Sources: Corbett will appoint Green to lead SRC

GOV. CORBETT will announce today that he is appointing City Councilman Bill Green IV to lead the School Reform Commission, the Daily News has learned.

The Republican governor's appointment of Green, an ambitious Democratic politician with an outspoken and sometimes combative style, is an intriguing development for the beleaguered School District of Philadelphia, which is still reeling from a $304 million budget deficit revealed last year.

It's unclear where Corbett will make the announcement, but he will be in Philadelphia this morning for an event at Central High School, where activists plan to protest his administration's cuts to education funding.

Neither Green nor Corbett's office responded to requests for confirmation of the expected announcement, confirmed by sources in both political parties.

The Daily News in November was the first to report that Green, the son of former Mayor Bill Green, was lobbying Republicans to support his bid to fill the SRC vacancy created when chairman Pedro Ramos stepped down.

The SRC, which took control of the district in 2001 to bail it out of a funding crisis, includes three appointees from the governor and two from the mayor.

Green, now in his second term on Council, earned headlines early in his career for his commanding knowledge of the city budget and for aggressive questioning of Mayor Nutter's deputies during budget hearings. After Nutter proposed closing some libraries to save money during the recession, Green successfully sued to keep them open.

During the past year, however, he was uncharacteristically quiet in Council and absent for most budget hearings.

He's often mentioned as a potential candidate for the 2015 mayor's race. With Philly voters telling pollsters that education has become a primary concern, a successful tenure atop the SRC could be a platform upon which to build a mayoral campaign.

But Green will have to get results fast if he is to join the 2015 race, which should be in full swing by the end of the year.

Green has supported expanding charter schools, introducing vouchers, lengthening the school day and year, and making it easier to fire underperforming teachers - policies that won't sit well with the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, which for months has been at odds with Superintendent William Hite on how to reach a new contract.

The Republicans Green had lobbied for the SRC post include state Rep. John Taylor, the only Philly Republican in the General Assembly; City Commissioner Al Schmidt; and state GOP Chairman Rob Gleason, who has known Green's father for 50 years.

Also under consideration for the job was former Pennsylvania Convention Center president Al Mezzeroba, a Republican.

Farah Jimenez, who heads the People's Emergency Center, a social-services agency for the homeless, is also expected to be named by Corbett to fill an SRC seat recently vacated by Joseph Dworetzky, sources said.

Meanwhile, the Inquirer reported last night that Corbett will propose at least $100 million in new education funding as a central plank of his next budget.