Who is behind schools' nonrescue rescue?

EARLIER THIS month, a "rescue package" for Philadelphia schools was delivered by Gov. Corbett. After digging through all of the bubble wrap, unfortunately, there wasn't much in there to get excited about:

*  The state Legislature's nominal increase in education funding actually restores only a fraction of what has been cut over the last two years, and most of that had already been included in the district's budget.

*  Philadelphians were given permission to continue to pay 2 percent more in sales tax; but the district, already laden by debt, would have to borrow another $50 million against it until the city could begin collecting in 2014. (Council President Darrell Clarke subsequently announced that he wants almost half of the projected money to be used to make up deficits in employee pension funds.)

* $45 million from a onetime loan forgiveness by the federal government - still tentative - was whisked away until such time as the governor's secretary of education determines that the school district has implemented as yet unknown requirements, including more fiscal responsibility (they say that with a straight face) and changes in work rules.

Who tied the ribbon around this cheesy gift? Chief negotiators included David L. Cohen, executive vice president of Comcast; and Robert Wonderling, president and CEO of the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce and former Republican state senator. The Chamber of Commerce had lobbied successfully in City Council to kill passage of the proposed Use and Occupancy Tax increase, which would have raised an estimated $30 million for Philadelphia's schools (and did not require permission from the state legislature). The Chamber also testified against increasing the liquor-by-the-drink tax and against any reduction of the ten-year tax abatement. In addition to representing Philadelphia's largest corporation, Cohen has become one of Corbett's major fundraisers. Cohen was not sent by students or parents to represent them in closed-door dealings. His role was to provide the governor with an opportunity to look good and to help get him reelected.

How were representatives from the corporate community, neither elected by nor accountable to anyone but their own members and stockholders, allowed to take on the mantle of education advocates?

Perhaps most shockingly, the Philadelphia School Partnership's executive director, Mark Gleason, was actually lobbying the state not to fund schools. Gleason, in a July 3 interview in the Public School Notebook, defends the efforts of the Partnership to convince legislators to withhold money from the district until teachers and other union members agreed to major concessions, including elimination of long-held collective-bargaining rights.

What good is a rescue package that doesn't rescue anyone? There is still not enough to begin to bring back any of the 3,800 laid-off district employees. Students will soon be returning to schools without counselors, librarians or secretaries. Neither the School Reform Commission chairman nor Superintendent William Hite have publicly expressed outrage over the governor's craven disregard for the children of Philadelphia.

Parents, students, teachers and community members should heed the advice given recently by noted educator Diane Ravitch: "When the next election comes around, the people of Pennsylvania should hold accountable those who inflicted harm on the state's most vulnerable children."