'Reprehensible': Former CPS officials blast Chicago mayoral candidate

CHICAGO - A group of former educators accused Brandon Johnson and the Chicago Teachers Union of misrepresenting Paul Vallas' tenure as CEO of the city’s public schools.

Many of the former educators worked closely with Vallas at CPS.

"Shocking, the lies that have been told about Mr. Paul Vallas," said Joyce Kenner, former principal of Whitney Young High School.

It is an attack line Johnson delivers nearly every day.

"Paul Vallas, who has been failing this city and many other cities for 30 years," Johnson has said.

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Gery Chico, the first Mexican American president of the Chicago Board of Education, and a dozen other administrators and educators said Vallas’ record at CPS included construction of dozens of new schools, credit rating upgrades, 100% funding of teacher pensions, and no teacher strikes, noted by a former lobbyist for the teachers’ union.

"We've all come out today to set the record straight and call for the lies, the distortions, and the deceptions to stop about the CPS during the years that Paul Vallas was CEO," Chico said.

"The lies that Brandon Johnson is spreading are reprehensible," said Pam Massarsky, former CTU lobbyist.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, a pastor from Detroit who's the national leader of the Church of God in Christ endorsed Johnson, who grew up in the denomination.

"I stand before you to offer my endorsement for Brandon Johnson for mayor of the city of Chicago," said Bishop John Drew Sheard, Sr.

"We are fulfilling the promise and revival of a resurrection for the city of Chicago. And when we do it in the city of Chicago on April 4th, we're gonna take this progressive, bold movement across the world," Johnson said.

Thursday is a big day for the Johnson campaign, with Sen. Bernie Sanders scheduled to join him at a rally at the University of Illinois Chicago.