Proportioning Valve Bad?

I let my friend do my front brakes, I didn't have the time, and he wanted to make 20 bucks. When I got home and went to drive it, they were soft (like brake fade). I asked him how he did the brakes, and the one thing he didn't do was to open the bleeder screw to depress the caliper piston. He just pushed it back.
I was concerned about getting air in the abs pump, but come to find out I don't have abs, or at least I can't find it. It looks like my brake lines go directly to the calipers, and not to an ABS pump. I have bled each wheel about 10-20 times with the same result. Soft pedal. It doesn't go the floor, just soft. If someone pulls out in front of me I am in trouble.
1996 VW Jetta 2.0 GL.
Any info/advice would be greatly appreciated. I am thinking that maybe a seal in the master cylinder went bad, but am not wanting to replace it unless I have to.

Do you think that could have made my proportioning valve "go bad" ?
I would like to know what someone else has to say about this before I dig in to this brake job.
"Sometimes if you want something done right, you got to do it yourself." :lol2:

yes some times the valves has a 2 way valve sometimes these valves like to get stuck in the open postion for no reason and this happens there is no pressure in your rear wheels thats were 60% of you braking comes from so you have no choise but to change them