The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that the Philadelphia School Reform Commission has repeatedly exceeded its legal authority by ignoring parts of state law. The head of the SRC said the ruling was a disaster, but others hailed it as a sign that state control of the city’s school was a disaster. The suit was brought by a charter school that objected to the SRC’s cap on its enrollment. Both charter schools and public schools saw the decision as a victory.
On the day that the Philadelphia School Reform Commission approved three new charter schools, the state Supreme Court issued a ruling Tuesday that could have grave implications for the cash-strapped district’s finances and operations for years to come.
The court ruled that the SRC had no legal power to suspend portions of the state charter law and school code. The ruling strips the commission of extraordinary powers it believed it had – and used.
It was too soon to say exactly what the fallout for the school system would be – district lawyers offered no official comment – but early indications were ominous.
By declaring unconstitutional a portion of the takeover law that the SRC has relied on heavily, many of the major actions the commission has taken in recent years – up to and including bypassing seniority in teacher assignments – could be subject to reversal.
Helen Gym, a parent activist who was recently elected to the Philadelphia City Council, saw the ruling as a rebuke to state control of the city’s public schools and the underfunding of public schools:
“Yesterday’s Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling makes unmistakably clear that the School Reform Commission and Pennsylvania’s fifteen-year experiment in state takeover have been a disaster for students and schools.”
“Since its formation, and particularly in recent years, the SRC has used its unprecedented powers to impose new rules that allow schools to operate without essential staff, slash programming, close schools, and violate key sections of the teachers’ contract. The SRC has also continued to recklessly expand the charter sector by approving new charters and ceding control of dozens of schools to private operators. Charter payments have rapidly become the District’s largest cost burden while underfunded, understaffed neighborhood schools languish in disrepair.”
“After years of administrative overreach and failed experimentation, with no end in sight to the ‘fiscal distress’ the Commission was supposed to alleviate, the time has come to dissolve the School Reform Commission and finally give control of Philadelphia’s schools to Philadelphians.”
“Furthermore, with the Court’s declaration that Harrisburg may not abdicate its responsibilities to the SRC, it has become urgently necessary for the General Assembly to fix the state’s broken system for funding and regulating public education. Specifically the legislature must address its deeply-flawed, nineteen-year old charter law, which prevents school districts from exercising full control over charter school authorization and growth. Without action, Philadelphia’s school district will not remain solvent and is at grave risk.”
“Both in Philadelphia and across the state, it is abundantly clear that our system of public schools, so many of which are struggling to provide the most basic services to students, cannot be called ‘thorough and efficient.’ It is now up to the Courts to weigh in on the need for a fair funding system, and to ensure that the legislature does its job.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I hope this turns out to be good news for education in Philadelphia. As we all know, when one door gets closed, the politicians, billionaires and charter fiends meeting privately and pass new legislation, rules, laws, guidelines and loopholes through which to jump, in the dark, on a weekend, at midnight. They are a deviously tenacious bunch of evildoers.
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Something of this magnitude needs to occur in Newark, NJ.
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The ruling also says the SRC does not have the authority to cap charter school enrollment, so it could be a Pyrrhic victory. The state legislature is considering the state having the authority to close five “underperforming” public schools per year and replace them with charters. The SRC approval of three more charters in Philadelphia adds 2500 more seats to charters and deepens the districts financial crisis. http://goo.gl/D6bF3y
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Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
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I hope the situation improves in Pennsylvania. Governor Wolf is trying to do what is best for the public, but he has to work with a hostile Republican led legislature and hedge fund managers that insist on more privatization. The Commonwealth is facing a $2 billion dollar budget shortfall due to the mismanagement of the Corbett regime. I hope this ruling will unravel some of the harm that has been inflicted on the citizens of Philly.
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The University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education website is interesting.
Penn houses CPRE, Consortium for Policy Research in Education. CPRE is funded by Gates, Pearson. Goldman Sachs, etc. The Consortium was founded by Columbia Teachers College President, Susan Furhman, who, reportedly (George Joseph, In These Times, 2013), was a Pearson-paid, board member/director? The work of the Consortium, which includes Stanford and Harvard, is directed at policy makers.
The Philanthropy Roundtable website outlines the plutocratic plan targeting university, schools of education, at the “K-12” tab, in a co-written article by AEI’s Frederick Hess and, an external affairs manager for an organization funded by Gates.
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