism from the mayor, and the election of a union president who ran on an anti-Vallas platform, Vallas resigned in 2001 and announced shortly there after he would run for Governor of Illinois as a Democrat. Vallas lost in the Democratic primary to now Governor Rod Blagojevich by a slim margin.

Following the election, Vallas was appointed CEO of School District of Philadelphia in 2002 by that city's School Reform Commission. In 2006, his initial five-year contract was renewed through 2008. In Philadelphia, he presided over the nation's largest experiment in privatized management of schools, with the management of over 40 schools turned over to outside for-profits, nonprofits, and universities beginning in Fall 2002.

In 2005 Vallas considered challenging Blagojevich for governor in the Democratic Primary. However, he did not enter the primary election because he was not sure he could withstand a legal challenge to his residency in Illinois.

Vallas is of Greek descent, in the 2003 elections he endorsed Gery Chico, who's is also of Greek origins, during Chico's campaign for U.S. Senate over Maria Pappas for the Greek vote.^[1]