Balow’s golden parachute
State superintendent set to pocket nearly $300,000 following poor performance
For every Virginian who believes state government should be run like a private business, this week saw their dreams come true. Former Virginia Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow, who bears responsibility for a mistake that shortchanged local school divisions $201 million in funding, will receive $266,213 in exchange for her resignation, which became official on March 9.
That sort of golden parachute is usually reserved for the gilded board rooms of
Wall Street and the disruptive open-plan offices of Silicon Valley. There are few other places where someone in a position of such responsibility could fail so spectacularly and still cash in.
Now, it appears that’s also true in the halls of Virginia government — and specifically in Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration.
Youngkin, of course, made his name and his fortune in finance. He spent 25 years working at the Carlyle Group, a private equity firm, which he centered in his campaign advertising. The implication was clear: Elect me and I’ll bring that business acumen to the office of governor.
But the public sector doesn’t operate like the private sector. For one, there are expectations of transparency since elected officials work on behalf of the people, not
shareholders, and Virginia law requires decisions to be made in full view of the public.
For another, it’s absurd to think that someone who makes repeated missteps while serving in a position of public trust should expect a handsome payout on her way out the door. Those sorts of shenanigans are typically reserved for the CEOs of failed banks and high-level executives pushed aside for tawdry behavior.
And yet, this week the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that Balow, leader of the Virginia Department of Education for a scant 14 months, “will receive $266,213 in 24 semi-monthly settlement payments over the next year … The state will also pay Balow an additional $22,308 for health insurance premiums and an additional $10,239 in unused vacation time. Altogether, the total payments to March 9, 2024 will add up to $298,760.” Must be nice, huh?
Anyone who watched Balow’s performance over the year-plus she helmed the VDOE must be either scratching their heads or burning with the rage of a thousand suns.
After all, it was Balow who rolled out a half-baked rewrite of proposed K-12 history and social science standards after tossing aside a draft that was the product of nearly two years’ work and featured the input of about 200 academics, educators and subject-matter experts. Balow’s draft referred to Native Americans as the nation’s “first immigrants” and omitted the Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth holidays among other mistakes.
The superintendent apologized and the review of those history standards, now in their third iteration, have yet to be completed.
Balow also apologized for an enormous financial mistake made by the VDOE in calculating the state’s share of funding for K-12 school divisions. The error means that school systems will receive $201 million less than expected under the two-year budget, though the Youngkin administration pledged to rectify that — though the governor and lawmakers have yet to do so.
Youngkin chose not to fire her for these egregious mistakes. No, instead he apparently negotiated a separation whereby she receives nearly $300,000 in public funds in exchange for her resignation. The Washington Post floated the idea that, as a constitutional officer, she might have had standing to sue were she forced out.
As for transparency, the deal includes a nondisclosure agreement too so Virginians may never know why they’re footing the bill for incompetence.
Maybe this sort of behavior flies in the rarified air of private equity, but one expects that shareholders would have plenty of questions about so generous a severance agreement with an underperforming executive.
Virginians should have those same questions today — especially as the governor keeps them in the dark about why his handpicked superintendent rides off into the sunset, saddlebags loaded with gold, and leaves others to clean up her mess.