Staying in the Game, Part II

Mr. Vallas isn't the only one questioning results. Patrick J. Keleher, a businessman and professor who played a prominent role in the reform movement of the late 1980s, shares the CEO's lack of enthusiasm. In a February commentary in the Chicago Sun-Times , he charged that school reformers elevated grantsmanship to "an art form" during "a decade of waste."

"The foundation is the tail that wags the dog in school reform," Mr. Keleher, who now advocates vouchers that would allow parents to send their children to private schools, said recently.

Other writers at the newspaper picked up the theme. "Feeding on generous subsidies from the city's good-hearted foundations, these reformers are still waiting around for a decentralized school system to fully kick in," Dennis Byrne, an member of the newspaper's editorial board, wrote in December. "But not every Chicago kid can afford to wait around for The Process...