Phila. City Council hears more pleas for increasing school funding
One day after a heated hearing between City Council and school district officials, on Wednesday parents, teachers and advocates had their turn and delivered a straightforward message to Council: We need more funding.
One day after a heated hearing between City Council and School District officials, on Wednesday, parents, teachers, and advocates had their turn and delivered a straightforward message to Council: We need more funding.
"I will stand with City Council and ask those tough questions of the district about what they're planning to do with our money," said Susan Gobreski, executive director of the nonprofit Education Voters Pennsylvania. But "I am here to say to City Council: Please let's pay that bill that we've been sent."
In the audience at the hearing, a group of students held large, brightly colored signs that read, "$105 M" - a nod to the $105 million Mayor Nutter's proposed property-tax increase would potentially haul in for the School District.
Nutter has called the 9.34 percent increase a sustainable revenue stream for the district.
But Council - which opted to not debate the tax increase until after last week's primary - has pushed back on the plan.
At a hearing Tuesday with district officials, members of Council expressed skepticism on a broad range of topics, including how the additional $324 million it had given the district in the last four years had been spent.
While some of the nearly two dozen people who testified Wednesday spoke in support of Nutter's plan, many more gave a general plea for additional funding, added resources, and improved educational programming.
Several members of Council responded favorably to the speakers.
"A principal should not have to choose between a math teacher and a nurse, between an English teacher and a counselor," Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell said.
But no member proposed an alternative to the tax increase, leaving Council's next move still unclear as the June 30 budget deadline nears.
Mark Gleason, executive director of the Philadelphia School Partnership, a nonprofit founded in 2010 that advocates for public, charter, and private schools, urged Council to phase in the tax increase over several years. Other speakers had other proposals, including increasing the use and occupancy tax on commercial real estate, and putting in place a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes program for nonprofits or a tax on soda (a plan that has twice before failed).
Many, including parent Rebecca Poyourow, urged Council to provide funding despite uncertainty over whether the additional $159 million for Philadelphia schools proposed by Gov. Wolf will materialize.
"We don't have time to play chicken with Harrisburg," Poyourow said. "There is no magic bullet. And no one else is coming to the rescue."
215-854-2730 @TriciaNadolny