Talk Story
School shoot-out
in Philadelphia is
worth watching
WHILE Hawaii public schools struggled successfully last month to meet a federal court deadline to provide special education services and avoid takeover, an even more dramatic showdown took place in Philadelphia. There, the mayor and Pennsylvania's new governor locked horns over state seizure and privatization of the city's public schools.On one side of the showdown were Gov. Mark Schweiker, a Republican, who took office after Gov. Tom Ridge left to become the director of homeland security, and Edison Schools Inc., the nation's largest for-profit operator of public schools. On the other were Philadelphia Mayor John F. Street, a Democrat, and the unions representing school district workers.
The Philadelphia district, with about 210,000 students, is roughly the size of the Hawaii state system, which has about 190,000. Privatizing it would be the largest such experiment in the country.
Schweiker proposed to do exactly that, however. On Oct. 31, he unveiled a plan to place Edison, a private company based in New York, in charge of improving education in the Philadelphia school district and slashing its budget. Moreover, if the city didn't cooperate, in 30 days he'd seize the Philadelphia school district.
Philly's problem is a combination of chronic budget deficits -- currently at $208 million and projected to reach $1.2 billion a year within five years -- and abysmally low academic achievement. The city's schools rank in the bottom 1 percent of state school districts.
A study done by Edison and commissioned by Ridge said two-thirds of district children, about 140,000, are failing math and reading. "Such performance would be a tragedy in a district of 200 students," the report said. "In a district of more than 200,000 children, it is a crisis."
The Philadelphia Daily News described the situation thus: "It seems like Philadelphia has been in reform school forever. Bluntly, the city's public schools have earned the lengthy sentence. Our city's schools have been mostly an education in failure, particularly in the last few decades."
However, Philip R. Goldsmith, CEO of the Philadelphia School District, slammed the report, on which Schweiker based his decision to seize the city's schools. Its suggestion that Edison itself be hired to manage the school system and operate individual schools was a "solution unprecedented in the annals of public education," Goldsmith said.
"Even some of its most prominent supporters acknowledge this scheme is unproven and untried, but they justify it on the grounds that the system couldn't get worse."
On Nov. 9, Mayor Street declared war on the governor's plan, moved his own office into school district headquarters and vowed he would fight the state's takeover attempt in the courts, the Legislature and on the streets. "It's a Street fight now," said the Daily News.
The mayor held his ground for weeks, refusing to meet with Schweiker unless the governor took Edison's management off the table. While the leader of the state House of Representatives said Street was childish, the move was effective.
"At the heart of the increasingly venomous debate over the future of the Philadelphia schools are two distinct but overlapping issues," the Philadelphia Inquirer noted. "It helps to try to keep them as separate as possible. One is the question of a state takeover. The other is privatization. They are linked, but they are not the same."
On Nov. 21, the two sides met and hashed out a deal to avoid a hostile takeover. Edison will not run the district or replace the top 55 district managers as proposed. Instead, those jobs will be kept by public employees working for the district CEO who, in turn, will report to a new reform commission, appointed by the governor and the mayor.
According to Education Week, "Other aspects of the governor's plan remain intact, including bringing in private management, in partnership with community organizations, to run the city's 60 worst-performing schools."
Still, as the school board president noted, "Edison's role is going to be as a service provider and not calling the shots."
Despite the compromise, the unions are vowing a court fight and African-American clergymen are leading street protests this week.
In the past, Edison representatives have met with Hawaii officials to explore the possibility of privatizing schools here. The unfolding Philadelphia story bears watching.
John Flanagan is the Star-Bulletin's contributing editor.
He can be reached at: jflanagan@starbulletin.com.