Nutter on school district indictments: "No excuse" for cheating

Mayor Nutter today came down on the five School District of Philadelphia employees who were indicted for an alleged cheating scandal at Cayuga Elementary.

"The integrity of testing, the integrity of the education process in a classroom - students and teachers - is sacrosanct," Nutter told reporters. "There is no excuse, there is no acceptance, there is no turning a blind eye, there is nothing that anyone could ever say to me that would allow for something like this by adults."

Nutter said that if the principal and four teachers facing charges are convicted, he hopes they are "prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law should the be found guilty of this horrible kind of adult behavior that negatively affects the futures and lives of children."

"Cheating is wrong, cheating is bad, and people should get in trouble for encouraging it, participating in it or supporting it," Nutter said.

The mayor also touched on the debate over how to fund the financially beleaguered district, saying he wants elected officials - the state General Assembly, City Council, Gov. Corbett and himself - to reach a solution together.

"It's certainly my goal to try to support an effort that we're pretty much all in agreement with," Nutter said. "Today is May 8. It's not like there's a deadline tomorrow, but the clock is ticking and we have some work to do. It's not impossible to get it done during this time, but we need to figure out just exactly what path we're taking."