Faced with a stock of aging, costly buildings and tens of thousands of empty seats, Philadelphia School District officials recently announced a plan to shut one in six Philadelphia schools.
»Read story: Some closings would shift students to buildings in worse shape
»Read story: Some closings would shift students to buildings in worse shape
Comments (49)
It is not how many dollars you have to spend, it is how wisely you spend them. For decades the schools have squandered the tripling of their funding on bloated management and greedy unions. Every time we see a story about how the school blow millions on corruption and paybacks, those were the dollars that could have gone to fixing the buildings. The answer is not to throw more money at the thieves, it is to get rid of them. Starting from the crooked Democrat bosses who run the city, to the clueless administration and the corrupt unions - they all got to go. Hum, sounds like charter schools could be the answer.— Beethoven987- Remember that the State took the school district over 15 years ago because they said it was financially unsustainable. Since then many of the decisions have been made by Republican appointees and the city with its "democratic bosses" have had little to no say. — phil80
- You said it, Beethoven. The corrupt management that works at 440 continue along with little or no change in their daily routines despite all of the changes going on around them. These are mostly connected patronage jobs. Lots of husbands and wives and family members collecting relatively HUGE paychecks compared to what they actually do.
Here is the key phrase in this article: "Also, experts caution, large-scale urban school closings often fail to net the cash that districts expect they will."
My take is that Hite, who is the ultimate temporary employee with an average position lifespan of only three years, has to do something big and quick in order to successfully further his career. He will close all of these schools and before we learn what a mistake it was, he will be long gone out of town at his next assignment. Just like his infamous predecessors. Look at Ackerman and her Imagine 2014 plan. Who would have imagined that The Queen would have greatly contributed to the destruction of The School District, be gone in 2011 with a buckload of cash, be in the consulting business in New Mexico in 2012 and be dead and burried in 2013. That is the great lie. They come in and talk the talk and come up with a five year plan and are gone in three. Our students are left with the bill and the medicine show has gone to the next town.— DarnelX - We are literally replacing solid PUBLIC School buildings for Charter Schools that soon, if not now, will be the back room of the corner store.
Just what is the location of "Cyber Schools"?
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— Cuddles - Phil80, you have NO idea what you are talking about. In the city of Philadelphia Democrats control ALL school spending, all of it. Remember Queen Arlene? She PERSONALLY, directed how over 600 MILLION dollars in EXTRA federal funding was spent. This was over a 3 year period. She flushed every single dollar down the toilet. This money could have EASILY been used to transform the school district for DECADES. Democrats pissed away every single dime.
- This is not a "Philadelphia" problem. Throughout Pennsylvania and America for that matter, in Rural Republican districts and Urban Democrat districts, our children are falling further behind the world.
The nation that gave us Jonas Salk and Vivian Thomas now only offers Kid Rock and Snoop Doggy Dogg as more and more of our doctors, nurses, engineers and spelling bee champions are born overseas: This was years in the making, if not decades.
A far bigger factor than "Republican" or "Democrat" is that PUBLIC Education has been belittled since May 17, 1954.— Cuddles 
Comment removed.- Absolutely. It's obvious that they're shifting students out of the buildings charter operators most desire. Our kids education is for sale, and our kids deserve better than the dollar menu.
- We can make all the small jokes and point blame at different Presidents and officials, but until this Country gets serious about our kids and their education, this is the expected result. Dilapidated buildings, low expectations and the result falls upon society. Stop writing on website message boards and write to your local officials.— hipdaddy
- hipdaddy, another poor, misguided liberal. There is no mention whatsoever in the Constitution that the taxpayers have to pay for schools. The government needs to get out of the education business the exorbitant burden it places on the 53% of us who actually pay taxes — NickTEA
- Actually, there is, but like a typical RepubliCon, you've never actually read it.
- Isn't it obvious that the intent is to force parents to put their children in charters? At the community meetings the District held in December and January the parents were unanimous in not wanting their community schools closed. The number one reason there are so many "empty seat" is because the public schools are not safe. This is because safety officers and support staff have been cut.
Due to a conscious decision by the SRC, the public schools have been underfunded over the last five years while the charters have been built up. Charters have been made appealing even as the public schools have been neglected. Now the SRC claims they expect young children to walk great distances in unsafe areas to get to school, and older students are to be sent to unsafe high schools when neighborhood school populations are combined. The intent is to force parents to put students into charters. So much for "choice"!
A large part of the deficit is due to the build up of charters. Most charters perform no better academically than public schools, and some worse. Imagine if funds had been put into fixing schools physically and academically over the last ten years. New buildings built, enough support staff provided to unsafe schools, sufficient resources and lower classes provided to schools that are failing. We could be in a different place...except there would be no profit from the privatizing of public schools.
— tom-104 - Buildings alone done educate our kids. It takes committed parents (MARRIED ONES WHERE THERE ARE 2 PARENTS) who care and are involved in their kids education. Kids with babies cant possibly get ahead and quickly turn to welfare and food stamps. Once there there is more reward to more bad behavior- more welfare and more food stamps (oh, I mean more "Housing Choice" and more "SNAP" benefits) for each illegit kid they have. IF these people vote, who do you think they will keep in office, the ones who keep giving them "free stuff" or the ones who try to change the broken system they benefit from. — tseller
- This comment has been deleted.— thinkforyourself
- How do you explain that the first several demands from the union always have to do with improving education for kids such as smaller class sizes, more security and safer classrooms, more plentiful books and computers???? When the SRC does nothing when a building is in total disrepair or unsafe who do you think raises awareness to fix the issue?
Your Right to Work states-mostly in the dirty south -is what's wrong with this country. They are the China or Mexico to the rest of the country. Undercutting living wages, giving huge tax cuts to corporations, and getting rid of all regulation so they can have unsafe workplaces and ruin the environment. I am sure you lambast China for ruining American manufacturing by allowing companies to do whatever they want. How is this any different?— phil80
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