Hearing paints grim picture of city schools
Philadelphia City Council's committees on children and youth, and education, held their first state-of-the-schools hearing Thursday and got a grim picture of an underfunded and ill-supported district.
Philadelphia City Council's committees on children and youth, and education, held their first state-of-the-schools hearing Thursday and got a grim picture of an underfunded and ill-supported district.
Councilwoman Helen Gym said she wanted the hearing, along with three March community meetings, to provide priorities leading to budget season.
"We understand the School District has endured years and years of budget cuts," Gym said. "We're trying to understand the district's priorities, and how do they match up with student needs?"
Speakers included members from the immigrant community, nurses, counselors, education experts, and one representative of the district, Karyn Lynch, chief of student support services.
Gym took Lynch to task for the 173 current teacher vacancies.
"So 5,200 children don't have a teacher in front of them on a daily basis?" Gym said, multiplying the vacancies by an average class size of 30. "We can't even start to talk about education if a child doesn't have a teacher in front of them."
Later, Philadelphia Federation of Teachers president Jerry Jordan provided data on the number of schools without full-time nurses (123) and full-time counselors (49).
Peg Devine, the only full-time nurse at Lincoln High (1,500 students), said principals were handling emergencies and administering medication.
"Our most fragile students are receiving inconsistent care from nonmedical staff," Devine said.
Gym asked Lynch to provide Council with the cost to put a nurse and a counselor in every school, noting some estimates say it would be $20 million.
Absent from the four-hour hearing were any members of the School Reform Commission. Acting Chair Farah Jimenez was scheduled to testify but did not attend. The hearing fell on the same day as an SRC meeting.
That didn't stop some Council members from expressing their discontent.
"I think eventually we're going to run into them when they come in here to ask for funding," said Councilman David Oh.
Council also asked a panel of education experts about Mayor Kenney's proposal to bring to Philadelphia 25 community schools - locations with wraparound health services.
Kate Shaw, executive director of Research for Action, an education research nonprofit, said the model had positive results when done well but was very expensive. Cincinnati used a $1 billion capital bond to create community school buildings.
"Given this current environment, it's hard to imagine how it's going to happen in the state of Pennsylvania," Shaw said. "That doesn't mean research suggests we shouldn't go in that direction."
The most emotional testimony came at the end of the long afternoon, when most of the audience had already left.
Michelle Racca, a counselor at Parkway Center City High School, at Broad and Spring Garden Streets, spoke about the impact counselors have. She's the lone counselor for the school, which once had four.
"These people pulled from the schools are the backbone of every school," she said. "They are not just extra support. I have shirts stained from tears and makeup. . . . We've helped students, sat with them when they tell their parents they're pregnant, or gay, or that they've been raped . . . and we've learned, by graduates with tears in their eyes, that we were the single reason they made it through high school."
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