- Merlino says family punished for others' mob ties
- Camden County judge seriously hurt in bike accident
- Racism underlies rage at Obama presidency
- Dogs try out for role in "Oliver!"
- 5 area schools win U.S. Blue Ribbon honors
- New Pa. public-records law: lots of requests ... & lawsuits
- Ronnie Polaneczky: Pen to paper: Will Madoff make him rich?
- Drawn by Obama's proximity, activists spar on health care, abortion & other issues
- Ailing woman, 78, spared eviction after PHA's reasoning collapses
- ACORN shows 'pimp' and 'pro' the door here
- Obama in Philly, fundraising for Sen. Arlen Specter
- Blockbuster may shutter 960 stores
- SnapGlow.TV: Modern Gems Galore!
RELATED STORIES
Phila. schools agree to settle 1970 desegregation suit
Nearly 40 years after the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission went to court seeking equal education for white and minority students in the city, the Philadelphia School District is poised to settle the landmark desegregation case by instituting reforms to benefit black and Hispanic children.
The settlement would have broad implications, not only for students but for teachers. Regardless of their union contract, many could see significant changes in where they work, how much they are paid, and how they are evaluated.
The School Reform Commission yesterday unanimously endorsed the agreement with the state commission, which filed the lawsuit against the district in Commonwealth Court in 1970.
Final approval of the deal is expected at a hearing Monday before Judge Doris Smith-Ribner, who has overseen the case for years.
Initially, the suit sought to force the district to bus students around the city to ensure racial balance in schools. At the time, 70 percent of the schools were considered racially isolated, meaning that at least 90 percent of students were of one race.
That situation has hardly improved. The district said it could not provide current data yesterday, but in 2004, an Inquirer analysis found that two-thirds of city schools were racially isolated.
Today, about 61 percent of the district's 167,000 students are African American; 18 percent are Latino; 13 percent white; and 6 percent Asian.
Over the years, the Human Relations Commission suit morphed into a quest for equity for low-performing, racially isolated schools.
The settlement hinges in part on "Imagine 2014," Superintendent Arlene Ackerman's five-year plan. Many of its reforms - including smaller class sizes - had been called for by Smith-Ribner.
Under the settlement, the district has agreed to seven initiatives aimed initially at the district's 85 so-called empowerment schools, the lowest-performing in the system. They include: paying more to teachers who work in those schools; largely eliminating teacher seniority there, and implementing weighted student funding districtwide, with more money for needier students.
The district would also begin new evaluations for teachers in the low-performing schools, and give them time to plan together. Extra resources would go to schools with a high number of inexperienced teachers.
The settlement gives Ackerman broad powers and a strong position going into talks for a new teacher contract this summer. She said yesterday she had not consulted with the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers on the reforms but hoped to find some accord with the union.
If necessary, however, Ackerman said she would advise the School Reform Commission to use its authority to impose on the union the terms of the court order.
"The agreement gives me and the district leverage to get the work done," she said. "We don't have another 20 years to negotiate the right thing for children."
Jerry Jordan, PFT president, said issues related to his members' compensation must be addressed in collective bargaining.
Both sides agree that unequal conditions for white and minority children remain a reality in Philadelphia schools.
Sixty-three percent of white students can read at grade level; only 40 percent of black students and 38 percent of Latino students hit that mark. Sixty-eight percent of white students perform math at grade level; 43 percent of black students and 45 percent of Latino students do so.
The agreement, district and commission officials said, should go a long way toward achieving equal education for all students.
"The students whose needs are the greatest are the students whose resources will be the greatest," said Michael Hardiman, attorney for the commission.
For 25 years after the lawsuit was filed, a series of Philadelphia superintendents resisted the call to impose mandatory busing to achieve desegregation, and a series of judges declined to enforce such a policy.
