Skip to content
News
Link copied to clipboard

Ad campaign touts charter and Catholic schools

A new Philadelphia education group is on the scene. On the airwaves, in print ads, and online, an organization called PhillySchoolChoice.com says it aims to build a coalition of parents to spread the word that charter schools, Catholic schools, and district magnet schools are options for city students.

A new Philadelphia education group is on the scene.

On the airwaves, in print ads, and online, an organization called PhillySchoolChoice.com says it aims to build a coalition of parents to spread the word that charter schools, Catholic schools, and district magnet schools are options for city students.

The group is affiliated with Choice Media Inc., an educational-advocacy nonprofit in Hoboken, N.J. On Monday, it began airing 30-second spots on television featuring unnamed city parents talking about how their children have benefited from charter and parochial schools. Two new ads will be unveiled each week in the monthlong campaign.

"What parents want is to be able to pick what is best for their kids," said ad campaign spokesman David P. Hardy, chief executive of Boys Latin of Philadelphia Charter School in West Philadelphia.

PhillySchoolChoice said it would not back candidates and has not taken any stands on legislation. In addition to the ads, the campaign has YouTube videos and is on Facebook and Twitter.

Bob Bowdon, Choice Media's founder and executive director, declined to say how much the ad campaign would cost.

He also refused to identify who was paying for the campaign. Bowdon said questions about money were distractions being raised by teachers' unions and others intent on maintaining the status quo.

The amount Choice Media is spending on the ads, Bowdon said, was "a grain of sand on the beach compared to what [teachers'] unions have spent on television campaigns over the years."

Choice Media operates a website that aggregates education-news articles and videos. On its most recent nonprofit tax filing, it reported revenue of $301,592 for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2013. The source of the money was listed as "educational."

Bowdon said the Philadelphia ads would give real parents - who are not being paid - an opportunity to tell their own stories about charter and Catholic schools.

"It's like a lifeline for our sons," a mother says in one of the spots.

"These people are the most authentic sources for information on what ought to happen with schools," Bowdon said. "They have no stake in this game other than wanting what is best for their kids."

But the decision to withhold information about the campaign's funding and backers has raised concern among some longtime school advocates.

"There is a lot of money invested in school choice in Philadelphia, and there are groups lobbying around it and for it," said Helen Gym, a founder of Parents United for Public Education.

She said that knowing who was paying for the ads and who was behind them would provide important context.

While PhillySchoolChoice supports district magnet schools, Bowdon said, none of the ads will feature magnet parents "because no one is opposed to magnet schools. We could have done an ad for them, but it seemed less important."

Bowdon made a documentary movie about New Jersey schools, The Cartel, which the Choice Media website says "reveals the nature and extent of corruption in public education."

He said he hoped the Philadelphia campaign could persuade the School Reform Commission to approve new charter schools to meet the needs of thousands of students on waiting lists.

Gym said she was troubled by an outside group that did not have public school parents on its board presuming to speak for them.

"We just think that the public needs to be aware," she said, "that there are a lot of players and actors moving to dramatically alter the landscape of how Philadelphia schools are going to look."