Who is the mother in the anti-Nutter PFT ads?

WHO IS Kia Philpot Hinton?

She began appearing last week on television and radio ads paid for by the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, accusing Mayor Nutter of doing too little to solve the school-funding crisis and of "cozying up to" Gov. Corbett.

"I'm just a concerned parent, and I want to make sure my kids have a quality education like I received," Hinton, a 36-year-old mother of four, told the Daily News yesterday inside her two-story Southwest Philly rowhouse. Three of her children attend public schools. Her eldest son, 17, is at Abraxas Academy, a detention program.

"Schools are not being fully funded," she said. "I don't see the resources there for them to excel."

Hinton went to W.C. Longstreth Elementary, the same school her 7-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter now attend. But she said things have changed. School supplies are limited, and classrooms will likely fill up as students from the recently shuttered Anna H. Shaw Middle School will be heading to Longstreth. She says the city should be supporting teachers, not calling on them to make $133 million in contract concessions.

The mayor this week called the ad blitz a distraction and noted that it came just before the PFT's contract is slated to expire on Saturday. He argued that the ads do not present the full picture of what the city has done to fund schools over the years.

"The mayor believes that Ms. Hinton is a serious parent who cares deeply about her child and all the children as he does," said mayoral spokesman Mark McDonald, adding that the city has provided $155 million in new annual funding in the past three years. "This ad is very clearly a planned distraction paid for by a union that wants people to think about something other than work rule changes that will make the school district stronger."

Hinton, a bookkeeper for Southwest Globe Times, a community newspaper, joined community group Action United two years ago after a parent organizer knocked on her door and asked how she felt about public schools. The city then was trying to close another huge budget hole.

As a kid, she watched her mom, Marcia Philpot Murphy, 65, now a retired city social worker and former employee for late state Sen. Hardy Williams Sr., travel to Harrisburg to lobby support for schoolreadiness programs and inform neighbors on the latest issues.

Kia Hinton is chair of Action United's education committee and has since been at the forefront of rallies calling for more money to fill the district's $304 million gap. She participated in a meeting with other organizers and the mayor, and is active in her children's schools. And when she was asked to participate in PFT's ad, she jumped at the opportunity because she said she wants her elected officials to do more.

Hinton questioned Nutter's push to create school funding from a new cigarette tax and an increase to the liquor-by-the-drink tax - both of which she said would hit low- and middle-income households. She couldn't understand why he didn't back a plan to increase a business tax known as the use-and-occupancy tax. Nutter had expressed concern about the impact that tax would have on businesses and noted it had been increased last year to fund schools.

Hinton, who said that she was not paid for appearing in the ads and that she did not vote for Nutter in either mayoral election, saw the ads as an opportunity to voice how she feels.

"We have a lot of power when it comes to our children's education and their schools," she said. "I want to get that message out to folks."

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