On education, Nutter 'doesn't get it'

"MITT Romney doesn't get it." That's what Michael Nutter said at last year's Democratic National Convention.

The mayor jabbed hard and fast at the Republican contender on the subject of education. Never mind that Philadelphia's schools have been in perpetual crisis for years.

And here we are again, $304 million short. His plan? Try to keep the blame on Harrisburg. If they won't raise vice taxes, don't blame Nutter for the fact that our kids' schools, if they are still open, do not have foreign language or music or art or counselors or nurses or lunch-room aides or secretaries or security or disciplinarians or librarians or books or paper.

It is not Nutter's fault if teaching becomes the most demoralized and unattractive profession in the city with weak wages and benefits.

Nutter knows his responsibilities. At the convention he told us that he learned to be responsible for his community even as a child and holds those lessons dear today.

"That's what being a mayor is about," he said. "We take care of our own. We keep our neighbors safe, clear the snow from their streets and educate their kids. We get stuff done."

Schools are the anchors of our neighborhoods. They can affect everything from crime rates to property values.

Nutter admitted as much when he said, "In Philadelphia, our public safety, poverty reduction, health and economic development all start with education."

Further, schools draw families and keep them in our city. The traditional neighborhood public school is uniquely set to fulfill this function.

Catholic schools also once stood as neighborhood institutions, but now they are fewer and more costly. Charters don't serve as centers of community. We can't pay for everyone to go to private school. We can't bus everyone. Cyber-school schemes are especially inappropriate in a poverty-stricken city like ours.

Real community-based public education will always be crucial whatever the mix of alternatives. If we don't find proper and stable funding for these neighborhood pillars, people simply will not want to live in Philadelphia and the city's revival will fail.

Nutter doesn't get that. He can give all the speeches he wants, but the buck stops with him. He is the mayor and as such is supposed to "get stuff done." Alas, five years into his tenure he has not done so on the most fundamental issue in the city.

In North Carolina, Nutter mocked Romney: "If our teachers can't give our children the attention they need, that doesn't matter? If our students spend the day on their feet, or the floor, because there aren't enough desks in a crowded classroom, that doesn't matter?"

He railed against Romney for a budget that "would mean fewer teachers and bigger class sizes."

If the mayor does not show leadership beyond last-minute proposals likely to fail with no articulated contingency plan, his budget will not mean much more. It is not an understatement to say that the fate of the city hangs in the balance.