Lisa Haver is a retired teacher and prominent advocate for the public schools of Philadelphia. Those public schools have been subject to state takeover, privatization, and every other failed reformy tactic. She hoped that those bad old days were over. They are not. The new board hired an inexperienced superintendent who needed the help of a much-criticized consulting firm at a cost of $450,000.
She expressed her frustration in this article.
After years of pain and frustration that included the closing of neighborhood schools, privatization driven by standardized tests, crumbling infrastructure, and more than one debacle, the people of Philadelphia were psyched for new leadership in the school district.
The door to new priorities seemed to open with the arrival of Tony Watlington as the next superintendent.
But that door slammed shut before his tenure had even begun with the news that he’d brought in a Tennessee-based consulting firm to help him navigate his first year in the job. In May, the Board of Education voted unanimously and without deliberation to approve a one-year contract with Joseph & Associates. Price tag: $450,000. The board approved this contract — the last on a list of 92 official items — near the end of an 8-hour meeting.
According to a recent Chalkbeat article, the board hired the consulting firm to help Watlington “connect with people,” assist in assembling his transition team, and develop a 5-year plan for the district. Watlington said he asked for the contract so he could “hit the ground running by Day 1,” according to The Inquirer.
Apparently, Watlington decided the district’s current leadership of 16 department chiefs and 15 assistant superintendents could not help him do that, and that people from Tennessee could educate him about the district’s history and needs better than the people who live and work in Philly.
The Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools, the organization I co-founded, has reported on and analyzed the spending priorities of the district since 2012. We intended to ask the board directly why they hired Joseph & Associates, but all five APPS members who tried to sign up to speak at the June meeting were denied.
Last winter, in public town halls held for the three superintendent finalists, Watlington told parents, students, and educators he had a plan and wanted to meet with district stakeholders to hear their concerns. He didn’t say he could only do that by hiring an out-of-town consulting firm at a price higher than his own $340,000 salary.
The first official act of the new administration signals a continuation of those before him: hiring consultants and outsourcing work that should be done by district personnel. Sending resources into classrooms remains on the back burner.
The scope of the Joseph & Associates contract raises concerns for families and public education advocates for a number of reasons. Watlington said he wants the consultants to help him assess how the district can best meet the board’s “Goals and Guardrails” — a set of priorities based on standardized test data. This approach does not lend itself to creative learning or teaching. The Watlington administration should commit to funding proven reforms: smaller class size, more support staff, and reinstating school librarians.
But it’s the final phase of the Joseph & Associates contract that should sound the alarm for defenders of public education: the compilation of a 5-year “strategic plan” for the district. Many recall what happened a decade ago after the last long-range plan from an outside firm, the Boston Consulting Group: school closings and more privatization of neighborhood schools. Any plan that determines the future of the district and its ramifications for families and neighborhoods should be discussed and formulated in public meetings — not the private boardrooms of an out-of-state consulting firm.
As I’ve said before, Dr. William Hite is a mentor of Shaun Joseph and Dallas Dance. Much stink comes out of Prince George’s Co public schools (the burbs of DC). Corrupt cronyism at its best.
One of the symptoms of systemic dysfunction is the outsourcing of routine services. It is privatization from the inside out. It is political maneuver, not an educational benefit. Corruption is a significant issue in many large school districts in which politicians can manipulate budgets to serve the interests of “favored partners.” It is called cronyism, and it is a problem at all levels of government. It is unfortunate that Pennsylvania taxpayers must pay for corrupt graft while student needs should be the first priority.
In charter world, the scam involves outsourcing to private corporations owned by the corporation that manages the charter school
The Boston Consulting Group was a disaster. All they proposed was closing schools and privatizing everything. They were the most incompetent group I have ever seen imposed on our school community in my 47 years working for the district as a teacher and administrator with an additional 13 years as an advocate for public education.
yes: IT IS CALLED CRONYISM
People might wonder why we at Bob and Darlene’s Real Good Flor-uh-duh Schools hires so many of our relatives, golfing buddies, and mistresses. They’s a simple reason for that. We hire people we know and kin trust. Good, god-fearing, locked and loaded people. That’s why Darlene’s former favorite pool boy, Chad, is now the Events Director of our Charter’s CMO (Channel for Money Outflow).
Glad I could clear that up for you, Ciedie and Diane!
Darlene, of the Harlen Darlins, says that Chad is worth ever penny of the 179K we pay him annually. I’m like, OK, Darlene, you get one of these, but that’s it, OK? Boy did she pitch a fit at that! But what can I say? That’s fiscal conservativism! Besides, we have to worry about putting together the money for our new school district Justice Gorsuch Ecumenical Temple of Jesus and Pot Luck Center.
At the new Gorsuch Center, students and teachers will be able to use their private time for prayers and other worship activities long as they is related to real Bible-based religion and not some kind of foolishness. This is a first for public schools in Flor-uh-duh–the kind of innovation you’ve come to expect from Bob ‘n’ Darlene’s Read Good Flor-uuh-duh Schools!
The Gorsuch Center will be located at our new School District Offices on Clearwater Beach, at 666 Don’t Say Gay Way.
I’m sorry, but I don’t think Gorsuch is affiliated with anything near the center of anywhere. He avoids it by taking really wide right turns to eventually get back to where he thinks he started.
I greatly appreciate your continuing coverage of this debacle, Diane. I don’t know what to say other than if I were a taxpayer in Philadelphia, I would be in high dudgeon over this.
Recipe for failure: 1. Give invalid standardized tests. 2. Make major decisions based on those invalid test scores.
Double the failure: 3. Hire a consulting firm to make those decisions.
Imagine shelling out 350K for a “leader” so clueless that he doesn’t know any of this:
If he DOES know this stuff, then why is he hiring a consulting firm that is going to base important decisions on lousy data from invalid tests?
Two things are appalling about this: a) First, decisions made based on bad “data” from invalid tests aren’t going to be good ones; b) there is enormous opportunity cost to all this–that money could be spent on matters that matter like wraparounds services, tutors, school librarians, smaller classrooms, class libraries, personal paperbacks for kids, etc.
When I say “personal paperbacks,” I mean books that kids choose from an approved list and that they then own–that belong to them.
The Philadelphia School District once had 176 school librarians. now it has less than 5. Those of us in the Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools has been advocating for the restoration of school libraries staffed by a certified school librarian for 10 years, as well as smaller class size, more counselors, nurses, etc. Once the state took over the district anything that might actually help students was taken off the table. We thought that would change when control came back to the city, but that has not been the case.
The $450,000 spent for a consultant could pay for some more librarians.
Thank you, Ms. Grill!!! Shocking. Horrific. Your short paragraph well sums up the travesty that “education reform” has been.
I am a graduate of the Philadelphia Public Schools where I got a good education including access to libraries, P.E, music and art as well as counselors and school nurses. Of course, I graduated in the mid-1960s before private interests strip mined the schools of resources.
The new sup is probably thinking that the 450K is a drop in the bucket compared to the overall Philadelphia School budget of 3.9 billion–0.01153 percent.
And The Gorsuch Center really could materialize. He is deviously at the center of many things and got up to GOPee Networking from the start of his reign at SCOTUS.
Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch dined 1/23/18 with GOPee Senators and DC Republican officials at John Cornyn’s home.
Lamar Alexander/Cornyn/Gorsuch/Elaine Chao and others.
“We met w/ our newest SCOTUS member to talk about important issues facing our country.”
The Hill
There is not even a pretense of being impartial. It’s a corrupt court. It’s Ginny Thomas inciting insurrection and her husband refusing to recuse himself from related cases. And meanwhile, in some parallel universe, Garland is doing nada about the many conspiracies to overthrow the 2020 election. He obviously has no interest in bringing charges. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be way, way, way, way, way behind the Congressional committee. And that he has no interest in bring charges against Trump and his closest conspirators means that “justice” in the United States is, in SomeDAM’s formulation, “just us.” People at the top of the food chain are exempt, no matter how horrendous the crime. Witness, as another example of this, the fact that all Epstein’s photographic and videographic blackmail materials have conveniently disappeared, Epstein was conveniently killed after one failed attempt at doing that, Maxwell went to trial but NOT A SINGLE WITNESS who could identify any of the Epstein/Maxwell clientele was invited to testify.
Corruption. Through-going corruption. Corruption to such an extent that those perpetrating it aren’t even bothering to attempt to seem fair or committed to the notion of equal justice under law.
When the law is unlawful, you are far beyond having anything that could remotely be called a democracy. You have a banana republic. We have a banana republic inclining toward Christian fundamentalist nationalist fascism.
“Watlington said he wants the consultants to help him assess how the district can best meet the board’s “Goals and Guardrails” — a set of priorities based on standardized test data.”
Good to see the Board applying the Crap In Crap Out principle. It’ll go a long way into screwing up the district even more than now!