Community group: closings unnecessary, $ crisis misstated
Complete coverage of the Philadelphia School District by the Philadelphia Inquirer's Kristen Graham.
Community group: closings unnecessary, $ crisis misstated
Kristen Graham
A coalition of community and student groups and the city’s teachers’ union said it has figured out a way to avoid school closings, continued painful budget cuts and what it says is the suppression of public will in the public education process.
The solution? Focus on improving instruction. Ditch the School Reform Commission. Shift the way schools think about safety and discipline. Halt charter school growth. And, perhaps most importantly, force Harrisburg to fund the Philadelphia School District equitably, making up billions in aid that would fix a broken school system, the education advocates said.
The “Philadelphia Community Education Plan,” announced Thursday by the Philadelphia Coalition Advocating for Public Schools, is a 40-page document developed as an alternative to a set of recommendations issued by the Boston Consulting Group, consultants hired to study the district and recommend ways to radically overhaul its finances and operations.
Some kind of course correction is necessary, district officials say. The system is in dire financial straits, projecting a $1.1 billion deficit over the next five years.
It just borrowed $300 million to pay teachers and heat buildings through the end of this school year.
Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. has said that he regards BCG’s work as a guideline, not something he is bound to follow. He has publicly come out against some parts of the BCG analysis, including its recommendation to divide the district into “achievement networks,” groups of 25 schools run possibly by outside organizations.
Hite is expected to release his own report detailing priorities for the district in early 2013. He has said he will listen to any relevant information — including the community plan — as gathers information for his document.
But the community plan disputes one of the district’s central assumptions — that it is broke.
“The supposed fiscal ‘crisis’ is largely a fallacy. The real crisis we face is one of misplaced priorities: Philadelphia’s traditional public schools are being unnecessarily starved of resources, and our children and youth are suffering the consequences,” the report said.
Andi Perez, executive director of Youth United for Change, one of the organizations that produced the report, said she realized that the amount of funding allocated by state lawmakers was not directly controlled by the SRC.
“But as Philadelphians, we can’t lay down,” Perez said in an interview. “We need to develop a unified, statewide strategy with folks from around the state to reinstate the funding strategy.”
The report suggests that the district and the SRC — three of the five members are gubernatorial appointments — have inappropriately surrendered without a fight, and with more effort could extract billions from Harrisburg.
The BCG plan, if enacted, would have “devastating” consequences for the already-weakened district, the group concluded.
In the past two years, the district has lost nearly 1,500 teachers; 86 percent of non-teaching assistant positions; 101 school nurses and more.
The community plan calls for several fixes: from “high-quality learning conditions” and “comprehensive student supports” to “support for struggling schools” and “truly safe schools.”
It also calls for a moratorium on school closings. Last week, Hite recommended the district shut 37 schools and order program closures and changes and grade reconfigurations at dozens more.
Another key tenet of the plan is ending the SRC, which replaced the old school board in 2001 when the state took over the distressed school system. The plan does not specify whether the new school board should be locally elected or appointed by the mayor, as was the prior practice.
It also takes aim at city charter schools, which currently enroll nearly 50,000 students. The proliferation of charters has unfairly sapped the traditional public school system, the report said.
The report estimated that an “oversized” charter sector and continued charter expansions would cost the district about $2 billion in the next five years.
The plan was developed after a series of community meetings and a survey of 1,594 parents, students and community members, organizers said.
“Our research found that there was overwhelming opposition to the BCG plan throughout Philadelphia,” the report said. For every Philadelphian that supports the plan, it said, seven oppose it.
Those interviewed, the report said, generally believe that the BCG plan would worsen the quality of education, lower the quality of teaching, harm student safety, and lead to inequalities for students of color, poor students, special education students and students learning English.
The report said that community voice is remarkably lacking in both the BCG report and the current administration of the district, and that must be fixed.
Further proof that most of the population is ill equipped to calculate pension liabilities.— theodotius- Pensions are not the real issue. Just another red herring thrown up by those who wish to cloud the discussion.
- Pensions are not the "real" issue? Really, obviously you know NOTHING about pension costs. Currently the pensions and benefits are 1.11 BILLION per year (not salaries, pensions and benefits). Total budget is 3.6 BILLION. Pensions are almost 33% of the entire operating budget. Pensions are growing 8% per year. In just 5 short years pensions will be 50% of the entire budget. But hey, don't worry it's not a real issue.
- Bull! The mismanagement of Public funds by Private interests is the issue. Charter schools, and the SRC have completely ruined the districts finances, not the people who work for a living. The pensions are in trouble because the criminal governor refuses to fund them. Period. Believe your FOX news propaganda all you want, but realize you are being controlled.
Fact the state provides 65% of the cities costs to run the schools. FACT performance is horrible. FACT using lower Merion as an example, the state provides about 11% of their funding. The city is broke, the taxpayers are broke and the teachers and parents only want more. They are not willing to help make things better!- Pay your taxes! A quality PUBLIC education for EVERY child is essential to the establishment of a prosperous democracy.
- Game is over - City can't print money - the teacher's union had a nice run - a full year's wages for 8 months' work, 6 hour days, sick leave, fat cat pensions - too bad they and the rest of the unions and corrupt pols have bankrupted the City - must have missed the lecture about not killing and eating the golden goose. March all you want, that thing you see behind you is the sunset.— PhillyDaniel
- The teachers are the last people in the city with jobs, you fool! We need more good paying jobs in Philadelphia, not less.
The drip drop destruction of the PUBLIC (education).— Cuddles- Public Education doesn't work anymore:
-Its been infected by under-performing teachers whom cannot be fired.
-Its been infected by children whose parents view schools as surrogate baby sitters.
-Its been infected by a "me first" mentality of Administration.
Louisiana had a great new program going where parents could send their children (and their school tax dollars) to better performing schools and that was struck down by a judge after the teachers unions complained they were losing power.— Professor1982 - Anyone with no respect for education has absolutely no business calling themselves professor. Shame.
- Ladies and Gentlemen, Cuddles has no right to comment about any school issue since he is a property tax delinquent. Pay your taxes Grandpa Tank and you can help save Philly education.
— DarnelX - If you are not awake.. you better get up now!!! This is why ackerman was asked to leave.. Nutter used ackerman as a scapegpat... Ackerman would have not agreed to play the role hite is playing!!1 he fooled you by offering ackerman 9$00,000.. tryna make her look like the bad guy!!! Nutter must go!— noncents
- let's call this what is, a production that was planned and paid for by the pft in collusion with "education activists" like helen (who does she work for?) gym. they profess that they can reach into an empty pocket and pull out cash. i'm not sure their anti charter rhetoric plays well with the many sdp employees who send their children to charter schools. what if we made a law that said you can't send your children to a charter if you work for the district? certainly illegal, but imagine the uproar. if they think charters are bad, why doesn't the union propose it. this is the dirty little secret they refuse to address.— pointguard
- how about a law that says that the fair contribution of tax revenues from AVI and expired abatements go towards funding the education of the children whose families have weathered the economic turbulence of the last 40-90 years?
— Pluski
During the school year, you’ll frequently find her hosting live chats about the district on Philly.com. Please do pass along the scoop about what’s going on at your Philadelphia public school; Kristen welcomes tips, story ideas and witty banter at kgraham@phillynews.com or 215-854-5146.
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