Inquirer Editorial: William Penn assist will aid schools

A $1.5 million grant from the William Penn Foundation is a welcome vote of confidence in the Philadelphia School District's new managers, but it's not the reliable source of additional annual funding that the system needs to thrive.

The grant will be used to pay Boston Consulting Group, which has worked with other financially troubled school districts. William Penn also pledged to help identify other private funders to invest in the district. Those funds, if received, could go a long way toward putting the district on firmer financial ground for now, but the future remains murky.

William Penn deserves applause for trying to help the district close a $38.8 million budget gap by June. A $269 million deficit is projected for fiscal 2013. Penn President Jeremy Nowak said the foundation made sure the revamped School Reform Commission, with four new members, was making "smart" moves before offering its donation.

Led by new chairman Pedro Ramos, the SRC has made several critical strategic moves, including pushing aside interim superintendent Leroy Nunery II and chief finance officer Michael Masch, and hiring former Philadelphia Gas Works head Thomas Knudsen as the district's first chief recovery officer.

It is hoped that the Penn Foundation's public display of confidence in the district's new managers will pave the way for others in the philanthropic community and the corporate sector to also offer their assistance.

However, the district still must devise a long-term plan to restore financial stability, so it can avoid the annual drastic budget cuts that jeopardize classroom learning and other valuable education and school security programs.

A new study this week gave high marks to the district's two-year-old Renaissance program, which has transformed 13 low-performing schools that were praised for their impressive gains in student achievement and attendance.

More chronically failing schools should be similarly overhauled. But with the district in dire fiscal straits, it appears unlikely that the Renaissance program begun by former Superintendent Arlene Ackerman will get the funding it needs to expand.

The bottom line for Philadelphia and most of Pennsylvania's school districts is they need better support from the state. For a second year, Gov. Corbett's budget would eliminate a $100 million block-grant program mostly used to pay for full-day kindergarten. That's just wrong. The district must spend more wisely. But the state must fund wisely, too.