Inquirer Editorial: It's down to the grown-ups

With the opening of city schools in jeopardy, Mayor Nutter and Council President Darrell L. Clarke need to put their differences aside and fix the funding crisis.

A disappointing and abject lack of leadership has left the public schools in such dire straits that Superintendent William R. Hite was forced to make the unprecedented announcement that schools may not open as scheduled next month.

Hite made an urgent but reasonable request last week that city officials assure the district another $50 million for the coming school year by Friday. Without such a guarantee, the schools' scheduled Sept. 9 opening to 136,000 children could be postponed. The district might delay opening all 212 schools, open only some of them, or operate on a half-day schedule.

"This funding problem is real," Hite said. "We can no longer wait." Neither can students, parents, teachers, and other school employees left in limbo.

The district has already closed schools, laid off nearly 4,000 employees, and slashed programs under a doomsday budget. Hite has run out of options.

It's now incumbent on Nutter and Clarke to act like responsible adults and figure out the best way to give the schools what they need to educate the city's children.

Gov. Corbett and the legislature bear responsibility for shirking the state's obligation to schools here and elsewhere. But in the face of a $304 million deficit, the state, which effectively runs the district, offered only $15.7 million in additional basic-education funding (most of which was already budgeted), plus a one-time payment of $45 million from a forgiven federal debt.

Hite was also counting on the district's unions to make concessions, but to no apparent avail so far.

The disappointing responses from the unions and Harrisburg leave it up to the city for now. With the schools on the brink of being unable to operate, the city cannot remain idle.

Despite some misgivings, Nutter backs a state plan that calls for the city to borrow $50 million against future revenue from its 1-percentage-point sales-tax hike, a temporary increase that would be made permanent. Clarke, calling that a "bad deal," has proposed giving the district $50 million in return for unused school property. But the district has already anticipated revenue from sales of those properties in its five-year plan.

Clarke is right in principle to insist that some revenue from the sales-tax extension be used to address the city's perilous pension shortfall. But the cash-strapped district has an immediate need to bring back about 1,000 employees, including assistant principals, noontime aides, and counselors. Hite says that while an additional $50 million is necessary just to open the schools' doors, it won't be sufficient to provide a high-quality education.

It's clear that the city can do more for the schools one way or another. Nutter and Clarke must make educating the city's children their most urgent priority.