Thanks to the Keystone State Education Coalition for sending daily updates, invluding these.

Governor Wolf complained that Philadelphia public schools could not afford the loss of revenue to charters. The public schools have an $80 million deficit, and more charters will increase rhe deficit. Charters complained because they wanted more approvals.

SRC feels heat for adding five charters

KRISTEN A. GRAHAM, INQUIRER STAFF WRITER LAST UPDATED: Thursday, February 19, 2015, 7:59 PM POSTED: Thursday, February 19, 2015, 5:31 PM

The School Reform Commission continued to take heat Thursday for its decision to approve five new charter schools, with critics from both sides railing against the action. Mark Gleason, executive director of Philadelphia School Partnership, said he was “deeply disappointed” that the SRC approved only 2,684 seats Wednesday, rejecting proposals by qualified schools.

PSP, a well-funded, controversial nonprofit dedicated to expanding strong schools, had offered $25 million to help defray new-charter costs, but for now, that money is off the table, Gleason said. Advocates of wide charter expansion cited pent-up demand for strong charters, with thousands on waiting lists for the schools, which are paid for with public dollars and run by independent boards but authorized by the Philadelphia School District. Others, including Gov. Wolf and the teachers union, say that any new charter seat strips children of needed resources in the already financially desperate district.

http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20150220_SRC_feels_heat_for_adding_five_charters.html#67IgxL85B3MRbfB5.99

SRC blasted from both sides on charter vote

SOLOMON LEACH, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER LEACHS@PHILLYNEWS.COM, 215-854-5903 POSTED: Friday, February 20, 2015, 12:16 AM

ELECTED OFFICIALS and education reformers yesterday voiced frustration with the School Reform Commission’s decision to approve five of 39 charter applications.

The commission voted during a raucous meeting Wednesday to grant charters to Independence, MaST Community, KIPP, Mastery and Freire. The approved applicants are the first stand-alone charters granted in the city since 2007 and will provide an additional 2,684 seats by 2019.

Despite the measured approach, those on both sides of the issue were unhappy with the outcome.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20150220_SRC_blasted_from_both_sides_on_charter_vote.html#6THjO0RWyR9hZD64.99

Gov. Wolf decries Philadelphia’s charter school expansion

York Dispatch by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS POSTED: 02/19/2015 01:23:42 PM EST

PHILADELPHIA – Philadelphia’s School Reform Commission has approved just five of 39 new charter school applications, but Gov. Tom Wolf and a teachers’ union say any new charters will be a financial strain on the city’s public school system. Wolf issued a statement after Thursday’s vote saying the district, which projects an $80 million budget deficit next school year, can’t responsibly handle the approval of new charter schools.

The commission granted conditional three-year charters to: Independence Charter School West, KIPP Dubois, MaST Community, Mastery and Tech Freire.

http://www.yorkdispatch.com/breaking/ci_27558115/gov-wolf-decries-philadelphias-charter-school-expansion

Mike Turzai “Very Disappointed” Philadelphia SRC Only Approved 5 New Charters

Pa. Speaker of the House says there could be financial consequences for the Philadelphia School District.

Philly Mag Citified BY HOLLY OTTERBEIN | FEBRUARY 19, 2015 AT 11:39 AM

Pennsylvania Speaker of the House Rep. Mike Turzai says he is “very disappointed” that the Philadelphia School Reform Commission voted Wednesday night to approve only five of 39 new charter school proposals. The Allegheny County Republican made clear by Thursday morning that the SRC’s vote could have consequences: He says it “makes it tougher” to have a discussion about reinstating the charter reimbursement line item in the state budget. The phrase “charter reimbursement line item” might sound wonky, but it represents a potentially huge amount of money for the Philadelphia School District. Former Gov. Tom Corbett eliminated the line item in 2011, cutting more than $100 million annually from the city’s schools.

Public school advocates and education reformers alike have urged GOP leaders in Harrisburg to put the line item back into the budget. Many see it as the most feasible way to persuade Republican and rural lawmakers to provide more money to Philadelphia’s schools.

Turzai originally told us the SRC’s vote “negates” the conversation on reinstating the line item.

“If they’re not going to provide the charter schools for the parents and grandparents that want them,” Turzai said, “I think that negates the discussion.” Jay Ostrich, a spokesman for Turzai, later walked back his statement, saying the speaker “misspoke” and meant that the SRC’s vote makes the conversation more difficult.

Read more at http://www.phillymag.com/news/2015/02/19/mike-turzai-disappointed-src-new-charter-schools-philadelphia/#8I36q3J0wzACtRdv.99

EduShyster has a guest columnist, Susan DeJarnatt, a law professor at Temple University and Philadelphia public school parent. She writes here about how Philadelphia’s public schools and children are likely to be affected by a gift of $25 million to open more charter schools. Philadelphia’s public schools were grievously wounded by drastic budget cuts over the past few years, imposed by the state. Its students are overwhelmingly poor and racially segregated.

DeJarnatt writes:

Philadelphia still isn’t quite choicey enough for the choice choosers at the Philadelphia School Partnership (PSP). The PSP wants more charters so much that it has offered to pony up $25 million to cover the cost of 11,000 new *high performing seats.* No one—not even PSP—thinks the math works. But the real math problems are in the demographics of the charters whose expansion the PSP is proposing to underwrite. These *high quality* schools aren’t teaching the same kids that attend District schools, which means that granting them more seats will decimate the remaining District schools. This *gift* will keep on giving—till Philadelphia has no more public schools.

This is not a gift that keeps on giving. It is a very high-maintenance gift:

Philly’s deepest pocketed education reform organization calculates the cost of adding 11,000 new *high performing* seats at $21,783,214. But the real bill will be much more—both because the charters plan to add many more seats, and because PSP low-balled the cost, which the District estimates as $7,000 per seat or $77 million and growing year by year. Confused yet? Perhaps an analogy would help. Say I *give* you $50,000 because your house needs some serious repairs. But you only get the money if you use it to buy a new house for $500,000. The ongoing mortgage and costs will be on you, of course—too bad if you can’t keep up with them and end up in foreclosure.

DeJarnatt points out that there are big differences between the “high-quality” charter operators and the District’s student body. 86% of the District’s students are poor; most of the charters serve smaller percentages of poor students. 10% of Philly’s public school students are English language learners; most of the charters serve fewer or no ELL students. Only 14.18% of the District’s students are white; most of the charters enroll many more white students.

The upshot? With few exceptions, the charters enroll different demographics from the public schools. In addition, the charters benefit from large infusions of extra money provided by their sponsors, and even by the PSP that wants to close public schools and open privately managed charters.

Some of these schools also benefit from very significant infusions of extra cash beyond the funding they get from the District—cash that isn’t available to individual District schools. According to their 990 tax returns, KIPP got just shy of $2 million in grants or contributions in 2012, while Mastery pulled in amounts ranging from a low of $1,237,912 for Clymer up to $9,210,232 for Mastery Charter High School. Most of the Mastery schools listed amounts in the $1 to 2 million range. PSP itself gave Mastery $3.5 million in 2013.

Meanwhile we can’t even attempt to do the math on one other important consideration. Who are PSP’s funders and how do they stand to benefit from any decision to further expand charters in Philadelphia? PSP would benefit from remedial civics classes too—to reinforce the principles that public education is a public good and transparency is key to democracy.

Is this a gift horse or a Trojan horse? Will it deplete the public schools of more students and resources? Of course. Will it promote the collapse of public education in the City of Brotherly Love, the city where our nation’s Constitution was written to establish our government? Most likely.

Strangest of all in the PSP description of charters by is the reference to “high performing seats,” as though chairs in charter schools get higher test scores. Students “perform,” seats do not. The reports on charter school performance show that charters seldom outperform public schools when their enrollments are similar, unless they have far greater amounts of money to spend on small classes and other expensive perks.

PS: At a tumultuous public meeting, the Philadelphia School Reform Commission approved five new charter schools.