Schools must be consolidated

By Audrey F. Bronson, Carol Fixman, and Rob Wonderling

In an effort to realign its schools to reflect changes in student population and needs, the Philadelphia School District is expected to release its final facilities master plan on Wednesday. Ensuring that the district has the right number of facilities for the students it's educating will be a complex undertaking. That's because Philadelphia has seen a dramatic shift in the educational landscape in recent years.

Demographic shifts, the proliferation of charter schools, education funding cuts, and other factors have left the district with 70,000 more seats than it needs. As a result, some of the city's public schools sit half-empty and are poorly positioned to provide the best possible education to the children left in their classrooms. Students at these schools are often underserved, with part-time nurses or teachers and specialists who divide their time between two or three schools.

The solution for these students and their parents is to rebalance the district's facilities and resources in a way that optimizes operations and services. The ultimate goal of the master plan is to allow the district to deliver better services to students and to create the flexibility to respond to future developments that could affect district enrollment. That may include charter school growth, Catholic school closures, and voucher legislation.

The greatest change in the delivery of education is coming in the form of charter schools. A decade ago, there were 34 charter schools operating in the city. Now there are about 80, serving approximately 45,000 students.

Competition like this is healthy, and it should be welcomed and supported. The emergence of new education options is a boon for parents and students, and it forces schools that want to operate in this competitive environment to improve, restructure, or close.

It's this competitive dynamic that makes the district's plan to consolidate and close some schools timely and necessary. Rather than idly watch its student population dwindle, the district is choosing to make its schools more competitive. The facilities plan will ensure that it has the right number of schools, strengthen its academic programs, rebalance its resources, and allow it to respond to budgetary and other uncertainties. Executing it will leave the district in a much better position to improve its viability in a marketplace that is quickly becoming more competitive.

Most important, the district has not taken this step in a vacuum. Since last November, it has engaged the public in a series of 29 community feedback sessions that were attended by about 1,400 citizens from all over the city. The district took their views into account in crafting the final plan.

In the coming months, there will be more community meetings about the specifics of the plan. Parents, students, and others are encouraged to attend these meetings and make their voices heard. We all must engage the district over the next few months as it works to realign its infrastructure.

It's time for the district to become a more viable competitor in a challenging marketplace. With this facilities plan, it has chosen to do just that, and the result will benefit its students as well as the city's overall educational landscape. Please support this initiative.