Chicago City Wire

Former Chicago Public Schools Superintendent Paul Vallas urged parents to stick together in their battle to get public schools reopened.

“I think there is strength in numbers and what I’ve done since the pandemic in networking with parents is tell them they need to organize and protect themselves because they try to intimidate parents,” Vallas said during a recent March appearance on Chicago's Morning Answer. “I’ve said the most effective way is to be in constant communication with each other.”

Even as some Chicago grade schools have reopened for limited in-house learning, Vallas said the system continued to be largely unrecognizable for all the wrong reasons.

“You look at all the mandates, and it’s almost a hostile learning environment,” he said. “And high schools aren’t open at all. I think unions will try to run out the clock this year on high schools. Unions have scared the hell out of families and their own members that returning to school is some sort of life and death situation when for too many of the kids not being in school can be a life and death situation.”

Vallas said the changes hurt the people who can less afford it the most.

“I’ve said if you’re looking for institutional racism, it’s in large school systems,” he said. “It isn’t racism by intent; it’s racism by outcome. You have educational redlining where the quality of your school depends on zip code. It’s a horrible system.”