Money Matters: Why A Full, Fair Funding Formula is Essential for Racial Justice in PA | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

 Link: A full, fair funding formula is essential for racial equality in Pa. | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

The following appeared in the  Friday (8/29) edition of the Philadelphia Public School Notebook, an open letter to the PA Legislature written on behalf of POWER by Margaret Ernst, Sheila Armstrong. The text of the letter is below.

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Money Matters: Why A Full, Fair Funding Formula is Essential for Racial Justice in PA

by Sheila Armstrong, Drick Boyd, and Margaret Ernst

Last week, several Philadelphia clergy members of the interfaith organization POWER (Pennsylvanians Organized to Witness, Empower and Rebuild) witnessed a powerful movement for racial equality grow in Ferguson, MO following the killing of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown. 

 Travelling to Missouri to call for justice and listen to a community in grief, our clergy marched non-violently with black youth asking for fair treatment from law enforcement – and even more importantly, for a sign from their fellow Americans that their lives matter. 

But as our clergy brothers and sisters returned home last week, they returned to a place where there is no dearth of racial inequality of its own. 

In our own backyards and on our watch, we witness a different kind of violence being done not just to one teenager but to hundreds of thousands of young people across Pennsylvania.  As the only state in the union without a funding formula for public education, severe cuts within the last few years have led to a disproportionate hemorrhaging of school districts with mostly African American and Latino students like Philadelphia, the consequences of which will be felt for generations.  

Sheila Armstrong, a POWER member from North Philadelphia with two boys in Philadelphia public schools, can testify to those consequences and the broken promises that have come with them.  At events in her community in 2010, she witnessed Governor Corbett and other legislators running for state office promise that a new day had come for education in the state.  But after a $1 billion cut to education funding in 2011, one of her son's elementary schools closed down.  In 2012, she wondered whether her son with asthma would be OK on days that no nurse was on duty due to staffing cuts.  This year, she was left unsure whether schools would even open in September.  

Now, school will indeed start on time, but with less cleaning services, security and transportation assistance for children.  Aside from having to worry about whether her boys will get a good education, Sheila and thousands of Philadelphia parents like her will fear every day for their basic health and safety.   

Young people of color in Missouri and across the country have wondered whether they matter in the wake of the killing of Michael Brown.  As we reflect on the circumstances of education funding here in Pennsylvania, we too are left to ask, do Sheila and her sons matter in the eyes of lawmakers?

With Harrisburg’s newly formed Basic Education Commission beginning its work, now is the time for lawmakers to answer that question.  The Commission, which has met twice already and will make recommendations for a funding formula by the end of June, can and must prophetically re-imagine what it takes to fund education in our state.  To do this well, we must be willing to have an open and honest conversation about race as Pennsylvanians. 

As cuts were made at the state level, large, predominantly black, brown, and poor districts across the state such as Philadelphia, Allentown, and Reading have been left drowning without a lifeline.  Unable to make up differences in state spending with local revenue, the disproportionate impact on these students is rooted not merely in recent spending cuts nor in education policy alone.  It rests on, and perpetuates, a much longer history of disinvestment from communities of color that has created today’s dramatic racial wealth gap, and which will continue if left unaddressed.   

But in the case of education spending in PA, a threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.  While cuts have had severe impact on Philadelphia and other predominantly non-white districts, dwindling state funds have resulted in major cuts in poor, rural districts in predominantly white communities, and soaring property taxes in the suburbs. 

All of our children are worth more.  In addition to being bold enough to talk about the severe “investment gap” in students of color and poor children in our state, the Commission must set goals for increasing education funding levels as a whole.  We must not just fairly divide up a pie that we refuse to grow – we must grow the pie.

Education Secretary Carolyn Dumaresq testified in the Commission’s August meeting that  “money matters” for children to achieve in school.  We cannot think of a better argument for increased funding, and for a fair distribution of those funds that ensures we will not continue to replicate an education system that in spite of other civil rights gains, is woefully still separate and still unequal.  It is the choice of the Basic Education Commission and all us Pennsylvanians whom it represents whether we will continue trends of economic and racial inequality or begin to reverse them.

The discussion about how much our children are worth to us, wherever they were born and whatever the color of their skin, is a sacred one – and has never been a more important.  Let’s have it now, and let’s have it courageously.  

From Ferguson to Philly to Williamsport

Over the past week or so I have been holding four seemingly unrelated events together in my mind because in a strange way they seem to capture the essence of racial politics in our country today: the ongoing conflict and grief in Ferguson, MO over the shooting of an unarmed African-American boy Michael Brown by a  local white police officer; the shooting of a seventeen year old African American boy  by another African American young man as the former was coming out of a concert for peace on Wednesday, August 13 in Philadelphia; the ongoing financial crisis facing the Philadelphia public schools due to the Pennsylvania State Legislature cold-hearted unwillingness to give the schools  the funding they need; and finally the Taney Dragons Little League team from Philadelphia who are currently playing in the Little League World Series in Williamsport, PA.

In  Ferguson, the more information that comes out, the more it appears that the death of Michael Brown was a case of a policeman venting his racial hatred at an innocent young man. Not that Brown was without fault; he can be seen on video tape from a store where he brazenly took something without paying. Yet when confronted by the police he was unarmed and the autopsy indicates he was killed execution style. Were this an isolated incident, the reaction might seem out of proportion, but the rage and anguish in the black community of Ferguson and across the country speaks to legacy of slavery, lynching and racial violence that continues to afflict and murder young black men in this nation.

Yet as my friend Gwen Ragsdale, curator of the Lest WeForget Slavery Holocaust Museum, an institution dedicated to telling the story of African slavery and its continuing effects on communities today, has always told the groups I have brought to the museum, “While the white man for centuries committed violence against us, now we are doing to ourselves.” That is why the shooting at the peace conference is so horrific. Not only is there tragic irony in the event, but it demonstrates yet again how poverty, racism and violence mixed together create a volatile mix that leads young black men killing each other in so many communities across the nation. The legacy of racial hatred seen in Ferguson has now been internalized such that statistically speaking I as a white man am safer in many black communities than black and Latino men who live there.

Yet the ongoing financial crisis facing the Philadelphia Public schools illustrates how this legacy of racism is not only seen in horrific acts such as mentioned in Ferguson and Philly, but is also seen in laws and policies of a government that promises fairness and equality for all and yet in reality practices equity for some and injustice for others. Were the children and grandchildren of the legislators assigned to the Philadelphia public schools, in one week sufficient funding and more would be provided. Yet hiding behind the veil of seeking a “balanced budget” that balances itself on the backs of the poor to serve the needs of the corporate elites and the wealthy, these legislators allow the city schools to languish with insufficient funds. This is institutional racism in action, a legacy that goes back to the era of Jim Crow, redlining and educational segregation. Moreover, the inadequacy of the educational system contributes to a 50% dropout rate, many of whom end up involved in street violence as was seen at the peace conference. The “school-to-prison-pipeline” is alive and well, and not coincidentally in Pennsylvania, the prisons get financial increases while the schools get little more than crumbs.

It is a pretty bleak picture, but that is why I need to bring into focus the Taney Dragons, a team from Philadelphia playing in Williamsport at the Little League World Series. The Dragons are a multi-racial, cross-city collection of kids who love baseball, play it well and in so doing have captured the heart of the city and to a degree a nation.  When I watch the Dragons, I think therein lies our hope. The hope is in the fact that despite the violence on their streets and the stress in their school system, these kids have come together to play some high quality baseball. More than that, they embody what a truly equitable, democratic, multiracial, multicultural society should be. According to Little League rules, every player on a team must play and have at least one at bat in every game; and at least in the Dragons case, all seem to have contributed to the team’s success. While the media has focused on Mone Davis, a thirteen year old girl with a 70+ mph fastball, what has impressed me is how well these kids play together. And Mone herself, when she is asked a question, always refers back to the team, and not herself as an individual.

I am saddened and sickened by the events in Ferguson, I grieve the young men of color who see their lives only ending either in death or prison, I am outraged at the intransigence of the Pennsylvania legislators who will not release the funds to assure Philadelphia school children have a quality education; but I revel in the hope provided by the Taney Dragons. Just like the beloved community that Dr. King often spoke of, the Dragons remind me of what it is we struggle and pray for – a world free of hatred, racism, violence and injustice – a world where all contribute and all are equally part of the team we call society.

Consider the Children

Down the street from me live three children I would guess who are all under the age of 10. Often they ride up and down the sidewalk on their bikes and scooters. Whenever I walk by their house with my dog and they are out playing, they run over to pet the dog. They brighten my day because they remind me of what childhood should be, and yet isn’t for so many young people.

I have been thinking a lot lately about children and their struggle to survive. I am thinking of …

• The thousands of Central American children who have traveled across Mexico to reunite with their families only to find an un-welcome at the Mexico-Texas border.
• The three Israeli seminarians who were kidnapped and murdered and the Palestinians youth who were attacked by an mob of angry Israeli youth, all whose deaths have ignited yet another barrage of violence in Israel-Palestine which has killed more Israelis and over 100 Palestinians many of them children.
• The thousands of Philadelphia students whose upcoming school year hangs in the balance because politicians are unwilling to fulfill their constitutional duties  to provide a “thorough and efficient” public school system for Pennsylvania students for fear of taxing their cronies in the gas and oil industries.
• The four little children and their families who were killed, and others displaced, by a fire on Juye 5 that burned eight dilapidated homes in Southwest Philadelphia
• Sherita Hamilton, whose name sits over my desk, a 19 year old girl shot to death in Philadelphia in October 2012 and who reminds of the daily carnage of youth maimed and murdered every day in this country.

Our American culture is often characterized as worshiping youth, but as I think about these young people and others like them, it occurs to me that we may worship youth in the abstract, but when it comes to real kids whose lives are threatened, we who have the means and the power to make a difference often treat them as expendable, whether its sending them off to war, or cutting back on funding for their schools, or refusing to take measures to reduce the prevalence of guns in their communities or sending them back at the border to a certain life of violence and poverty. The young suffer because of the intransigence, the arrogance and the greed of the old, and that concerns and saddens me.

In all these cases mentioned above the children are caught up in larger social, political and economic forces over which they have no control and in some cases are not even aware of. The children swarming across the Mexican border are in many cases fleeing gang violence and poverty in their home countries. The children in Israel-Palestine are caught in a land-based conflict that goes back decades if not centuries. The Philadelphia school children's education is being held hostage by politicians more interested in filling their campaign coffers than serving the people they supposedly represent. The children killed in gun violence and in horrible fires like the one in Southwest suffer because those with the power to make their neighborhoods safer fail to do so.

Youth is meant to be a time of freedom and exploration. The other day a colleague sent me a link to “30 Magical Photos of Children Playing Around the World." It reminded me of what youth should be. As you look at these photos, notice that children don’t require much: a space to play in, a box to kick like a soccer ball, and companions to share it with. Why is it so hard for us to help all children to experience this kind of joy-filled freedom?

Jesus said two things about children that are particularly poignant.

In Luke 18 he says: “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” I have long believed (though the thought is not original or unique to me) that a society is best judged by how it treats its most vulnerable. In this case, we are to be judged by how we treat our children. By that measure we are failing miserably.

Then, in Matthew 11 he says: “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. There is something we need to learn from children – about trust, curiosity, openness to others, and the joy of living. If we were less concerned about pursuing our own agendas, and protecting ourselves from the “other” (be it gender, race, culture, nationality, class, etc), we might bonds to build trust with those "others." We need to learn from children, honor them and provide safe haven for them.

I know in my apathy I can be complicit by my indifference and passivity on these issues. I can get so busy with the urgent demands of my life that I can forget what is most important. My world, our world, is not safe for many of the world’s children, and it should be. Obviously, the concern starts with the children in our families, and then to those like the three children on my street with whom we have contact. But it has to go beyond those two circles to the children who suffer, and for whom existence is a life and death struggle. There are obviously no easy answers, but that does not exempt us from working to provider a safer, more hospitable space for children.

I remember years ago seeing a poster that basically said children learn by what they see rather than by what they hear from the adults in their lives. What are the children in our lives seeing as to how they and their peers are regarded in this society? We need to consider the children. The responses to these and other crises are complex and come at great cost. However, if these children were our children would we respond differently. According to Jesus, they are our children. How will we respond.

The March on Washington, Racism and Education in Philadelphia

The following is an address I gave on Thursday, August 22 at the POWER Forum on "Philadelphia in Crisis: Race,Education and Economics. POWER is a network of 41 congregations in Philadelphia that have come together working on issue of economic justice, immigration and public education.

March on Washington

We gather tonight at the nexus of conflicting realities. Our public school system is in crisis, teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Students, parents and teachers are caught up in a chaos of uncertainty.  Residents of our city struggle with poverty and joblessness. While the police commissioner says that homicides are down, there is still way too much violence on our streets. These are the grim realities that many of us face and all of us live with.

Yet this Saturday, my wife and I, along with what is expected to be 100,000 other people, are going to gather on the Mall in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. to commemorate the 50^th Anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom that took place on April 28, 1963. The March was the brainchild of A. Philip Randolph, head of the Pullman Porters Union, and was first proposed in 1941. On that day an estimated 200,000 people gathered from communities across the country on that sweltering August day that is most often remembered for Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech in which he proclaimed that they had come there to cash in a promissory note at the bank of justice.

I was only ten years old when that march occurred and was living in an all-white Midwestern suburb where the Civil Rights movement seemed something far removed from my family’s life. However, today I realize that what Randolph, John Lewis, Dr. King and the others who were speaking about was essential to the well-being of all Americans. And so I am going to pay tribute to that original vision, and reaffirm my commitment to work to help realize the Beloved Community that Dr. King so often spoke about. That’s what POWER is about, and why are so concerned about the struggles of people in our own city.

Goals of the Original March

For a few moments I want to look back at the original March on Washington and the goals that brought folks there. They were as follows:

-            - a comprehensive civil rights bill,

-            - legislation to protect the right to vote,

-           -  a $2-an-hour minimum wage nationwide,

-            - desegregation of all public schools,

What came of their efforts?

-        They got a Civil Rights Act  of 1964; but through legislation like the Patriot Act we have seen those rights eroded.

-        They got the Voting Rights Act of 1965; but just a few months ago the Supreme Court gutted the provisions that required the states to get federal government approval for changes that might disadvantage certain groups of their citizens; and so even here in PA we are fighting Voter ID laws specifically designed to disenfranchise poor and senor voters and voters of color.

-        When they marched, the minimum wage was $1.15/hr. and it was raised $1.25. Which doesn’t seem like much but that would translate to $9.54/hr. today. $2 would have equaled $15.27 today. Today our minimum wage is $7.25/hr.

To further put things in perspective, unemployment among African Americans is higher today than it was in 1963. In 1963 it was 10.9%, today it is 12.6%, and we know that roughly 25% our citizens in Philadelphia, working or not, live below the poverty line.

So, while much has changed for the better since 1963, it must be put in perspective.  Many of the gains that were made then have been eroded or lost. This is why organizations like POWER are so important; the struggle for justice is never done. As Frederick Douglass reminded us 175 years ago, those in positions of authority never relinquish their power without a fight and a struggle; that is what we in POWER are engaged in.

Education

However, I want to speak specifically about education.

The March  also called for the desegregation of schools because even though the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision outlawed segregation it have given states the freedom to decide when and how they would desegregate; Most states did nothing. For instance, I went to Boston in 1971 and they were just beginning to desegregate schools then.

Not much has changed on that score. Just because a law is in place, does not mean it will get enforced. For instance, the PA constitution requires the state government to “provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of public education to serve the needs of the Commonwealth.” What we have been experiencing is anything but thorough and efficient, and if they were offering maintenance and support, would we be in this position?” Sometimes OUR JOB is simply to get the political establishment to do ITS JOB.

The rationale for fighting so hard for desegregation in the 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s was not just so black and white kids would go to school together. No, those in the NAACP and others who fought for desegregation realized the only way that black kids would get access to same resources  as white kids  was by being in the same schools with them.  Then and now desegregation was about ACCESS and RESOURCES.

When we look at what is happening to our schools here in Philadelphia we see that our system  discriminates against students of color and poor kids of all colors;  that it denies them the access and resources they are entitled to by LAW. What we are looking at the effects of a system that is racist and economically unjust.

Institutional Racism

Let me pause here and say a couple things about racism.

First of all, when people think about racism they think about overtly racist acts or statements like George Zimmerman’s profiling of Trayvon Martin or Riley Cooper’s statements that have gotten so much press. But when you are talking about something like the Philadelphia school system, we are talking about what Stokely Carmichael (now Kwame Ture) called “institutional racism.” People see a black school superintendent, a black mayor, a black City Council president, and Asian and Hispanic leaders in both the educational and political roles; so how can it be racist? Well maybe it’s because Governor Corbett is white – and he won’t authorize funds – is that why it’s racist? Not exactly.

In the courses I teach on racism I tell my students that when talking about institutional or systemic racism we need to distinguish between intent and impact. It does not matter what a person or a government or school system intends to do, it’s the impact of what it does that really matters.

So for instance, in the issue of school closings we look at impact. These decisions were made by a black superintendent – how could it be a racist decision? Look at the impact. According to one report I saw, black students make up 58% of the students in the school system, but make up 81% of the students affected by the school closings. White students make up 14% of the students in the system, but only 4% of students affected by closings are white.  We don’t need to know what Dr. Hite and the SRC intended in the decisions they made, we just look at the impact.

So first when talking about racism we need to look at impact not intent.

The second thing about racism is that we can’t talk about in isolation from other forms of discrimination.  When we look at the way public education is funded we need to take this into account. Racial segregation is important to note but it become much more critical when we see it linked to  what I call economic segregation. This dual form of segregation is evident in the way we have established communities in our wider metro area and the way schools are funded.

Example of Institutional Racism

One of the examples I often think of in this regard is a comparison of Overbrook High School and Lower Merion High School. The schools are less than 4 miles and 10 minutes apart on the map, but they exist in different worlds when it comes to education.

According to the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2012 the average funding per student in Lower Merion was $21, 399. In Philadelphia (of which Overbrook is a part) the average funding per student was $11,078. That’s a difference of $10,000 per student. In practical terms that means students in Lower Merion have smaller class sizes, more technology in the classroom, more highly trained teachers, overall newer facilities, larger and more contemporary collections in their libraries and an overall higher quality educational experience.

PA Dept. of Ed  reports that in 2012, Lower Merion HS had 98% of the students entered 9^th grade graduate; By contrast, only 56% of the ninth grade students of Overbrook graduated.

Racism, mixed with economic discrimination spells segregation of another kind.

This why on the POWER Education Team we have been researching fair funding formulas for the State of PA. Pennsylvania is one of only 3 states in the US that doesn’t use some fair funding formula. As compared to other states PA depends most heavily on local property taxes to fund their schools. This is why Lower Merion ends up so much more per student – they have higher property values and even though their tax rate is lower than Philadelphia, the amount of money they take in is much higher.

And while money is not the only issue, it does translate (as we can see) to higher rates of success.

The Importance of Education and Despair

Why this is important is because we know that there is a correlation between getting a high school diploma and success and other areas of life.

There is a correlation between...

-                                   Dropping out of high school and joblessness

-                                  Dropping out and amount of income one can make in their lifetime

-                                  Dropping out and violence

-                                  Dropping out and incarceration

The reason we must address this issue of education is because so much else hinges on the kids in our school system getting a fair shot at making it in life.

Now one of things we need to remind ourselves is that correlation does not necessarily mean causation. In other words just because two things happen at the same time, that does not mean they necessarily caused the other. For instance,  dropping out of school does not necessarily cause joblessness, or poverty or violence. Often when you see correlations like this there is a third factor causing both. And I think the cause for both dropping out and the other social problems is despair.

At its root in POWER we are battling despair, people just giving up and throwing in the towel.

-        Its why it’s so important we partner with groups like PSU and YUC who motivate students to advocate for their own education

-        Why it’s important that we organize parents, so they realize they are not alone, when they stand up to principals, administrators and politicians and demand a quality education for their kids

-        Why this fight for education is going to be long and hard, and We MUST WIN.

New Vision

Once we get the funding solved, and WE WILL, our job is not finished.  The racism we are facing is multi-faceted and multi-layered and requires a long, committed struggle. Down the road we will need to to look at what’s happening with charters, the privatization of the public schools,  curriculum, teacher training and innovative ways of doing education for specialized learners. More than that we need a vision of what the Philadelphia School System can and must be.

Dr. King inspired the people 50 years with his vision of a dream. We need to help the students, parents, teachers and administrators of PSD develop a vision beyond just surviving and keeping schools open. We need a  dream of quality education that can pull us forward. Then and only then will we live out the legacy Dr. King left us 50 years ago, a dream toward which we are still reaching.

School Funding Formulas

Below is the text of a letter to the editor I submitted to the Philadelphia Inquirer in response to an article about the challenges facing suburban public school districts that required them to raise property taxes and cut services. The letter seeks to point out that the challenge faced by these districts is part of a much larger issue regarding how Pennsylvania funds (or as the case may be, does not fund) its public schools.

The recent article, “School Tax Vise” (Inquirer, July 29, 2013) reveals that the funding challenges being faced by the School District of Philadelphia are also being faced many suburban districts which have had to raise school taxes and make significant cuts in order to keep their public schools operational. While currently suburban districts have been able to manage these challenges, their plight reveals a fundamental flaw in the way Pennsylvania public schools are currently being funded.

In February 2013 the Education Law Center published Funding, Formulas and Fairness, a study of how Pennsylvania funds its public schools in comparison to other states. Some troubling comparisons were revealed. On average states provide 43.5% of the total amount of money on public education; Pennsylvania spends only 35.8%. By contrast on average states expect local communities to provide approximately 44% of the funding needed through local property taxes; Pennsylvania requires local communities to raise 53% (all percentages are based on 2010 data, the most recent year available).  Furthermore, Pennsylvania is one of only 3 states that does not use a standard funding formula for allocating what state funds it does provide. Such formulas take into account community income levels, specific student needs, the number of ESL students and other factors to make sure that all public schools have the resources to provide adequate education regardless of location, income level and nature of the students. The lack of such a funding formula makes school funding a subject of political wrangling, and in particular leaves disproportionately poor districts such as Philadelphia and Chester, grossly underfunded.

Community groups such as the Education Law Center and POWER (Philadelphians Organized for Witness, Empowerment and Rebuilding) are seeking to work with political leaders, educators and like-minded citizens to establish a funding formula for all public schools, so that the constitutional mandate to provide quality public education for all Pennsylvania’s children can be fulfilled. Public education is an issue that unites both suburban and urban districts and should compel all citizens who care about our children’s futures to bring Pennsylvania in line with other states on this vital public issue.

The "New" Civil Rights Era

In 1954 the Supreme Court issued their decision on the case of Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka, KS, which outlawed school desegregation, effectively nullifying the 1896 Plessy vs. Ferguson decision that allowed for “separate but equal” treatment of whites and African-Americans in all aspects of life. In the years that followed the Civil Rights Movement in its many expressions from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to the Nation of Islam and Malcolm X in different ways sought to make that decision operative in the American South and North.  However, not until the 1964 Civil Rights Act were there any teeth in that decision.  Even then it took many years for school districts to begin to take seriously the need to provide equal education for all its students.

Despite all the sacrifices of those who gave their lives for the cause of racial justice, it appears we in Philadelphia find ourselves in a situation not unlike those pioneers of the 1950’s. Over the last three years the Philadelphia School District has lost $500 million in revenue from the Pennsylvania State Government. While $90 million has been restored this year, it is only a fraction of what is needed to provide basic service.*  On May 31 the Philadelphia School Reform Commission (SRC) passed a $2.4 billion dollar budget, which seems like a lot of money; but was $320 million short of what was needed. However, in passing the budget the superintendent acknowledged that the budget was inadequate to meet the districts needs and appealed to the city and state to contribute needed revenues while asking teachers to also take a cut in pay. Without extra help, all but principals and classroom teachers could lose their jobs in most public schools; that means schools will not have nurses, counselors, teachers aides, art & music teachers and administrative support services.(See link for details of Philadelphia School district decision.) 

While these numbers seem staggering, another way to look at the issue is to look at what districts spend per student. In 2007 (the most recent figures I could find) Lower Merion, a wealthy suburb just outside the city limits, spent $21, 399 per student. Marple-Newtown, a middle class area spent $14,889 per student. Philadelphia spent $11,078 per student. (numbers from Inquirer School Report Card) This was before the massive cuts mentioned above. Now the reasons for the disparities are many, but the main reason is that public schools are largely funded by property taxes. Districts serving a higher percentage of low income residents, like Philadelphia, are dependent on the state government to fill in the gap. Add to that the proliferation of charter schools in Philadelphia which get money from district thereby draining off even more necessary resources. This is why the governor and state legislators’ callous disregard for the needs of low income students is so heinous.

The bottom line there is a “separate and not equal” policy regarding Pennsylvania public schools in which students are who disproportionately low income and persons of color receive basically half the resources expended on their education as their wealthy counterparts. Philadelphia is not alone, students with a high percentage of low income students both rural and urban face the same challenge across the state. Furthermore, Pennsylvania is not alone; school spending disparities exist in most major metropolitan areas.  Is this any different than the inequities which the Supreme Court outlawed nearly 60 years ago?

I think not.

Those of us who reside in the suburban areas ironically may have the opportunity to make a difference. I believe and hope that there are many people living outside the city (yet who routinely use the city services and enjoy the city’s benefits) who would be horrified to learn that we have returned to the days of the Jim Crow South; only the injustice is no longer relegated to the South but exists in the Philadelphia metro area. We can urge our representatives that we don’t want to live in a state or a country that treats its most economically impoverished citizens as cast-offs. Public education is a social contract that should guarantee that every student regardless of race, class, gender or geographic location is entitled to a safe, well run, academically credible school. Many students in low income communities like Philadelphia have not been able to depend on that contract. The current disparity is systemic racism and class-ism at its worst, and is no better than the Jim Crow South at its worst.

The other day a Philadelphia middle school teacher stood up in the church I attend and expressed his anger at the injustice befalling the students in his school. When I spoke with him afterwards, he said: Half the time I feel like I am in an insane asylum and the other half I feel like I am in a prison. That is what we are preparing these kids for, if we don’t provide a decent education.  People often wonder what it was like to live during the Civil Rights era. We are living in a new Civil Rights era. The challenge we face is whether we will respond with the same kind of determination that was exhibited by those who have gone before us.

* figures regarding school funding were provided by Senator Vincent Hughes of the Pennsylvania State Senate and can be found at http://senatorhughes.com/legislative-services/issues/education

* Pictures from Associated Press

Tenative Support for the School District Re-Structuring Plan

I have long been an advocate for high quality urban public schools and an opponent of PA Republican Tom Corbett’s wholesale slashing of financial support for poor urban school districts like the Chester-Upland and Philadelphia School Districts. The former is facing dissolution and the prospect that its students will have to attend neighboring school districts, while the latter has put forth a bold plan for reducing central school administration roles and decentralizing the school district. I see both moves as responses to calculated efforts by wealthy elites to destroy urban public education and to ignore the needs of thousands of families and children who deserve as good an educational system as any wealthy suburban community.

With all that said, I find myself in the tentative position of supporting the Philadelphia School Reform Commission’s (SRC) plan to restructure the school district; but I do so with some strong caveats. As I understand it, the plan contains the following components.

-        First, the SRC proposes that the district be broken up into “achievement networks” that would include approximately 25 schools. Principals within those schools would be given greater autonomy to decide what programs to include and which teachers to work in their schools. The better performing a school, the more autonomy they would receive.  

-        Second, as many as 40 low performing schools would be closed with the idea of moving those students into “high performing” schools, which could be either public or charter schools. This aspect of the proposal is projected to increase the percentage of students attending charter school to grow from its current 25% to 40% in the next 5 years. The proposal calls for new charter schools, but to only allow nonprofit partners to operate rather than for-profit companies such as Edison schools. 

-         Third, the district is charged with providing “high quality…individually tailored training for principals and teachers” (Lerum, 2012).  

-        Finally the district seeks to outsource many supportive functions such as maintenance, transportation and cleaning.

Now these bold proposals being put forth by the SRC are not primarily driven by a progressive educational agenda; rather they are a response to the massive budget cuts required because of the loss of state funding for the Philadelphia School District. In this blog I have contended that the conservative agenda being put forth by Governor Corbett and others of his ilk is nothing less than the destruction of public education for poor people in favor of vouchers and private schools. Moreover, I have made clear my concern that charter schools drain money from the public school system and undercut the possibility for community input and control of those schools. Charter schools also are allowed to hire non-certified teachers and to expel students who do not fit in their system, thus sending them back to overcrowded, underfunded public schools.

So how is it that I can support this plan?

First, I support it because it is the best response to a bad funding situation. The SRC is to be commended for trying to do something innovative with the money they have to work with. Second, I support it because it gives principals and teachers more autonomy to respond to the needs of their students and families in ways that are appropriate. Under former superintendent Ackerman I saw many innovative local initiatives undercut by directives from the central administration that did not take into account the unique challenges faced by teachers and administrators in local schools.

However, I offer my support with the following conditions and caveats. First of all, with the development of the achievement networks there needs to be the offer of sufficient resources for training and accountability. I asked one middle school teacher in a “low performing school” what he thought of the plan, and he said candidly, if the right person is in the principal’s office the plan would be a great improvement, but if unqualified or incompetent principals are allowed to stay in their jobs such a plan is  a recipe for further chaos. Thus, the SRC, the Philadelphia City Council and the state and Congressional legislators must continue to seek adequate funding to provide this support. Giving people freedom to be creative without the resources to do so is setting people up for failure. Giving people freedom without proper accountability, is to sweep the problem under the rug.

Second, if the plan does in fact significantly increase the role of charter schools, restrictions must be placed on those schools regarding the expulsion of low performing and problem students. If charter schools want to become a significant player, they cannot simply push their problems back onto the local public schools. Charter schools need to employ special education teachers who can address some of the unique emotional and behavioral challenges that face our students, and not simply send them out as “failures” in their system. Charter schools must not be allowed to be selective in their pursuit of excellence, they must demonstrate their excellence by serving all students.

Finally, school district officials (the SRC and administrators) need to stop looking for “quick fixes” and commit themselves to a long term strategy for change. People who have been observing the school district far longer than me, have seen too many innovations come and go. Measures of success cannot simply be limited to test scores, but must include school attendance, school climate and the relationships develop among teachers, principals, students and families. While these other things are much harder to measure, they are vital to the overall success of a school. Furthermore, such changes require not just a quick fix but a wholesale culture change which can take several years. One of the most tragic decisions I have witnessed was the firing of WestPhiladelphia HS principal Saliyah Cruz whose efforts to create a safe and enjoyable school were widely recognized to be successful; however in her three years as principal there had not been a significant change in test scores. Any reasonable person could have recognized that before test scores could improve the school climate needed to be addressed, yet a desire for a quick rise in test scores led her to be transferred out of that position. The kind of short-sightedness indicated by the Cruz decision is deadly to any effort at sustainable, lasting change.

While many teachers and other school workers oppose the plan, the fact is that the current system has not served most students well; the primary focus needs to be on what will serve all of the district's students well. Given the hard choices forced on them by declining resources, the SRC is to be commended for its bold plan. Change will be painful, and there will be many stops and starts. My hope and plea is to give the plan time to work, and realize that given the anti-public school climate in Harrisburg and elsewhere, this plan for reform faces tough sledding, but it’s worth giving it a try.

 

Sources:

Graham, K (2012). Phila School District plan includes restructuring and school closings. Philadelphia Inquirer, April 24, 2012).

Kerkstra, P. (2012). A window to school reform. Philadelphia Inquirer, May 4, 2012.

Lerum, E. (2012). A bold plan to fix city’s schools. Philadelphia Inquirer (May 17, 2012)

Whitehorne, R (2012). Commentary: Is there a ‘silent majority for the District’s transformation plan. The Notebook, May 24, 2012.

Hurricance Arlene

Amidst tremors from an earthquake on Tuesday and the impending hurricane this weekend, Philadelphia's schools experienced another shock wave when now-former superintendent Arlene Ackerman went on the offensive against those who forced her out of her position with a $950,000 buy out. While I was never a huge Arlene Ackerman fan, I had great respect for her as an educator. Her Vision 2014 plan and her attempt to help struggle schools through her Renaissance Academy program was a move in the right direction. West Philadelphia High School, the school with which I am most familiar, has been designated a Promise Academy this coming year and along with a dynamic new principal, a brand new state of the art building and an infusion of funds, the school was slated to get the kind of support services common in more affluent districts and a huge help to the students of this school. Now some of those support services have been cut back due to state budget cuts, but still the school continues to move in the right direction. I give Dr. Ackerman much of the credit for that happening.

Dr.Ackerman was quoted several times as saying "I'm an educator.I'm not a politician." Having attended a community meeting with her and watched her in action. I would amend her saying: she is an educator, but not a leader. She did not know how to work collaboratively with people; she chose to make arbitrary and one-side decisions. She asked for community input, but never seriously considered it. And when it came to working with political leaders to advocate for the school budget, she embarrassed the mayor and refused to communicate on even the most basic level with people she needed and wanted as allies. In this sense she was her own worst enemy.

After she had been released and given a $950,000 severance package, she not only had the gall to take the money, but then she went on the radio and blamed politicians, the SRC and her staff for her failures, never once taking responsibility for her own actions. She even urged parents to pull their students out of the school district, the district of which she was the chief executive officer! Given the generosity of the school district and some anonymous donors, given her so-called concern for students, and given her own failures as a leader, I would have hoped for more humility and personal responsibility and a little less spite. Effective leaders know that no matter what happens ultimately they must take responsibility for the organizations they lead. It is okay to call out people at certain points, but always it must be done with the pointing the finger at oneself too. Sometimes leaders know when to keep their mouth shut; that obviously is not a skill she ever cultivated.

What is most sad is that Arlene Ackerman not only shows no remorse, but at least publicly shows little insight into the dynamics of her own demise. Yes, Philly is a political town. Yes, it is a tough place to be a leader. Yes, the challenge of turning around a struggling urban school district is great. She should have known that going into her job three years ago. Apparently she leaves with no greater insight than when she came in, and instead leaves like a storm seeking destruction along the way.

Though Arlene Ackerman made some positive contributions to the educational system in this city, in the end we are much better off without her. Now we must pick up the pieces and try to move on. Hopefully, we as a community, and our political and educational leaders can show more reflective insight and humility than the woman they just fired. As an educational visionary she was a reasonable choice for superintendent, but as a leader she was a disaster.