Philly school district officials: what we have doesn't work
Complete coverage of the Philadelphia School District by the Philadelphia Inquirer's Kristen Graham.
Philly school district officials: what we have doesn't work
Kristen Graham
School Reform Commission Chairman Pedro Ramos was blunt in a Tuesday news conference (which I live Tweeted here) announcing that the Philadelphia School District's current structure will essentially be blown up.
"What we know through a lot of history and evidence and practice is that the current system doesn't work," Ramos said.
The future, Ramos and Chief Recovery Officer Thomas Knudsen said, will include decentralization, performance-based "achievement networks" of schools that operate on contracts, and, beginning in 2013, 40 fewer school buildings for the district to run. After closing those schools, the district plans on shutting six more schools per year through 2017. (It does not plan on teacher layoffs, Knudsen said, but it's not clear how it's possible to close 40 buildings and not lay off any teachers.)
And the budget? Ugly. There's a $218 million deficit for 2013 - and that will be higher if Mayor Nutter's Actual Value Initiative doesn't pass City Council. (And it doesn't currently have the votes to pass.)
The SRC and administration said that unlike in years past, they will not rely on borrowing huge sums of money to pay for recurring costs and day-to-day expenses. They won't be able to achiveve a balanced budget next year, but will get there by 2014, Knudsen said. "We’ve learned that truth in budgeting is ugly, but it’s better than not knowing what the real deal is," SRC Commissioner Feather Houstoun said.
Next school year will be a transition year, with a pilot "achievement network," development of a new curriculum, better training and recruitment of principals and teachers, new safety initiatives, expansion of high-performing schools, etc. etc.
It's change on a massive scale. Stay tuned.
Has anyone bothered to survey the families of those Catholic schools that are closing to determine if they intend to put their kids into th epublic school system? It costs between $15,000 and $20,000 for a kid in public school per year. Have these genuises even asked this question? What planning!— The Monk- Take one look at that photo of Knoodle and Masch and you have your answer. Masch has been holding the purse-strings for the past three years so no wonder we are in trouble. Masch's salary is paid by Philly property tax and he had to be embarrassed into paying a couple years back taxes by an Inquirer investigation. What a shlump Masch is.
When they say the current structure doesn't work, what the criteria? This group seems to be looking at one thing: the budget. Everything they are doing is centered around cutting costs. What about educating kids? Charter Schools are not a proven success but they are moving forward with closing schools. And if Charters don't work out, how do you fall back to traditional public schools if the facilities are gone? Is the 8 consecutive years of improved test scores not proof that public schools can be fixed? Now the entire structure needs to be blown up? We now have Republicans calling the shots. Republican believe the government should not be involved in education. To achieve that goal, you destroy public education.— MikeP
Comment removed.- This is the opposite of the truth. Statistics, rather than CleanupPhilly's assumptions, prove that two-thirds (most, Cleanup) of Philly's charter schools are no better - and often worse - than its public schools. When your child is moved to a charter school, folks, the odds are that he or she will be transferred to an inferior institution and receive an inferior education.
No one should be buying Cleanup's unsubstantiated, blatantly political rants. There
is bipartisan stupidity at work here - and too much silence from parents.— Stand for Something - CleanupPhilly, you're comparing apples to oranges. Before you continue advocating Charter Schools and promoting the elimination of Public schools you should ask yourself, "why are Charter Schools so much more in demand than Public schools?"
If Philadelphia Public Schools could expel the same students who are disruptive or not meeting academic expectations (as the Charter schools do) then you could argue that public schools are inferior to Charter schools. As a PSD teacher I strive to teach all of my students, regardless of their individual needs, but when very little support is provided from home, the school administration, or the district office, then I am forced to deal with the students in my room yet I am solely judged on their academic success. If there is no consequence for negative behavior then what is the incentive for students? If there were no laws would adults "do the right thing" and continue an orderly society? Children are no different. In the absence of structure, discipline, or high expectations children will follow the path of least resistance.
To clarify, the district administration acted fiscally irresponsible and pushed self-serving agendas, not the PSD employees. It's easy to blame a nameless, faceless entity than to face the truth; that corporate and government bureaucracy breeds mismanagement and corruption if left unchecked. Teachers are on the front line attempting to do a very difficult and thankless job and should be thanked or, at the very least, left alone to do that job than to take abuse, blame, and ridicule from misinformed citizens like yourself.— rychefan208 - So you like the scores based on NCLB requirements? Which Republican is the villain in your story here? Democrats run this mess, raised property taxes 10% and 4% in successive years, and still can't get their acts together. They had a budget based on Federal money that is now gone (under a Democrat), but it's still the Republicans. This school district stinks, the middle class still move out when they have kids, and there is no plan to correct the union and administrative problems that the Charters don't have (yet). — battman21
- I couldn't agree more with MikeP. Those are exactly my concerns.— realzoe
- Comment removed.
- You are so full of it. The vast majority of charter schools are no better or worse in AYP test-based results than comparable regular public schools. The bad charters are not getting closed at the rate they should be. — F. Harry Stowe
- prove it! show me the data that was not altered by the data ppl. at the charters. further more... if you pay teachers less, who will buy properties in philly? who will purchase cars, food, clothing, etc. do you want the teachers to be the working poor? really! do you want 15,000 people in this town to earn less? what does that do to our economy? again, the only low performing schools are in the worst economically depressed parts of the city where the parents do not know how to navigate our society. also, talk to the teachers at those charters, they leave in three years because of poor working conditions and pay. you want the rich (charter ceo's) to get richer while the teachers starve! there is no evidence that says for profits work. none! this will be another failure. — ceage
- Comment removed.
- Guess MikeP ignores the years of mismanagement by the previous admins huh— DontTreadonme
- Mike P hit the nail on the head. Sounds like the Koch brothers are running SDP. This is not only sad, it's short-sighted. All the $$ will go to private companies that will cost more, in the end. Privatization is not good for public education.
— sabelotodo - Comment removed.
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.
You can also follow Kristen on Twitter here.
