Hite: Philly would suffer if state runs low-performing schools

Legislation that would create a state-run system for low-performing Pennsylvania schools could devastate the Philadelphia School District, its superintendent told the Senate Education Committee in Harrisburg on Wednesday.

William R. Hite Jr. said he favors accountability for additional funds he seeks for Philadelphia.

But as written, a bill that would compel struggling schools across the state to improve rapidly or face relegation to a new state-administered system would "create an unfunded turnaround mandate, resulting in the stripping out of supports and programs from schools left under district control," he said.

Senate Bill 6, introduced by Education Committee Chairman Lloyd Smucker (R., Lancaster), is modeled after state-run districts created with mixed success in places like Tennessee, Massachusetts, and Louisiana. But, Hite noted, additional resources bolstered those efforts.

Philadelphia - which has the vast majority of the state's lowest performers, nearly 100 - lacks adequate resources, not the will to overhaul its schools, Hite said.

"The current funding structure is a zero-sum game - in a period of scarcity, every additional dollar allocated to turnaround is a dollar pulled out of other schools," the superintendent said.

He likes the idea of more flexibility to overhaul struggling schools, and a streamlined process for shuttering low-performing charters, Hite said, but takes issue with some of the provisions in the bill, like one that would force districts to jettison principals and at least half of their teachers.

"The legislation should leave room for school-specific decisions about leadership and teacher turnover," Hite said.

The proposed law comes amid increasing focus on school accountability. Gov. Wolf has proposed a substantial increase in education aid, but some Republicans have balked. Smucker's bill, which has attracted some bipartisan support, could serve as a way to make the school-spending increases more palatable.

"I do, from my own perspective, see the need for additional funding" in Philadelphia schools, Smucker said, but he added that he wants assurances that the dollars are driven to turning around low-performing schools.

While Hite sounded more cautious, one key Philadelphian did tell the committee he was in favor of the legislation.

School Reform Commission member Bill Green, in a letter to the education panel, said that while Philadelphia has made many attempts at reform, "even when we find great school leaders to turn around long-struggling, high-poverty schools, work and other rules hamper potential transformation."

The bill, Green wrote, would help speed change:

"I favor the provisions in the proposed Achievement School District bill giving districts greater ability to hire outside managers and staff, to hire skilled school turnaround leaders who may lack traditional certifications, and to close or reconstitute schools."

Green noted that while the district has a strong leader now in Hite, that might change.

"In such an unfortunate circumstance," Green wrote, "the Achievement School District will prove necessary for Philadelphia's families."