Your turn to grill Philly schools chief
If you would like to ask the new head of Philadelphia schools a question, here's your chance: Hite will appear with Second District Councilman Kenyatta Johnson to talk about schools and take audience questions at 6 p.m. Dec. 12 at Tenth Presbyterian Church, 17th and Delancey Streets.
Your turn to grill Philly schools chief
Miriam Hill
If you would like to ask the new head of Philadelphia schools a question, here’s your chance: Hite will appear with Second District Councilman Kenyatta Johnson to talk about schools and take audience questions at 6 p.m. Dec. 12 at Tenth Presbyterian Church, 17th and Delancey Streets.
The Center City Residents Association and the South of South Neighborhood Association, which are sponsoring the event, are asking that people submit questions ahead of time. You can do that by e-mailing your question to centercity@centercityresidents.org. Put “Dr. Hite” in the subject line.
I’ll be out of town, but if I could go, I would ask:
1) Per-pupil spending is much lower in the Philadelphia School District than in surrounding suburbs. What can you or anyone here do to change that so that city children might be on more equal footing with those in other cities?
2) For decades, parents have fled to the suburbs once their children reached school age. In some parts of the city, that appears to be changing, but the trend will last only if more middle-class families see district schools as a good option for their children. What would you do to make Philadelphia schools more appealing to families who can afford to move out of the city?
- Don't worry, they bring the goon squad with them and intimidate the audience.
— Magistra® 
Why do you ignore Union contracts and give raises to the already highest paid and unneeded top Administrators?— charleycarey- Yes, the way I hear it is that HR is so inept that they thought Mrs. Ward was two people. Just ask those that work with her. They'll tell you that she is two-faced and she is so big and round that it's conceivable that she could be seen as two different employees. — Magistra®
- too poor to learn. great. let's stop wasting $2.7 bil/yr.— pointguard
But only one topic has become a passion: the pleasures and challenges of raising a young child in the city.
Not too long after her son was born four years ago, she started hunting around for day care, which triggered her ongoing search for a good primary school. Public, private or charter? Stay in the city or move to the suburbs?
And then there are the more mundane questions, such as how many games can you play while sitting on a stoop?
Please join her in the conversation about raising children in Philadelphia and about making this city better for kids. She is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, but her only personal obsession is not football, but Bruce Springsteen. As he might have said, it’s hard to be a parent in the city.
You can also follow Miriam on Twitter here.
