NOT EXACTLY GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS

GOODBYE, Paul Vallas. I'm cheering your impending departure because, unlike so many, I've never been a fan.

Educators from Chicago tried to warn us, but no one listened. You strode in five years ago, overpaid, self-serving and arrogant, and pretended to care about our children. But those of us who pay close attention knew better.

You made sure that we all saw plenty of you because you are what we journalists call "a media hound" who spends far too much time in the spotlight. I've watched you from afar, though, lunching all over the city. And, I've seen you riding around in your chauffeur-driven car.

As concerned taxpayers, we resent not knowing how you've spent our money. We've heard you on the radio, blowing smoke and mirrors, when you should've been crunching those numbers.

So now, with your own pockets well-lined, you're leaving our schools with a multimillion-dollar deficit if lawmakers won't come up with the cash to balance the district's spending plan.

The district's bond rating is in jeopardy of being downgraded to junk-bond status in the next few months unless there is more backup from the state. But the city's schools have historically been underfunded by Harrisburg, which continues to place more value on building new jails than learning institutions.

Back in 2000, when then-School Superintendent David Hornbeck warned politicians that "this mess of a school system is a civil-rights issue for our students," they gave him the ax.

The city and state continue their age-old bickering over who is ultimately responsible for the tab. This argument is so stale.

It doesn't take a Ph.D to recognize that the city's upsurge in crime is directly related to the dropout rate. Your military approach to education has merely exacerbated an already difficult climate. Your newly created disciplinary schools really aren't working - they simply feed more kids into the prison system, which, next to the pharmaceutical companies, is the nation's fastest-growing business.

Despite metal detectors, most of our schools have no real security plan in case some nut walks in or, God forbid, a natural disaster occurs.

In the meantime, I've listened intently to my teacher friends (who refuse to go on the record because they really need their jobs).

From the day one, they say, you took a cavalier approach to the district, and treated its employees and, most important, our children, like no one but you had a clue. You moved beloved principals out, and encouraged good teachers to take early retirement. You continue to boast about rising standardized-test scores (which we'll get to in a minute). But let's step away from the press releases and sound bites and read between the lines.

City schools weren't good enough for your own children, but they were good enough to pay the private-school tuition. In actuality, you and your pricey

EMOs launched an experiment on our kids by outsourcing to six very expensive for-profit management systems 41 of our worst schools. But the last time I checked, you still weren't sure whether they're working, and the debate continues over whether to keep them when their contracts expire at the end of this month.

ACCORDING to the RAND report, test scores for the city's 175,000 students are up. But they aren't any higher than they would've been without you - yet you still take credit.

You tried to erase the institutional memory of the school district by selling off three valuable pieces of historical real estate. You called them a "symbol of institutional failure" instead of identifying the real problems and doing the deep renovations that are necessary for repair.

Moving school headquarters down to Broad Street fixed nothing substantive - it was all for show. Meanwhile, the district is still without a viable financial recovery plan, despite the sale of those valuable assets. Your paint jobs, school closings, murals and face-lifts may have temporarily brightened things up, but they are merely window dressing, and our schools, save for a very few, are still crumbling.

And we the taxpayers, who foot the bills for all your expensive decisions, have children who are paying the ultimate price. No, Mr. Vallas, unfortunately, you've turned our worst nightmares into reality and made things even worse. Our schools are flat broke, with no backup, save for the unwilling legislators in Harrisburg. Is it any wonder that the city's population continue to deteriorate?

You cut a deal to extend your contract and now you're walking out in the middle of it? With, I might add, a hefty severance package since you still have two years left. What message have you sent to our children about the importance of their education?

And one more thing.

On his departure, David Hornbeck issued a challenge for politicians to make the distinction between leaders and managers.

You, Mr. Vallas, appear to be neither. Someone needs to warn New Orleans. Unlike Philadelphia, maybe they'll listen. *

Fatimah Ali is a freelance journalist.