Philadelphia, which has been under state control for a dozen years, has a massive deficit. Governor Corbettt imposed draconian budget cuts when he took office.

The state’s solution to Philadelphia’s fiscal crisis: strip the schools bare. Lay off thousands of teachers, gut the arts and sports, libraries and guidance counselors. This hurts students. Which suburb would tolerate the gutting of its public schools?

That is not “shared sacrifice,” as Daniel Denvir explains in this article.

He writes:

“The School District is demanding $133 million in labor concessions to plug its $304 million budget gap. That’s more than twice as much as it requested from the city, and $13 million more than what it’s seeking from the state — which cut nearly $1 billion from school funding statewide (that’s you, Gov. Tom Corbett) despite its constitutional obligation to fund public education and, critically, its direct control of city schools for the past decade.”

And more:

“Philadelphia teachers are paid 19 percent less than their counterparts in suburban Bucks and Montgomery counties — counterparts who typically work in schools with less violence and less need. Relentless teacher-bashing paints incompetent educators as the root of big-city school woes, and offers high-stakes standardized tests and union-busting as the only solutions. But this is backwards: It is the failure to value teaching as a first-class profession that makes recruiting and retaining good educators a bigger problem than firing the bad ones. Lower pay will make it all the more difficult for Philly.”