After Mayor Richard Daley’s announcement last week of a big public school construction program, Daley’s voice went up an octave when a reporter asked him about a school that was supposed to have been built in Pilsen years ago.
“Paul Vallas promised everybody a new school, all 50 wards,” the mayor said. “He promised everyone … Promises, promises, promises. It doesn’t mean anything.”
Vallas, of course, was Daley’s handpicked schools CEO before he fell out of favor and resigned, made a spirited but unsuccessful run for governor and left to head Philadelphia’s school system.
So the Pilsen promise is off the table?
“He promised everyone,” Daley responded. “He promised you one, I bet. I mean, he went around promising everyone.”
So you’re saying you can’t keep that promise? “Anybody can make a promise. You go around and tell a thousand people `I am going to do something,’ but you can’t do it. You have to have money behind you. So that’s off, that’s gone.”
Reached by phone in Philadelphia, Vallas wasn’t amused. “My mother always told me that if I didn’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all,” he said. “However, I also think that 76 new school buildings, six consecutive years of improved reading scores, six years of balanced budgets with no teacher layoffs, and my leaving the district with a significant budget reserve speaks for itself.”