Inquirer Editorial: Schoolchildren are the victims

Last year, a group of parents and educators meeting with the Inquirer Editorial Board voiced concerns about the funding crisis facing the city's schools, but they had warm words for local elected officials who they said were fighting for schoolchildren.

The group seemed perplexed when their confidence in the politicians was questioned, but perhaps they feel the same skepticism now. Months later, public officials have yet to take the steps necessary to fix the system's structural deficit - and schoolchildren are suffering as a result.

Inquirer education writer Kristen A. Graham has been detailing the suffering. In articles this week, she reported that the college plans of some of the School District's best students have been unduly delayed by a lack of high school guidance counselors to help them meet application requirements.

Central High School, by many measures one of the city's best, has many students planning to attend top-tier colleges. The school once had eight guidance counselors, but now it has only two for its 2,400 students. It takes weeks for students to get an appointment with a counselor for help with an application or letter of recommendation.

The city's largest high school, Northeast, had 11 counselors for its 3,000 students five years ago, as well as an innovative tracking and outreach program to help students, in particular ninth graders, adjust to an environment that can be overwhelming. Now the school has only two part-time and two full-time counselors, one of whom is responsible for 1,000 students.

The counselor shortage has gotten the attention of State Rep. Brendan Boyle (D., Phila.), who says he is hearing a lot of complaints about it from constituents. His proposed solution is legislation to require all the state's school districts to maintain a student-counselor ratio of 375-to-1 in elementary schools and 325-to-1 in high schools. Boyle hopes Gov. Corbett's poor poll numbers in an election year will move him to support the measure, which would require additional state funding to pay for more counselors.

The state should indeed boost its support for public education. Only eight states contribute less to schools, according to the Education Law Center.

But Philadelphia must do more to take care of its own. Mayor Nutter and Council President Darrell Clarke sparred for months over tax changes proposed to provide more money for schools. Their debate suggested they didn't fully appreciate the gravity of the situation. Upgrading the public schools will mean more in the long run than any other effort to make Philadelphia more attractive to potential residents and businesses.

If local elected officials acknowledged that, they wouldn't place their hopes in a governor who didn't show much interest in city schools prior to election season. And they wouldn't just tinker with taxes. They would take a top-to-bottom look at the city budget, decide which programs and services are not as important as investing in Philadelphia's schoolchildren, and redirect money accordingly.