{"id":146397,"date":"2026-03-23T22:53:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T22:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/146397\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T22:53:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T22:53:07","slug":"parker-proposes-1-rideshare-tax-to-fund-philly-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/146397\/","title":{"rendered":"Parker proposes $1 rideshare tax to fund Philly schools"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? <a href=\"#Section1\">Let us know!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>Mayor Cherelle Parker is proposing a $1 tax on rideshare services like Uber and Lyft in the city to generate money for the School District of Philadelphia, which is facing a $300 million budget deficit.\n<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a fivefold increase from her original proposal of a 20-cent per-trip tax. If approved, it would go into effect Jan. 1, 2027, and generate $24 million in fiscal year 2027, according to a press release. By 2028, $48 million in recurring funding would be generated.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we don\u2019t do this, our students will lose teachers, school climate staff, principals, assistant principals and other key school staff,\u201d Parker said during Monday\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/watch\/live\/?ref=watch_permalink&amp;v=1336481291642739\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">announcement<\/a> at Delaplaine McDaniel School in the city\u2019s Point Breeze neighborhood.\n  <\/p>\n<p>Less than two weeks ago, the school district proposed <a href=\"https:\/\/whyy.org\/articles\/philadelphia-school-district-budget-cuts-deficit\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">$225 million in budget cuts<\/a> to go into effect next school year. This would eliminate 220 building substitute positions and reassign 340 school-based roles. Parker said this would cause an increase in overall class sizes.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you look at the major difference between schools in the city of Philadelphia and you compare us to schools in the suburbs or on the Main Line, one of the first things you observe is smaller class sizes when you get to the suburbs and other wealthier communities,\u201d Parker said. \u201cThat\u2019s not a risk that we\u2019re willing to take.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>Parker defended her plan by suggesting companies, not drivers, should shoulder the cost.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThose companies, they can make a decision about whether or not they pass this cost onto those hardworking folks,\u201d Parker said. \u201cGuess what they can do? They can decide to pay the tax and not pass it on to their employees. How about that?\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>Parker\u2019s proposal is far from guaranteed. It still needs City Council approval and has already faced opposition from rideshare companies.\n        <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70,23941,19078],"class_list":["post-146397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-philadelphia-schools","tag-phillys-100th-mayor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146397","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=146397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}