No doubt about it, Sister Mary Scullion is a warrior. But The Inquirer 2011 Citizen of the Year, who received the award in a program Wednesday, admits the battle has been made more difficult by governments shrinking their budgets.
In off-the-cuff remarks to guests at a luncheon, Scullion paid particular attention to Gov. Corbett’s proposed budget, which goes so far as to cut general-assistance welfare funds. As she rightly noted, political leaders need to understand that cutting some costs can be more expensive in the long run.
Taking money from the poor increases the likelihood that some will end up joining the ranks of the homeless, whom Scullion tries to help through the Project HOME organization she and Joan Dawson McConnon cofounded in 1989. Under their leadership, Project HOME has grown from an emergency shelter into an agency that provides more than 500 units of affordable housing, employment services, and jobs through three other agencies.
Scullion said she still fervently believes that homelessness can be eradicated in Philadelphia, but it requires more effort to address the root causes of the problem, one of the most glaring being a poorly educated population.
That’s certainly a message that Corbett, who wants to cut higher-education dollars and stand pat on K-12 funding, needs to hear. But it also should add some urgency to local efforts to improve city schools. It helps that new city School Reform Commission chairman Pedros Ramos is a long-time member of the Project Home board.
 | Join on Facebook |  | Follow on Twitter |
- Brendan Calling
- City Howl
- City Paper's "The Clog"
- Commonwealth Confidential
- Daily Kos
- Heard in the Hall
- HuffPost
- Inquirer Editorial & Commentary
- Judges on Merit
- Metropolis
- The Pennsylvania Policy Blog
- Phawker
- Plan Philly
- phillyist
- philadelphia will do
- Philly Clout
- Philly Post
- Qewz: News in Perspective
- Trudy Rubin
- School Notebook
- Talking Points
- WHYY It's Our City
- Will Bunch/Attytood
- Young Philly Politics
- Dick Polman
- NewsWorks
- May
- April
- March
- February
- January
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- News | Sports | Business | What's Happening | Restaurants & Food | Entertainment | Living | Marketplace | Jobs
