The irony of Philadelphia’s turn to privatization is that Philadelphia had the most extensive trial of privatization of any city in the nation about ten years ago. The district schools outperformed the privately managed schools, which lost their contracts. But that predated the charter movement, which is now hyped as having a secret formula to raise test scores at a lower cost.
This comment came from a retired teacher in Philadelphia.
He writes:
As a retired public school teacher, I have watched Mayor Nutter promote charters over public schools in the seven years he has been Mayor. He is current President of the U.S. conference of Mayors (Michelle Rhee’s husband, the Mayor of Sacramento is Second Vice President) http://tinyurl.com/lfzgl32 where is has been promoting the corporate education reform agenda.
Last week he joined other Pennsylvania Mayors to demand that Governor Corbett restore the $1 billion he cut from education in his first year in office. Mayor Nutter held a separate press conference with charter operators to say that more money was needed to expand charters.
For the history of the Philadelphia education crisis see:
The 2013-14 “Doomsday Budget” of the School District of Philadelphia: How Did It Come to This?
http://tinyurl.com/mwkclqr
Diane Ravitch's blog 
To see Philadelphia Mayor Nutter in action, watch him in this clip from the Monday night Chris Hayes Show on MSNBC. Note how he ignores the question about Corbett cutting education funding by $1 billion and at the same time increasing prison funding by $700 million. All Nutter is concerned about is promoting the expansion of charter seats.
http://tinyurl.com/meydcp9
Philadelphia in 2013-14 has $11,833/student. It looks like they have purposely spent the district into hell. This is what they do. Anyone can overspend and supply their friends with mass quantities of interest over a long period of time. I call this “Permadebt.” This is not an accident as it has happened over a long period of time. They are not out of money they are just porking their friends.
I saw Nutter not able to contain himself with Chris Hayes last night. Without a question, he was saying “charter schools are public schools” repeatedly. Democratic politicians like he and Booker are filling their campaign coffers with these positions. They must be defeated at all costs even if it means a Republican gets elected. Obama, Malloy, Nutter, Emanuel, Villaraigosa, Booker and the list is growing of Democrats who have sold out public education. This strategy must be countered with severe consequences for its practitioners.
I cannot see turning to a Republican as the solution (Corbett in Pennsylvania). We have got to break out of this box we are in with the Democratic-Republican party. The Democrats are the good cop to the Republicans bad cop for the 1%. We need a party with a program for the needs of the 99%!
Like philaken, I can’t see any Republicans being pro-public education either. There are plenty of examples of Republicans that are doing their best to destroy public education.
Speaking of candidates, does anyone know Hillary’s positions on education?
Read Carl Bernstein’s book about Hillary, particularly the pages regarding her tenure as Arkansas’ First Lady and the kerfuffle with the Arkansas Teachers Union and testing. I greatly admire her and did vote for her in the Democratic primary, but that whole situation does give one pause. If she runs again, she needs to be thoroughly questioned (as should any candidate) about her education stance.
I Agree we need to defeat these politicians that threaten public education.
Here is an excellent article about:
Corey Booker : A clear and present threat to public education ( date 9- 28-2910)
http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/cory-booker-clear-and-present-threat-public-education
More information about Corey Booker
Fruit From the Poisoned Tree:
The Hard Rights Plan to Capture Newark Nj
( date: April 5, 2002 – much older article,very informative)
http://www.blackcommentator.com/poisoned_tree.html
He’s just another bought out crook.
A crook, and one of the smarmiest and most insufferable politicians around.
I wonder if it was inevitable that politicians would prefer charters over public schools. They aren’t really responsible for a varied “portfolio” of charter schools, not in the same way they are for city-wide public schools.
No elected leadership or fractious school boards to deal with, no real way to reach the mayor with complaints on the schools, instead just an ever-changing group of individual schools headquartered in places other than these cities. Privatized schools must be a politicians dream come true. Pass out funding, then leave the rest up to the various charter chains.
It’s easier to sign a check than it is to run a school system.
One other thing. It is becoming clear that “choice” is yet another unmet promise of school reform. Philadelphia Catholic schools have lost 30,000 students to the privatized charter system. There are now two entire school districts in Michigan where parents have no choice but to send their children to for-profit charter chains. If Philadelphia goes 100% privatized, and the Catholic schools are closed, the only “choice” will be a privatized charter.
So much for that promise, huh? No choice at all.
Nutter is a regionalist promoting the likes of UNESCO through his status on the board of ICLEIhttp://www.icleiusa.org/about-iclei/board-of-directors/mayor-michael-a.-nutter and pretty much in the tank for the Deleware Valley Regional Planning Commission, DVRPC http://www.dvrpc.org/RegionalTrailsProgram/and its goals to rob the suburbs and distribute swag, while following precisely what the sustainable development bibles such as the agenda for the 21st century put out by the UN. chapter 36 http://www.un-documents.net/a21-36.htm.
He is on the 2005 list of the “New Democrats” following third way politics,http://nord.twu.net/acl/research/thirdway.html, with alot of those in the headlines today. the money denied philly schools seems to help further the dialectic to shut down the Catholic schools further as well as many of the public to fascilitate the charters. charters are the public private partnerships unaccountable to the public which fund them and the parents who’s children attend them. same system as common core, unaccountable third party partnered with govt and public funds (pearson, microsoft) Democrats have been selling out philly and the black community especially, for the last 50 years. Corbett is jeb bush and Nutter is Obama and charters are common core. a republicn has little chance in philly as mayor and the governor is offending his base, so he will be out, everybody is getting screwed in philadelphia. unless you are a stakeholder, even so you will eventually lose. all the children lose.
The saddest part about it is that the children will get less of an education with a narrow curriculum so someone can make money. Disgusting. The mayor is supposed to be a leader looking out for what is best for every school child. Now it’s all about handing money over to profiteers. What sellouts.
They set NCLB rules on public schools so they will fail and then close them. Surprizing though is they set the same rules on private and those in charge turn a blind eye when they fail. The only “successful” schools are ones that eliminate low scoring kids and that is well documented now.
Individualized school is the solution, with technology being only a piece of the puzzle. Community learning, authentic assessment, take kids from where they are and on and on. When we do these things, the dominoes begin to fall. Which is also the title of chapter 2 of my latest book, Saving Students From A Shattered System.
Read it if you have the guts
Oh my…worse than ever. How sad. Thought Lisa Nutter, Mayor Nutter’s wife, was an advocate for public education. And so it goes…horrid.