The mayor of Philadelphia says there is no difference among different kinds of schools, be they public, private, religious, charter, whatever.
He sees no special responsibility to support public education.
In a sense it is understandable since the people of Philadelphia lost control of their schools to the state years ago.
And the state imposed a massive privatization scheme, which failed.
And now the state control board for the public schools wants to try privatization again.
Parent activist Helen Gym explains to Mayor Michael Nutter why public education matters to the people of Philadelphia.
Investigative reporter Daniel Denvir followed the money trail and uncovered a reason for Mayor Nutter’s indifference to the powerless people of Philadelphia: the big money in the city and suburbs is betting on privatization. The campaign to privatize the schools of Philadelphia has raised $50 million, while the public schools are neglected by the powerful.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Do you consider parochial schools part of the privatization effort?
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In Philadelphia, they are. I have always been a supporter of Catholic schools, but I oppose vouchers. I would love to see the Gates and Walton Foundation create an endowment to preserve Catholic schools. At present, charters are literally killing inner-city Catholic schools by absorbing so many of their students, whose parents can barely afford the tuition of parochial education.
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In the run-up to the final state budget vote, the Philadelphia Archbishop called for Voucher Sundays in which parishioners testified why vouchers were necessary. Archbishop Chaput has been a vocal proponent of vouchers as a necessary saviour for parochial ed in Philadelphia. This month the church announced that it was turning over a number of its schools to a private foundation, the first privatized Catholic effort in the nation.
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If he doesn’t understand the differences then he probably shouldn’t be in the position he is in.
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Nutter gets a soft touch from the press because he’s a NeoLib punk. His education “policy” – as evidenced here – is just another facet of his predictably reich approach to things. See also his treatment of Occupy Philadelphia.
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Way to go Danny Denvir. Why can’t more members of the media tell it like it really is the way he does?
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Denvir is clueless. His extreme agenda is in all of his stories. He finds conspiracies in every public or private action that isnt consistent with his “vision” of how the world should work. Philantropists are entitled to try something new. they arent required to throw money at the same system that has turned out several generations of barely literate and unemployable citizens. It ironic that the CityPaper, which is funded primarily on the exploitation of women and other “escort” ads, lets Denvir lecture good minded citizens about how they ought to express their generosity to the children of Philadelphia.
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I find Denvir’s articles to be thoughtful, carefully sourced and insightful.
The fact that he has discovered the full-court press to privatize Philadelphia’s public schools is important. It shows that what is happening in Philadelphia is happening in many cities, where millionaires and billionaires who have never sent their own children to public schools have decided to turn control over to private organizations, despite Philadelphia’s past history of failed privatization.
To say that privatization is “innovative” or “new” is especially wrong in Philly, because Philly tried it and it failed.
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