The Philadelphia public school district is being aggressively starved of resources by Governor Corbett and the Legislature, and its Broad-trained superintendent now proposes to shrink the district still farther to save money. He is offering parents a choice of converting to charter status or remaining in the district, where they cannot count on having a library, a school nurse, reasonable class sizes, the arts, basic supplies, or anything else. Thousands of teachers, school aides, nurses, social workers, and nurses have been laid off. This is reform-by-attrition. Last fall, a 12-year-old child died of an asthma attack in her public school in Philadelphia because there was no school nurse on duty that day, due to Corbett’s budget cuts.
Before Superintendent William Hite offers to turn more students over to charters, he should conduct an investigation of the charters and their records. Philadelphia was the first city to try a massive experiment in privatization in the early part of this century, an experiment that failed because the district schools outperformed the privately managed ones. Nearly a score of Philadelphia charters have been investigated by federal authorities for various kinds of misdeeds. What is their record? Who do they accept? Who do they refuse?
This is another sorry chapter in the ongoing privatization of American public education. A superintendent selected by an unelected board–a board appointed by the state–turning over more schools to private management.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The public schools of Philadelphia do not belong to the parents whose children attend them right now. The public schools belong to all citizens, whether or not they have children in the schools. How can Hite legally pressure the parents of children in under-resourced schools to “choose” to turn them over to unnamed charters? What about the years of investment of taxpayer money in these schools?
This is the kind of “choice” you give to a two year old: Do you want to wear your blue sweatshirt or your green one today? No choice about whether or not to wear the sweatshirt at all.
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Okay, now here, in Philadelphia, there are grounds for a REAL lawsuit! Children are being denied the means to attend school unless they go along with these privatized shysters? This is an absolute and total outrage.
As opposed to the bogus lawsuit filed against Mayor deBlasio in NYC—after he approved 80% of the charter applicants!—which is entirely about harassment and public propaganda, a suit against the people who have taken control of public education in Pennsylvania is long, long overdue.
Are there any attorneys in Pennsylvania who are reading this?
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ALL clear thinking Americans should be very afraid of the corporate elite abusing the citizens. This is not hard to understand–a Dictatorship in the making in all urban areas. Apartheid 101.
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“reform-by-attrition” is right on the mark!
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I forgot to mention that this abuse is not just immoral and unethical but also clearly illegal but as in all dictatorships, the rule of law means nothing.
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I wonder if there’s a federal case to be made based on the equal protection clause, if the reduction of resources has a disproportionate impact on minority children (compared to the reductions in school districts with few minorities). I think it’s obvious that minority children are being injured by the cuts, but building the legal case might not be easy.
If it can be shown that Philadelphia public schools receive less funding than required for minimal services, thereby endangering the physical and mental health of the children, there should be some remedy in the courts. Again, if the budget cuts are not affecting all schools in the state in a way that endangers kids, there’s got to be a case in there somewhere.
I sent an email to the ACLU of Pennsylvania asking them about it: http://www.aclupa.org/
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As we all learned on Morning Joe this past week, charter schools are all fabulous and public schools are all failing. Obviously, the solution is to close the public schools and replace them all with charter schools.
Ed reformers might run into a problem because they promised “choice” and thus “no choice” is a broken promise, a violation of trust, but it’s not like people weren’t warned. They saw what happened in New Orleans.
Pick your private charter operator, well, one of the two chosen by the city, really.
How do you like that awesome “choice”? I feel “empowered” already.
I wonder if we should get more aggressive, more preemptive. I used to joke that we’d be lobbying for a “public option” in K-12 education in 10 years, but it’s moving faster than that, and maybe exploring law that establishes a public right to a public school is in order before we lose public schools completely. Maybe a state law that mandates that people must be offered at least one truly public school in each of these ed reform asset “portfolios”.
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Instead of letting them write all the state law, why don’t we write some? Many states have referendum processes, where a law is placed on the ballot by petition. Ohio’s is well-established and easy to use and this state’s charter regs are a corrupt, lobbyist-written mess. Ed reformers have had a decade to clean it up and it gets worse every year. We’d be an ideal test state.
What about an affirmative law written to protect the right to a publicly-run school in every district? Bypass the legislature in those states with a referenda process, and take it directly to voters? If nothing else we’d have a real debate. People would know what’s at stake, that they could lose public schools completely.
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What if I as a US citizen do not want my tax money supporting what is in essence a private school – charter schools? Do we as US citizens have a right to be part of a national class action suit against Philly for inappropriate use of our tax money???? Every single child in a Philly public school is subjected to unsafe conditions which even led to one child’s death! Yet Philly spends millions on high stakes tests! And now parents get this ridiculous ultimatum? How much more clear can it be that privatization is happening???? Hite cut his “Broad superintendents’ teeth” in Prince George’s County MD but left abruptly not for the love of his position but for the love of money – yes, he got a much higher salary in Philly. I wish someone with legal expertise would go after this issue. Have there been any lawyers looking into this?
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Contact Education Law Center:
http://www.elc-pa.org/
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I hope that this is not the future of Dallas ISD. Diane, please investigate.
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The law is for those who have money. Even if you find lawyers that will work pro bono, litigation would be very expensive. Anyone think that Bill Gates would fund a lawsuit?
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first off the story about the little girl is horrendous, and it surprises me that nothing was done about that. I mean if I was living in that area this governor would be out faster than he could say hopscotch.
The privatization of schools is a totally different issue. there is always a part of me that believes private schools are extremely helpful. one of my siblings growing up was the closest thing to a child genus that i think i will ever meet. Staying in a public school would have been, to say the least, sending her to hell in a hand basket. but a story like this one where private schools have become the only option, or really the only viable option is just plain scary. I hope that whatever virus is plaguing our schools stops before it is too late.
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I have to think that there will always have to be some public schools because where will all the kids go that are kicked out of the charter due to special needs, behavior problems, or general inability to score well…..believe me, I work in Philly and we get the ones that are “counseled” out of the charters. If we could cherry pick like they do, we would do better also….not to mention getting similar funds to provide the resources we desperately need, but don’t receive.
Btw….these new charters that are coming in Philly will be making all the staff reapply for their jobs. In other words, many teachers will be out of a job with no guarantee, even though they are union, of a job in the district. The jobs are getting fewer and fewer. It is frightening what they are doing. What happens when it fails?
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Well said, I been saying this all along. Public Schools have up to 20% of special needs students. Where are they going ?
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Also, Hite is trying to get rid of seniority and tenure, so principals can hire and fire willy nilly. Now that is REALLY frightening after seeing the corrupt principals in the system. It’s all about who the principal likes.
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For some of the history of the Broad Foundation in Philadelphia see:
More on Eli Broad in Philadelphia
http://tinyurl.com/lpou9hu
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Just as the insurance companies want the money for health insurance so they can profit from it, the charter schools are created to take public money for profit. We supported President Obama because we believed he would support real education reform to help public schools. Sadly, he has fallen for the ideologically driven rather than the pragmatic solutions.
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Thank you for this post. I have lived on the outskirts of Philadelphia for about 25 years, in addition to working in the City in ECE programs for 14 years. At age 40 and a trained ECE educator who now is teaching in HE is baffles me why this continues. I know in my heart the true reason for this and it does not involve children. It seems, at least personally for me that the leadership structure in Philadelphia is not one that will produce better schools. Much time is spent in the blame game and little time is spent truly thinking about why leadership is willing sentencing millions of children to a life of poverty. A true revolution needs to occur in this city. One in which teachers, parents, and community bans together to advocate for high quality education that is going to result in several things: a well educated young adult who is prepared to either go immediately into the workforce or to college. In addtion, the system would create adults who not only are productive citizens, but are life-long learners and advocates. These future adults will be our game changers. Now the system is only serving the needs of a few instead of the child.
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You hit the nail on the head. Leadership in education in the entire country is mediocre. No one should become an administer without at least 10 years in the classroom teaching. That includes Arne Duncan. How long did he teach?
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He never did teach. His mom was a teacher. He’s a third rate failed european semi pro basketball player that went to Harvard. That makes him qualified and also he’s Obama’s buddy too!
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While President Obama was not truthful about many things he said during his 2008 campaign (especially regarding his claimed support for Labor and how to deal with Wall Street), he never hid that he supported charter schools and so-called education reform.
While still in Chicago, he was associated with The Joyce Foundation, which has been a leader in fragmenting and destabilizing the Chicago public schools, which have suffered under mayoral control for almost twenty years and have been a laboratory for school privatization.
While Obama has been a Trojan Horse for the Overclass on many issues, he was more or less upfront about his views on education. The problem was that he was such a brilliantly marketed brand – “Marketer of the Year,” according to Advertising Age magazine in 2009 – and people were so willing to delude themselves about him, that he slithered in.
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William Hite – Broad Alumn. Start to see all these people are from the same place. Deasy, Gist, Harries, Cerf, etc.
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It leaves me wondering what their end game is, really? What have these supernintendos been promised will be their return on these disturbing practices? Money? Power? Is the Deep State going to make them the übermasters of us all? It can’t just be a lifetime supply of Kool-Aide.
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Because Choice!
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We have an election coming. We need to support candidates that openly support “public school education”. We are starting to see commercials and advertisements with candidates saying they support “education.” That is not clear enough. Who is paying for these ads, and how do we know we can believe their promises? This is not a Republican/Democrat issue anymore, as we can see from our currently elected officials.
And, how do we educate our parents that what is offered is not the best course for their children? Many have been snowballed by the media into believing that charters are a good alternative, and are proud when their children are accepted. They don’t know the details of the corruption and true reasons behind the growth and expansion of charters, especially in Philadelphia.
Can anyone help us?
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Horse felt, in Philadelphia, follow the lead of fearless parent Helen Gym.
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Dr. Ravitch,
This column is a “God-send”….. The duplicity and issues at Philadelphia Charter schools are running rampant. What REALLY is being swept under the rug is how teachers in charter schools are being terrorized, abused, and subjected to revolting rules and practices by administration and supervisors –all to keep their jobs. All one needs to do is check the teacher turn-over rate in Phili charters and that is a story within itself!
PLEASE, PLEASE WRITE A BLOG ON THE ABUSE TOWARDS TEACHERS IN CHARTER SCHOOLS…I PERSONALLY HAVE SOME NAMES AND ACCOUNTS THAT WOULD MAKE YOUR HAIR STAND ON END…
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