Carnegie Mellon analysis <\/a>of government data suggests up to 74 percent of District schools qualify under the federal designation as \u201cpersistently violent.\u201d<\/p>\nSo, \u201cunderstandably\u201d the number one topic in the School District is\u2026a \u201cFacilities Master Plan\u201d \u2014 a study of buildings. This plan was unveiled recently by the Superintendent, who just had his $347,000\/year contract (with three percent annual raises) extended through the end of 2030 \u2014 for fear he might take his work elsewhere\u2026ahem.<\/p>\n
The Superintendent established a blue-ribbon panel of experts to discuss the best use of buildings. Which schools to close because they\u2019re nearly empty or falling apart, which to consolidate, to remodel or give to the City for redevelopment. And\u2026where to build new buildings.<\/p>\n
Tragically, it\u2019s re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. The Superintendent is defending his plan in City Council \u2014 where they\u2019ll ponder, pontificate and horse-trade votes for schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Parents will weigh in across the city \u2014 understandably voicing concern about their alma maters\u2019 closing or being merged; about losing the proximity of their children walking to school, making new friends and meeting new teachers. Others understandably will talk about the buildings without working water fountains, sporadic heat or no air conditioning \u2014 so their children wear coats in February and sweat in June.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then, after all the meetings, presumably sometime late this year, they\u2019ll approve a plan. Then, they send out RFPs to begin the process. And maybe buildings will be consolidated or closed in 2027 or 2028\u2026<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, imagine being a mom of a 10-year-old boy. It\u2019s year three of this superintendent\u2019s \u201cfive-year plan\u201d (each one of his predecessors also had \u201cfive-year plans\u201d), and now it\u2019s the \u201csales phase\u201d of his multi-year facilities master plan. Your son attends a school that\u2019s an academic failure and very likely deemed \u201cpersistently violent.\u201d You\u2019re unable to afford to move to a better public school \u2014 be it in Center City or the suburbs. Charter schools have a waiting list of over 20,000 students \u2014 because the School District limits enrollment and doesn\u2019t allow new charters to open. You can\u2019t even afford the local parochial school\u2019s tuition ($5,700) \u2014 and so many parents sign up for education tax credit scholarships where for every 100 who get a scholarship over 80 are turned away because the money runs out of that politician-capped program.<\/p>\n
You feel helplessly trapped.<\/p>\n
I was a White House executive appointee at HUD (US Department of Housing and Urban Development). I served as an elected Township Supervisor, and a Planning Commissioner. My wife and I are parents.<\/p>\n
Of course, I understand the need for a capital budget, facilities and maintenance plans\u2014and student and teacher safety. And, saving money is responsible.<\/p>\n
However, the District already spends about $24,000\/student as part of the nearly $5 billion budget.<\/p>\n
When the school district locked the students out of school from March 2020 until September 2021 (\u201cdue to Covid\u201d\u2014while charters and parochial schools were open), that was the time to use the nearly $2 billion in Covid aid given to the District that was directed for \u201chealth and safety.\u201d Things like fixing the heat, installing A\/C and removing asbestos and lead pipes \u2014 and closing crappy buildings.<\/p>\n
What to do now? Rescue these children. Protect them from violence. Focus on reading and doing basic math. Maybe well enough to become pharmacists, scientists, engineers or doctors.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Instead, the District traps the kids \u2014 the poor and working class students. Not only does the District artificially cap the enrollment of charter schools and not allow new charters to open (to limit competition) but also, they spend millions of taxpayer dollars for lobbyists to work with the teacher\u2019s union to fight against every voucher plan.<\/p>\n
The District is fighting to keep kids in school buildings that their parents do not want them in, all while allegedly trying to save money by closing and consolidating buildings.<\/p>\n
Lift the caps on charter schools. Support \u2014 don\u2019t oppose \u2014 school choice in Harrisburg (like \u201cLifeline\u201d scholarships). Tens of thousands of students will happily leave. It would be a win-win.<\/p>\n
Then, the district can really save money and close dozens of buildings. Students transferring to charters and non-public schools will be safe, and learn. And, the district will have even more money per student for those choosing to stay.<\/p>\n
Focus on students, not buildings.<\/p>\n
The district can do all of that before the end of March \u2014 and they don\u2019t even need a blue-ribbon panel.<\/p>\n
Guy Ciarrocchi is a Senior Fellow with the Commonwealth Foundation. He writes for Broad + Liberty and RealClear Pennsylvania. Follow Guy at @PaSuburbsGuy<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s enough to make you cry or scream \u2014 or both.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The adults are hard at work \u201cre-arranging…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128123,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9355,227,69,71,70,23941,8064,40959],"class_list":{"0":"post-128122","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-charter-schools","9":"tag-education","10":"tag-philadelphia","11":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","12":"tag-philadelphia-news","13":"tag-philadelphia-schools","14":"tag-school-choice","15":"tag-tony-watlington"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}