Council Ponders Dire Schools Prediction
Philadelphia City Hall and political coverage from the Philadelphia Inquirer City Hall bureau.
Council Ponders Dire Schools Prediction
Troy Graham @troyjgraham on Twitter
The School District’s top man, Thomas Knudsen, made a dire prediction Tuesday night: If the city doesn’t cough up more money, schools won’t open in the fall.
So, how did that news play Wednesday in City Council, where members were listening to public testimony mostly opposing a property reassessment plan that would deposit an extra $94 million in the school budget?
“Unfortunately, it looks like the hyperbole has begun,” said Councilman Bill Green. “I would say that Mr. Knudsen should not start the conversation with Council with threats because we’re the ones with the votes.”
This is the second year in a row the school district has turned to the city to fill a giant shortfall in its budget.
Last year, Council members passed a property tax hike to raise $37 million for the schools, partly with the promise that the state would kick in money if they did so. That never happened.
The mood in Council chambers Wednesday seemed to be along the lines of “fool me once … “ As Councilwoman Maria Quiñones Sánchez said, the state “cannot get a pass on this.”
“This Council this year doesn’t want to be pinned to the wall,” she said. “They have to come up with something.”
The state at least has to restore $110 million in charter school reimbursements, Green said, especially given that the district is proposing to move toward more charters.
“And then I’ll consider additional revenue for the school district,” he said. “But they need to go first.”
Last year, the Nutter administration also made the district sign an “accountability agreement” to provide more financial information to the city. Council members said there might need to be a new agreement this year, especially given the radical restructuring the district has proposed.
“We clearly did not have a sense of the magnitude of the problems,” Council President Darrell L. Clarke said. “I don’t feel comfortable that the arrangement that was reached last year ... put us in an position to get real time information in a very accurate way.”
Councilman David Oh said he knew that people were skeptical of the school district because “there has been the crying of wolf many times.” But he said not stepping up to help the schools would be a disaster for the city.
“This is a time where you’re supposed to jump and there’s supposed to be a net underneath us,” he said. “And that net better be there, because you can’t not jump either. You have to do something.”
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David Oh is just another spend-a-lot liberal. Why not cut spending in the city's budget to cover the short fall in the schools? Why is it that taxes are raised. It is not the state's fault. It is the city's.
— p.e.poole
Comment removed.- The spend, spend, culture of the city, PSD, and SRC, has finally caught up with them, and the consequences are DIRE!! With the State more or less saying, "the gravytrain is over", leaving the tax-paying residents of Philadelphia at the mercy of a "tax them more now" City Administration, and a "think about the children" City Council, to DROP another tax (AVI) on the residents, without recending the "TEMPORARY TAXES" that where implemented to avert other "CRISIS" in the last couple of years!! I as a resident refuse to be intimidated or bullied into paying more taxes, without representation!!!— Dadair1
- Oh? No!— misseducation
- It is time to implement the Henry George method of property taxes, and also to modify the 10 year tax abatements for new construction.— gb
- The State RUNS THE SCHOOL DISTRICT PEOPLE.— Mackey Dingo
- We cannot have our taxes raised again impossible— the commodore
- From a financial stand point, there has been NO accountability by anybody, not from the SRC, nor the district superintendent's office, or anyone from the state or the city. Ackerman put the district in these dire straits and she was released from her duties with a full severance package - who is accountable for that decision? The SRC members that were supposed to be acting as overseers, did not; and now they have all been replaced. Why was nobody held accountable? Why is it that students, teachers, support staff, and administrators are held accountable for everything and must suffer the consequences of the decision-makers, yet these power-brokers are not held accountable for anything?
City Council should be asking these questions to the Mayor and the SRC? The State should be doing an investigation of the District financial operations and the Feds should be looking at misappropriation and mismanagement of all district monies. The taxpayers should not be further burdened by the shortsightedness and incompetencies of a short-sighted bureaucracy. Let's get to the bottom of things before asking for any additional taxpayer money, they have already contributed more than their fair-share. Accountability MUST start at the top!— slugo - More money? Really? Close the schools. Force parents to home school. Let it blow up.— Tim Henry
- Cool curtis marvin gaye jones should watch his mouth man up mite see what angry taxpayers do with little cool council people with a wife on the city's payroll— the commodore
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