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Chicago Tribune endorses Vallas while they sue school system to obtain
data that Vallas illegally withheld
By George Schmidt
 In endorsing Vallas
for Governor, the Tribune editorial board praised Vallas for his “vision,
honesty, smarts, and diligence.” At the same time, the Tribune’s
lawyers were pursuing litigation to obtain detailed data about student
truancy in the school system that Vallas had repeatedly denied them. According
to legal briefs filed in Chicago Tribune Company v. Board of Education
of the City of Chicago, the Tribune filed a request for this truancy data
under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act in December 1999.
This request was denied
by the school system’s “freedom of information officer,”
and this denial was appealed to the “head of the public body”
(Paul Vallas). Again, the request was denied, and the Tribune sued to
gain the information. In September 2001, the Chicago Tribune won this
case in state court. However, the Chicago Board appealed this loss, and
the case is now before an appellate court. Thus, Vallas has been at the
center of this multi-stage effort to resist the Tribune’s information
request.
The Tribune is not alone
in being stiffed in requesting information from Vallas. Hundreds of freedom
of information requests from Substance, from other media, and from non-profit
groups have been routinely denied or ignored by the Vallas administration.
Information that was customarily available in the past was no longer released
under Vallas. Thus, it became impossible, for example, to obtain financial
information detailed enough to uncover deceptive budgeting practices.
Another measure of
Vallas’ penchant for controlling information was his practice of
having the remarks of speakers in the public participation period at Board
of Education meetings eliminated from the televised version of the Board
meeting, if the speakers were especially critical of him or of the Board.
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