Willing to listen
The new-look School Reform Commission says it wants to win the public's trust.
by Benjamin Herold
At a November community meeting, School Reform Commission member Lorene Cary (left) listens to Lisa Corbin, mother of a 3rd grader at Cook-Wissahickon Elementary.
For the first time in recent memory, Patrice Berrian-Marrujo felt that somebody in power was listening to her.
A classroom assistant for students with severe emotional problems at Levering Elementary in Roxborough, Berrian-Marrujo describes herself as a "low-level employee" in the School District of Philadelphia.
But she is passionate about her work, and she is concerned about what the District's recent proposal to close Levering will mean for her students. So on a crisp November Saturday, she joined roughly 100 other parents, students, and teachers at a community meeting at Roxborough High School to discuss the District's plans.
To her surprise, a member of Philadelphia's School Reform Commission was not only there, but spoke publicly.
"You live this, so your suggestions mean an enormous amount," Commissioner Lorene Cary told the crowd, many of whom voiced concerns about the District's school closings plan. "We are here as an SRC to encourage the District to listen."
After the meeting ended, Berrian-Marrujo approached the commissioner, tears in her eyes.
"When you spoke, I felt sincerity," she told Cary, a celebrated local author who runs a community-based arts organization. "I felt that you really are going to take this into consideration."
If Berrian-Marrujo's hopes are realized, it would represent a sea change for the beleaguered SRC.
Local advocates have long criticized the District's governing board for being unresponsive to the public. Discontent grew during the first nine months of this year, when the commission endured a disastrous stretch marked by missteps and scandal.
This September, in the wake of Superintendent Arlene Ackerman's $900,000 buyout, the criticism reached a crescendo. The city's chief integrity officer issued a report blasting former SRC Chair Robert Archie for his involvement in backroom dealing on a potentially lucrative charter contract. Mayor Michael Nutter led an effort to clean house.
In the space of a month, Archie and two other commissioners resigned. Four new members – Cary, Rutgers-Camden Chancellor Wendell Pritchett, lawyer Pedro Ramos, and former William Penn Foundation President Feather Houstoun – are joining lone holdover Joseph Dworetzky on the rebuilt SRC.
The new commissioners say they are committed to restoring public confidence in the SRC's integrity and decision-making.
Many remain skeptical.
Cary understands.
"You just have to sit with the very uncomfortable fact that folks don't trust you, and behave well anyway," she said.
Even if times were good, serving on the SRC would be a daunting responsibility.
Created when the state took over the Philadelphia school system in late 2001, the five-member, city-state governing board oversees the District's nearly $3 billion budget – the third-largest pot of public money in the state. Its members are volunteers, but in these unpaid second jobs they are asked to make decisions that will affect hundreds of thousands of families.
And these are not good times.
At the top of a long list of challenges is the District's disastrous budget situation. The SRC must still approve painful measures to finish closing a stunning $629 million hole for this year, then quickly turn around and prepare for what could be another large shortfall next year.
It's no surprise, then, that Pritchett says he has been asked the same question a hundred times since joining the commission in September.
Why take the job?
"The first person to ask was my wife," said the 46-year-old Philadelphia native. "She was worried about the perceptions of the SRC and about the difficult decisions that were going to need to be made."
Interacting with the public
No issue will be tougher for the SRC to navigate than the District's facilities master plan.
On November 2, after a year of development, District staff recommended that the commission approve a plan to close nine schools over the next three years.
Comments (51)
Submitted by Cassandra (not verified) on Thu, 11/24/2011 - 10:38.
My holiday predictions for the SDP.
The next round of SDP budget cuts/layoffs, due to arrive on Monday, will not only have a chilling effect on overall school operations, it will (more importantly) devastate district teachers' morale. After the horrendous Ackerman regime, which left teachers feeling emotionally battered, morally outraged, and bitterly resentful of both the school district AND the way Ackerman walked off with a cool million while SRC goons like Archie fled from office leaving behind a prodigious nightmare for rank-and-file classroom teachers to clean up, SDP instructors are at their very breaking point. Too many have been laid off - then brought back - then force transferred to schools they loathe in order to teach subjects they are unfamiliar with - and now face new layoffs during either the holiday season or at the end of the school year. They are seething - and they are very, very close to eruption.
May I ask the SRC: Precisely WHAT is SDP teacher loyalty supposed to be predicated upon? "Doing it for the children" is a phrase that prescient leaders are well-advised to avoid at all costs; it has become a very ugly joke to classroom staff who have been laboring under dreadful conditions for too many years for precisely this reason - while savvy insiders who don't know a verb from a vector grow rich on the sweat of THEIR daily labor. The bitterness is more than palpable. It is explosive.
It appears that our current SRC detects some sort of salvation in the mass proliferation of charter schools. I've worked for many years in both charters and public schools - in three different states. There are splendid charters and there are lousy charters - the difference being that the best charters, after their "start-up years" wherein they pretty much take any warm body to establish themselves, start getting rid of their worst discipline problems by sending them back to regular public schools, and then "cherry pick" for their classrooms all the decently behaved kids from public schools and all the kids who can no longer afford to attend parochial schools - ALL of whom have involved, caring parents. What that leaves the public schools are all the "problem" kids - the defiant, violent, out-of-control thugs; the hopelessly inept; the attendance problems; the ELL's with "personal issues", et al. Who except a saint, a masochist, a buffoon, or a depressant with no other options would willingly commit herself to a decades-long career steering a classroom of THESE?
Not that teaching in a charter school is always a walk in the park, either. Different levels/different devils. Charter school teachers (who are seldom unionized) make appreciably less; the drive to make AYP (and thus justify their school's existence and their own job) is far more ferocious; too often, they labor under the heavy thumbs of mean-spirited, mercurial, incompetent principals with no legal recourse or even the right to complain about mistreatment.
Of course, this may all change with the adoption of the new public school - charter school "compact". I firmly believe that this compact will eventually spell the end of charter school "cherry picking" - thus, turning these schools into non-unionized, low-paying "regular" public schools - which, naturally, has been the intention all along.
Perhaps it IS only tangential to these eventualities that half the American teaching force quits the profession every few years, that special education teachers now average only 11 months before quitting, that the bottom is dropping out of the college "teacher education" market as fewer and fewer candidates enroll. Perhaps it IS only my imagination, as an African-American woman in the classroom, that a district leadership top-heavy with minorities and bottom-heavy with disgruntled white teachers is a racial tinderbox. Perhaps it is misguided to fear for the future when state officials predict that the city's schools will face a far harsher economic plight come 2012 - and that 2013 will be even worse!
But as the holidays approach, I will focus on the positive, and express thanks for the fact that I am old, nearing retirement, and deeply grateful to be able to hand these problems off to a capable, eager younger generation. My blessings on you all.
Happy holidays!
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 11/25/2011 - 09:35.
All of this was Ackermania with Corbett's support. Make the inner city school system look completely dysfunctional--not that there aren't real problems--and destroy the morale of the teachers working there. Divide and destroy, a very old strategy. Don't let them foist this on us and don't fall for it. Think !!
Submitted by citizen (not verified) on Fri, 11/25/2011 - 16:47.
Cassandra,
Thanks for sharing your thoughtful analysis. I too hope Troy isn't about to burn, especially with the Trojan Horse of charters at our gates.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 11/25/2011 - 21:39.
Cassandra--Well spoke and very true too. This entire charade is designed to deunionize teachers as part of the bigger goal---to destroy worker rights as well as making the poor, hopeless. None of it is unintentional; On the contrary, people like the Koch Brothers and their ilk have tried for years and years to lesson unions' power and with the start up of the Tea Party Nazi types, the corporations have become more energized than ever in my lifetime. Hopefully, the workers of Wisconsin will move Walker out and the tide will turn in our favor once again. ALL workers need to stand together and not be conned by the divide and conquer strategies of these slithering types. If we don't win, you are right--charters which are code for corporations will rule the USA, at least in the inner cities where corruption is a given. These folks aren't playing nor should we. BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY, we need to defend our rights or they'll be gone. I am 60 and have seen lots of stuff but nothing like this effort to destroy urban ed so the rich can get richer.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 11/28/2011 - 12:49.
Don't be fooled that it is only the "right" that is trying to do away with teacher rights. Duncan, Rhee, Gates are all libs and want the same thing. All sides think that teacher unions are the reason for students doing poorly.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 11/28/2011 - 13:56.
OK--97% the right and 3% the left although Duncan is one of them. Rhee is as RIGHT as The John Birch Society. Obama has been a MASSIVE disappointment but is now sucking up the unions. What a WUS !! Not everybody thnks unions are the problem. 95% of suburban public schools do GREAT and they are all unionized. Your argument is silly without all due respect. In any case, don't you find it curious that Walker suspended all unions except cops and firepeople??? You should. He didn't want to piss off the folks who protect him. Dumb like a fox.
Submitted by Sadder But Wiser Guy (not verified) on Sat, 11/26/2011 - 09:22.
I'm laughing through my tears as I once again read about the 11 month shelf life of Special Ed teachers. I didn't even last half of this! I got my degree and certification in SPED from a small teachers college upstate. There were nine of us in my cohort, all eager to help poor, misunderstood kids in wheelchairs or suffering from Downs Syndrome or mental retardation, or kids who were bravely struggling with learning disabilities.. Two-and-a-half years after graduating, NONE of us are left in the field! We ALL got mowed down (often, literally) by "at risk" kids with unfixable "issues" and vicious left hooks. Of course, as education students we were told that there would always be lots of jobs for teachers certified in Special Education. Only we were never told WHY...Well, here's the reason. It's like painting a red target on your back and then entering a bullring with no back up support whatsoever. I won't go into the daily horrors endured or the soul-crushing paperwork; others on this site have already described them really well. But I WILL urge prospective SPED teachers to actually check out all those "wonderful" opportunities in the field on the REAP site and ask yourself these questions. Is the job for a "behavior management/emotional support" teacher or in an "alternative program"? Is it in a crummy, low-performing and persistently dangerous charter school? Is it in a classroom run by a religious organization or a quasi-medical facility that offers low, low pay and awful benefits? If it's in a good suburban district, is it a substitute stint for somebody on sabbatical or maternity leave? And are you expected to also hold additional certifications in Math or Science? Upon closer inspection, all the "golden" opportunities smell like something that definitely ain't gold. But THIS is the corner that ALL SDP teachers are currently being jockeyed into - THIS is our future - and THESE are the "opportunities" (and the kids) that will be left to us if the SRC continues on with its present public school fire sale.. It's one thing to be cooperative with the current SRC. It's another to help them dig our graves.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 11/26/2011 - 10:45.
The SRC is bought and paid for. Hopefully, the new members will have a soul unlike Archie was a crook, of course. I agree with everything you said. Unions need to demand our rights as workers and be willing to fight for those rights, not just talk and march for heaven's sake. What a joke.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 11/25/2011 - 09:23.
Who's the woman in the clown suit??
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 11/27/2011 - 12:40.
Emmett Kelly's long lost Grandchild. Could anybody appear more condescending and bored than she??
Submitted by Maria (not verified) on Mon, 11/28/2011 - 10:39.
Dreadful picture. Wonderful lady.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 11/25/2011 - 09:31.
Can you believe that Thomas Hardy, Boys Latin Charter, said that he's against charters having to toe the same line as real Public Schools?? Think about the audacity to even suggest such a thing. How dare they be monitored and held REALLY accountable. The nerve of those who have had enough of this carpetbagging and carpet bombing of the real schools. The Mastery CEO, has said the same things. Finally and hopefully, common decency will prevail. Of course, these charters need to be transparent and honest. How dare we demand that ?! By the way, ANY POLITICIAN including Nutter who defends their dishonesty, needs not be in power. How can comparisons be made without an even playing field on which to judge? Gee, I wonder why they don't want to show their cards in the first place??
Submitted by Rich Migliore (not verified) on Fri, 11/25/2011 - 10:51.
I realize it is easy for many in our community to be skeptical in the aftermath of what has transpired in the past ten years. However, may I please lend a note of positivity and hope for our future.
Over my 36 years with the district I have met many people who have come and gone. I have listened to the new SRC members, read some of their work, and seen them in action in several settings. This is what I believe:
I believe Lorene Cary, Wendell Pritchett, and Pedro Ramos are sincere professionals who want to make a difference in the lives of the children they serve and the school community they lead. I believe they may very well be the "deep thinkers" we so desparately need at this point in our history to assess the present state of affairs and lead us forward in a student and community centered manner.
They understand the need to earn trust, listen to our voices and rebuild our schools and school system. I have high hopes for our new leadership team including Dr. Nunnery and Mr. Dworetzky. In My Eyes, I see them providing positive, inclusive leadership and I give them my support.
We all need to learn from the mistakes of our past, settle our differences, heal, and move forward together in the best interests of the children and the communities we serve.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 11/25/2011 - 18:28.
I know Pedro Ramos and he will quit if he can't help to stop the corruption just as Heidi Ramirez did. This move to privatize the schools in the inner city is nothing more than a shakedown of the schools to make money for the rich and their friends like politicians.. Hopefully, clear thinking people with a moral compass will win out; Otherwise, our kids' futures are doomed. Corbett and his ilk mean us no good ! If the people in Wisconsin can rid themselves of Walker, it will be a great blow to the rich and help us reclaim our schools everywhere. All of this is tied together with civil rights and unions. All working people need to stand together and not let them divide and conquer us.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 11/25/2011 - 19:49.
"We ALL need to learn from the mistakes of OUR past, settle our differences, heal, and move forward TOGETHER 'in the best interests of the children and the communities we serve.' "
Pardon me, Mr. Migliore, but could you please elaborate on those mistakes that WE the teachers of the SDP made in OUR past? "We ALL need to learn" ... what exactly? How to smile and curtsy as our best students get siphoned off into a hundred charter schools and we are left with the students the charters reject? How to be gracious about parasites like Ackerman and Archie who raped OUR school district then fled with fortunes and influence intact while WE are now left to face wave-after-wave of layoffs as a direct result of THEIR mendacity and abysmal stewardship? How to tolerate YET ANOTHER SRC that will smugly reign over OUR declining student enrollment and OUR teacher redundancies?
How, if you don't mind my asking, do you suggest that we "settle our differences" and "heal" while we have already been promised that the rapes will continue? How exactly do you propose that we "move forward together" when (as another contributor astutely observed) we have district leaders like"Chief Talent Development Officer" Estelle Matthews and her vile poison pen letters to - and not-so-veiled contempt for - SDP teachers? (Does ANYONE vet this monster's correspondence?)
As for your "in the best interests of the children and the communities we serve" gambit, maybe you can tell me WHY exactly it is the long-suffering TEACHERS who are continuously fed this "designed-to-induce-guilt-but-also-maybe-a-virtuous-sense-of-self-righteousness" stuff while high-level administrators use OUR wildly over-developed sense of responsibility to cynically enrich themselves.
We are facing dire issues here, Mr. Migliore, that have had - and will continue to have - tragic consequences for SDP teachers. The rank-and-file have been through a LOT and we are as mad as hell. I'm sure that you're a very nice man, but please: standard proselytizing that is more suitable for bumper stickers or an old Mickey Rooney movie are NOT what we need right now. As "Cassandra" rightly posited, we are all sitting on a powderkeg. We need a lot more than sweet talk.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 11/25/2011 - 21:50.
EXACTLY---time to fight back, no more talking and playing the good soldier as they destroy us one at a time. They want Charters, knowing full well that by and large, charters are B.S. It's part of the Tea Party mentality to destroy workers' rights through union busting. People on this site have scolded me for such comments but look at the facts and tell me where I'm wrong. Mr. Migilore is living in the past with all due respect. The corporations which are exactly what charters are, are not interested in communication and justice but rather PROFIT. If we're not careful, we'll be back in a time with no unions and worker rights. It's time to do whatever is necessary to prevail or we're dead.
Submitted by Rich Migliore (not verified) on Sat, 11/26/2011 - 09:57.
I really enjoy your comment. What you speak about are examples of exactly what I mean by mistakes of the past and ills that need to be addressed and cured. They are very serious, "dire" issues as you say, and we all need to be well studied and well versed on these issues.
That is why, on Wednesday, I presented the SRC and the leadership team copies of Diane Ravitch's book, the Death and Life of the Great American School System and implored them to read every word. The profession of teaching itself is at stake and so is public education at stake.
As to my colleague who always wants to fight the good battle, may I point to the past a bit -- Some of us, in the past, actually went on strike and went to jail to win and keep the rights you valliantly want to now defend, today. We not only talked the talk, but we walked the walk. My family sacrificed for your rights and so did the families of thousands of teachers who came before. I helped lead those strikes and actions as a building committee member and building rep back in the day at Uni.
As an administrator, I always stood up for teacher empowerment, democratic leadership and democratic school govenrnace where the teachers choose their own principals through the site selection process.
I have written and spoken often about the need to "change the administrative cultue" of the school district and move forward from an adversarial culture to a collegial, professional culture. I assure you I was not endeared by Arlene Ackerman and Bob Archie for my advocacy.
What I meant by learn from our mistakes is that we must learn from our history, our successes and our failures and not blindly leave them in the past. Isn't that why we study history in Our schools?
After all, Whose School Is It?
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 11/26/2011 - 10:32.
I appreciate the clarity. I, too, was arrested and more for taking the position that my vote counts in a free society. Your earlier comments sounded far different from the one above, at least to me. In any case, I see all of this as connected to the larger focus, backed by the Koch Bros. and their ilk, to destroy unions and therefore, worker rights. Essentially, to turn back the clock 100 years. That's the past, I'm focusing on to be sure. The staffs of charters are more and more demanding, OK, requesting, more rights and money, so we'll see how that goes. In short, I just think this is Class War in the truest sense and we, the workers, need to win, period. The alternative is the death of our rights. Persons who think, "They wouldn't do that," need to look no further back than 90 years ago in the good, old USA or worse yet, 80 years ago in Germany. If that's too far back, look all over the Middle East, Far East and South America and tell me where I'm wrong.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 11/26/2011 - 11:54.
Nice touch to give the SRC members a copy of the book. Those of them who can read and comprehend may benefit from it. Excuse my insolence but I think the ship of justice and credibility has sailed. Our only hope is to step it up several notches and do whatever is necessary to win this fight. Charters and their ugly cousin, vouchers are not only NOT going to help the poor, but are designed to separate the poor from the rich even more. Under the guise of school choice, they will rip off the poor even more than usual. People like Williams, Gamble, Evans and Archie, and Ackerman don't give a rat's ass about their own people. And Corbett loves all of it and will use it against us.
Submitted by Old Guard (not verified) on Sun, 11/27/2011 - 03:23.
You are right on the money about Estelle Matthews and her obnoxious letters. I know of a teacher who received one of Ms. Matthews insulting "Three-absences-so-you'd-better-give-me-a-damn-good-explanation-right-now!" letters after the girl had had a LUNG TRANSPLANT!!! I know of a similar incident involving a fellow receiving chemotherapy! Ms. Matthews is a racist and a bully who is the poster child for everything that STINKS about SDP leadership. Divisive, Threatening and Offensive. Arrogant and Untouchable. Her previous position as V.P. and "Diversity Strategist" for Wachovia Bank greatly aided its becoming what economist James Quinn called "the worst run bank in America" with "dreadful management, poor strategic decisions, terrible timing and delusional decision-making." So, of course, our school district couldn't wait to snap her up! If the SRC is truly serious about putting the SDP house in order, it can start by dumping this tinhorn tyrant. Otherwise, it's all just the Same Old Talk.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 11/27/2011 - 09:53.
Yes, Ms. Matthews is famous for being absurd, other worldly, silly, incompetent, petulant, laughable BUT untouchable. She gots da hookup. Having said that, she can't do anything to anybody really except write her ridiculous, 3 stooges type letters. She had sent one to me a couple years and I legally put her in her place. I, too, was going through an ugly physical time. In any case, I received an apology from Ackerman herself and have never received another letter from Estelle though my condition persists. She's the answer to the question that nobody asked. A statue in search of a pedestal. As they say in South Philly, a wart on the ass of life. Needless to say, I respect her not.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 11/27/2011 - 10:46.
WHY IS THIS MORON STILL EMPLOYED BY THE SCHOOL DISTRICT??!!!!!Have ALL of us locked horns with Ms. Matthews? My story is IDENTICAL to those already posted. This madwoman is a CLOWN, a BIGOT, and a MAJOR EMBARRASMENT to the SDP. I'll believe our district is serious about "Real Change" when this fool and her outrageous f*** you letters are sent back to the circus. Who the hell is she bunking with, anyway, to maintain her job?
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 11/27/2011 - 11:04.
Whoever it is, is a far braver person than I. He/She must have a much stronger stomach too and likely blind and deaf.
Submitted by Ninja Noir (not verified) on Sun, 11/27/2011 - 12:18.
Estelle is ghetto born and good for her for keeping it real. She thinks street, she acts street, and she's Top Dog in a school district that's street. Explain excatly what is wrong with that.
PS. I bet you're from the suburbs.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 11/27/2011 - 12:38.
I don't have to tell you what's wrong---you just did!! Yes, I'm from the suburbs at 58th and Larchwood. Get a grip, skippy.
Submitted by Tired Teacher (not verified) on Sun, 11/27/2011 - 15:52.
Thank you, Larchwood, for saying something that has needed saying for a long time. I hate racists and bullies, and Ms. Matthews has been a flashpoint for a lot of anger for a lot of years.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 11/27/2011 - 19:00.
You are more than welcome.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 11/28/2011 - 22:14.
This whole three absences and you get a letter is all so bizarre to me. I have asked the question time and time again... and am going to ask it again, If you are out legitimately due to medical reasons and you supply a doctors note upon your return each time you are out, you still get one of these dreaded letters? Why? A doctor has confirmed that you are ill and that it is a medically excused absence and you still get one of these dreadful letters? Something is wrong. Does someone know more about your medical issues than your own physician?
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 11/28/2011 - 22:30.
I had a lawyer contact Ackerman's Office and received an apology and no more hate letters from Estelle. Everything you posted is correct.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 11/29/2011 - 06:08.
Thanks for replying.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 11/29/2011 - 06:57.
This is nothing more than a semi-literate thug showing her largely white "underlings" that SHE's the Queen - and they better ask "How high?" whenever she gives the command to jump. Like a previous poster said, she's ghetto. Ignorant, racist, delusional, vindictive - completely unqualified for her position, and only employed because of her "connections". NOT because of her skill or her (laughable) experience. This woman really is the source of endless conflicts within the SDP. She is Arlene Ackerman II. But Nunery and the SRC continue to kiss her rump like it was the damn Blarney stone. She MUST know where they've buried the bodies, it's the only explanation. Still, I congratulate you on bringing your lawyer into this. If Arlene Ackerman offered an apology to you, then you KNOW that this goon was way out of line.,I say we ALL call our lawyers whenever we receive one of her offensive letters - and have our lawyers call Nutter, Nunery and each member of the SRC. Maybe a class action lawsuit will finally drive a stake through this vampire's chest.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 11/29/2011 - 09:51.
Her connections would not be strong enough to withstand a class action suit. She would be canned for sure. She's just a silly person in dire need of a life.
Submitted by tom-104 on Fri, 11/25/2011 - 13:07.
Any leader who supports charters, Renaissance Schools, and Promise Academies cannot be trusted. They are a scam to take away funds and further undermine the public schools. If public schools were given the same supports as these schools and private schools, we would be a long way towards solving their problems.
Testing too has been turned into the opposite of any meaningful exercise. Testing should be used to identify students deficit areas and problem schools. These schools should then be given supplies with additional funding for smaller classes, more counselors, more technology, etc. Instead, tests are using to vilify and blame teachers and close schools, as if the teachers created the economic conditions their students come from.
Public schools have been underfunded for decades. Conservatives like Corbett scoff that funding public schools is a waste of taxpayer dollars. It this is so, why are the wealthy willing to pay high tuition at elite schools which have small classes and needed supports?
The underfunding of public schools is being used as an excuse to privatize education. This will lead to a two-tier education system where the middle class and wealthy will have adequate education while the working class and unemployed have an inferior education.
The political forces pushing for a return to segregation are under the mistaken illusion this will be good for their children. If this happens, we all lose and will not have anything resembling a democracy.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 11/25/2011 - 18:17.
Tom 104-------Again, you and I are saying exactly the same things. Charters and Vouchers are scams to undermine the real schools by ripping off money designed for them and send it post hast to Charter Operators--GREAT DESCRIPTION-- and, of course, to the pols who want their cut of the action. Any education that takes place is accidental and incidental. The rich, bless their hearts, have found a way to destroy the inner city schools while lining their own pockets. You gotta love em !!
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 11/26/2011 - 10:39.
Totally Right but they are not under any illusion about justice. It's all about money, my friend. Henry Ford himself, that splendid corporate leader, said, "The answer to every question is money and I have the money." The Koch Bros. and their buddies, feel the same way. Yes, the end of democracy is very close if they win.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 11/29/2011 - 11:25.
I would note that it took a relatively short time to find the unethical accounting in charters while the SDP has hidden far greater waste fraud and abuse for much longer and still does. Also, charters have less in pooled resources. When I pulled my child out to explore a cyber charter, I had to use the neighborhood school to maintain his Band/Instrumental group instruction. (BTW it would be a GRAVE mistake to cut the current meager Instrumental Music budget. It is one of the remaining gems that the PSD has.) He would have been allowed to participate in that schools's organized athletics as well had it had any. Even with less per child from the State than the traditional public school, the cyber was able to loan me a computer, text books, compensate me for internet service, loan me a microscope and provide art supplies. The curricula also was instrumental in his improving his literacy skills. I ended up putting him back into the neighborhood traditional because he missed his friends, but I had to acknowledge the trade off.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 11/29/2011 - 16:56.
Me thinketh you fib a bit. Charters are a fraud educationally and you got it and learned that all that glitters......
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 11/29/2011 - 17:14.
Me thinketh you short on specifics...
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 11/29/2011 - 18:33.
Me thinketh you speak with forked tongue.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 11/29/2011 - 19:01.
Thinketh what you liketh... the truth eventually outs.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 11/29/2011 - 19:09.
I totally agree with you. Those pesky little things called facts find their way to daylight.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 11/30/2011 - 08:29.
Right, and often the facts are already there, but we ignore them for various reasons (maybe we benefit from the status quo?) Here are some facts for you. It looks like the PSD expected around $246 million from the Federal government for Title I for FY 2011/12(http://www.phila.gov/mayor/school/Title%201%20Funding.pdf). Fact: in my neighborhood school's SIP (read a few years ago, but by then Title I was already well under way), there was no plan to address the failure of the African American subgroup to make adequate progress in literacy. There was a fancy "cut and paste", with technical jargon, but NO real ideas as to how to bridge what was likely a cultural gap. I bring this up to the principal -no response; I bring this to the Regional Title I sup - he acknowledges there is a problem, and basically nothing is done. In addition nearly all (90%) of the school's Title I goes to the Team Literacy Leader's salary (who btw wrote the SIP... nothing purchased to send home with the struggling kids, etc). The attitude is that this is not important and that it is SOP. Multiply this by, how many schools are there in the PSD? Take note, this is BEFORE Ackerman, and continues. Here's another fact, I go to the regional Sup (principal's boss) to ask her to hold my principal to the rules as outlined in the SD's principal's manual, and because it involves violations by the Home and School parents, her response is, "the school is losing enrollment isn't it?"
So the real fact that matters here is there is NO REDRESS other than to be able to leave. Charters are offering this. At least when they are immoral, they CAN be held legally accountable which is FAR MORE than what can be done with the PSD.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 11/30/2011 - 10:15.
Charters are offering what exactly? The truth is the people of color especially in the inner cities have always been marginalized. Now Charters and maybe soon, vouchers will be added to further minimize their hopes. The rich have found a new way to rip off the poor and their doing it. Why? Because they can.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 11/30/2011 - 10:42.
Specifically, (ask the Ed director at PTC) charters are using their Title I to bring their kids (yes inner city of color) to the Theater. Do you oppose this?
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 11/30/2011 - 11:35.
Glad to see it. If your argument is based on that, you have no argument to make. I can't help you. Follow the money.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 11/30/2011 - 11:45.
Right, I hate arguments. I look for results. You might also note that the poor also rip off the poor. I think you should say that those who are the easiest to rip off are those who make decisions based on broad generalities, and emotional hype.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 11/30/2011 - 11:57.
Sorry if I hurt your sensitive feelings about the marginalization of people of color for 400 years. I totally condemn slithering types like Ackerman, Archie, Gamble, Evans etc. who rip off their own people while playing the race card 24/7. A POX on all their houses of folks who hurt others for their own selfish gain. The persons above better hope there is no God. In the larger sense, if you're minimizing or worse yet denying that racism, primarily from whites has nearly destroyed the black race in the USA, I can't help you.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 11/30/2011 - 12:19.
Racism runs deep in human nature. It is really about fear of the unfamiliar. I am also a minority, and have definately experienced racism (in my case from both
"whites" and "blacks"). You can't help but be deeply angry when you are dished out double standards. I'm with you there; however you have to understand people do grow (often its painful) - that's what real education is about. And I do believe there is a God, otherwise why would we have different races to begin with? It's been a good conversation with you, keep finding facts!
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 11/30/2011 - 14:15.
Your connection between race and God was hard to comprehend to say the least. In any case, I don't know if there is a God or not but I do tend to find very "religious" people to be the most intolerant, bigoted folks I know, devoid of love while running to church as much as possible. The word, hypocrite, immediately comes to mind. I hope there is a God but I realize that Religion is based on faith and not facts while science is based mostly on facts and not faith. When we start running them together, problems occur as they should. I am in a Public School and had an assistant who made lots of religiously based comments to the kids until I told her to either cease or leave. She left. Think of all the millions of people who have died directly because of religion of 1 kind or another. Anyhow, hang in there.
Submitted by Ryan (not verified) on Fri, 11/25/2011 - 14:06.
This article is very well-written and informative
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Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 11/29/2011 - 11:29.
I would say that I have noticed some very sensitive and thoughtful comments here at the Notebook. I would want all of us to support the new members as they bring much needed caring and the generous giving of their time and energies. Thank you from all of us who despite our disillusioned and bitter comments still hope for better things!
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