In my last post, I asked whether it is fair or wise that we spend so much less on children in Philadelphia district schools than we do on kids in most other districts.

That prompted a commenter named Ken Byers to ask: "Property tax revenues don't rival those of Haddonfield because people who live in Haddonfield pay extremely high taxes. Mine are 13k a year. What do you pay?"

It's a great point, so let me rephrase my original question. Is funding schools via local property taxes smart? To paraphrase Brett Mandel, an expert on Philadelphia property taxes and a former candidate for city controller, that lets a zip code determine the quality of a child's education.

The current system is arguably unfair to people in Haddonfield and to people like me. Ken's taxes are very high (though I would bet I pay more in wage taxes), but he gets good schools. My property taxes are low, but Philadelphia schools are generally poor.

Of course, lots of factors affect student performance. Money is only one. But wouldn't Philadelphia students have a better shot at success if the amount spent on them was closer to what is spent in most suburbs?

As a parent considering Philadelphia public schools, I can tell you that if my school offered a foreign language, it would be a lot more appealing to me and my husband.

A couple of readers also mentioned that my original post left them feeling as if I hate suburbanites. That's not true. I prefer to live in the city, but I may well move to Haddonfield and pay the higher taxes there because they are a bargain compared to the cost of private school in Philadelphia. Ken's $13K would still be far short of the $20K and up many city parents pay to send each child to a private school.

Isn’t there a better way for all of us? I’d love to hear reader ideas on whether our current system works and what might work better.

Finally, to the reader who noted that many Philadelphia teachers pay hundreds of their own money for supplies for their students, which subsidizes the district, a big "Thank You!" Teachers shouldn't have to do this, but they do, because they believe every child deserves a good education. Again, money matters.

With so much talk about cuts in Philadelphia schools, it's easy to get the impression that the problem is overspending.

I have little doubt that a system with 70,000 empty seats can identify savings, but even so, it seems like we are ignoring a major difference between what most suburbs spend to educate children and what Philadelphia does.

Philadelphia schools spent $13,272 a year per child in the 2009-2010 school year. In Lower Merion, where many city parents move once their children reach school age, that number is $26,570.

Of course, Lower Merion spends more than any other district in the state, but it's not like Philadelphia even comes close to matching what most suburban kids get.  Philadelphia is in the bottom 20 percent of Pennyslvania cities, ranked by per-pupil spending.

Of course, we all know that money can't buy you love. It probably can't ensure that a child is well-educated, especially in families where parents aren't focused on education.

But as a parent who does care about education, I'm angry that living in a city where property-tax revenues don't rival those of Lower Merion or Haddonfield or any of the suburbs where so many of my friends with kids live, means that I may have to move or choose private school.

The problems of relatively well-off families like mine are minor compared to those of most families with children in the district. Eighty percent of them are poor.

But keeping middle and upper-class families in the city matters. Philadelphia needs our taxes. The city cannot succeed if most of us leave.

If you want more proof that it matters, consider that the University of Pennsylvania kicks in $1,330 a year per child at Penn Alexander, the West Philadelphia public school sought after by so many parents. It helps keep class sizes small there.

So tell me, why do we allow these huge inequities in school funding?

If you want to read more about school funding in Pennsylvania, go here.

There was lots of good advice on finding a school for your child at last night's panel discussion on choosing an elementary school. Ok, Ok, so I was one of the panelists, but I'm not talking about myself here.

My fellow panelists, Martha Benoff, a certified school psychologist, and Luise Moskowitz, who is on the Outreach Committee for the Home and School Association at Greenfield Elementary, were chock full of helpful tips, which I'll share here.

Benoff started out talking about a news story she had seen recently that tracked several New York families as they sought to get their children into an elite private school there. The families believed that the preschool their children attended would set the course for the rest of their lives, putting immense pressure on 4-year-olds to perform.

Benoff urged the crowd not to adopt this mentality. "There is no one right school," she said. "There are many right schools."

She also talked about how many parents, including me, feel overwhelmed at the number of school options in Philadelphia, a feeling she calls "too muchness." It's counterintuitive, but having too many choices often induces anxiety.

So, just calm down, trust what your gut is telling you as you visit schools, and know that you will probably make the right choice in the end.

Moskowitz said people should be practical when considering schools. If the dream school for your child involves a 30-minute commute, do you really have time for that? It's about more than just avoiding  a stressful morning. Tardiness can affect your child's ability to get into other schools, she said.

Greenfield is probably the most popular choice among parents seeking to transfer their children within the Philadelphia School District. Moskowitz said the number of children that Greenfield accepts from outside its boundaries varies from year to year, but this year, the school is filling up with catchment children. She thinks only about 10 from outside the catchment will get into Greenfield.

Moskowitz also said she did not yet know how expansion plans for Greenfield, which were recently announced by the School District, would affect the school.

 The discussion, which took place at the Ethical Society, was hosted by the Center City Residents Association.

There is a saying that goes something like, "God never closes a door that he doesn't open a window somewhere." It came to mind while reading my Daily News colleague Ronnie Polaneczky's column on the closing of St. Bridget's Catholic school in East Falls.

She reports that many St. Bridget's parents were pleasantly surprised when they took a look at Thomas Mifflin Elementary, a Philadelphia public school where Leslie Mason, a principal who has been there since 2009, helped heal past problems.

With some St. Bridget's parents now considering Mifflin, Polaneczky wonders whether it might finally become a true neighborhood school.

I've said this before, but this column is a great opportunity to say it again: Take a look at your local public school. It can't hurt, and you may just find that it exceeds your expectations.

For many parents, getting a child into Masterman is a dream. The high school is considered among the best in the country and, because it's a public school, it's free.

Admission is largely based on test scores, and to get into the high school, children generally need to get into Masterman's 5th grade first. Last year, only a handful of Masterman’s 110 9th grade seats went to students who were not already enrolled in the middle-school program, according to this article by Benjamin Herold in The Philadelphia Public School Notebook.

Even if your child gets into 5th grade, admission to the high school is far from guaranteed.

So how do you get your child into Masterman? It helps to go to Meredith Elementary, Penn Alexander or Independence Charter School, the Notebook says. Those names are no surprises, one reason it's virtually impossible to get into them if you don't live within the boundaries for those schools or nab a lottery spot at Independence.

But who would have expected to find Solis-Cohen Elementary on the list? Maybe that's well-known, but I, at least, had never heard of that school, which sent 15 children to Masterman from 2009 through 2011. You can find the list of the 12 elementaries most likely to send graduates to Masterman in the Notebook article.

Of course, teasing out cause and effect is impossible in a situation like this. Are the schools that The Notebook identified as "Masterman feeder schools" really better, or do they tend to have more children from upper-income families, a big factor in predicting test scores?

The parents at Bache-Martin Elementary, which serves the Francisville and Fairmount neighborhoods, have big dreams for an interior courtyard at the school. They want to turn into a garden and play space for the children and are trying to raise money to make that happen.

The project takes a step forward this Saturday, April 14, when volunteers gather to spruce up the courtyard and plant flowers and greenery around the school's exterior at 2201 Brown Street. Anyone can help from 9 a.m. until about noon.

The Bache-Martin parents are joining with the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation, which awards 250 scholarships to college-bound high school seniors every year who have demonstrated a commitment to community service and leadership, in the project.

Coca-Cola will send volunteers and donate two rain barrels. The school plans to incorporate the garden in it science curriculum.  

If you live in the city, choosing a school for your child can be overwhelming, but it seems like a good sign that there are at least more opportunities to talk about it.

One of them is coming up April 18, when I will be part of a panel discussion titled "School Daze: Choosing the right elementary school for your Center City Child." The discussion is from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Ethical Society, 1906 Rittenhouse Square.

Martha Benoff, a licensed psychologist, and Luise Moskowitz, who chairs the Outreach Commmittee of the Home and School Association at Greenfield Elementary, a public school in Center City, will join me on the panel.

Come if you want to learn more about how to find a "good fit" for your child and for yourself. We will talk about the differences between public, private and charter schools and about how to make the process less stressful for parents.

The discussion is free for members of the Center City Residents Association, which is hosting the event. Cost is $5 for everyone else, but hey, refreshments will be served, so basically, between the food and the information, this is one of the best deals in town.

When I started thinking about where to send my son after preschool, one of the first things I did was go to a talk by Len Lipkin, founder of the Philly School Search blog, an incredible resource that you can find here.

Lipkin has found a school for his children and no longer updates his blog, but his talk has helped me and many others clarify their thoughts about raising a child in a city where good public options seem limited, waiting lists for charters are long, and private is expensive.

So on the 18th, come, try the "talking cure" and see if it helps you think about your school search as much as it helped me.

Kids are so much fun, but figuring out how to entertain them can perplex even the most creative parents.

One West Philadelphia parent filled daughter Zora's days recently by visiting every playground near their house for 31 days straight, on playground for every day in January, and writing about it at http://zoraplays.com/

Read it and find out which playgrounds have monkey bars, which might be a good spot for a family reunion and which have a lot of trash.

Got an idea that could educate kids and make you a little money? Then get your application in to Philly Supporting Entrepreneurship in Education, or Philly SEED, to compete to win up to $5,000 for your idea.

Applications are due TODAY for the March 28 competition. More info. here.