School principals rally at City Hall with hat in hand
Local leaders in public education ask City Council to help bridge funding gap.
ABOUT 50 principals from schools throughout the city came to City Council's front door yesterday with a plea for more school funding.
The principals, hailing from local elementary, middle and high schools, crowded the fourth-floor hallway outside Council chambers with a united message to Philadelphia's legislative body.
"I stand here with my colleagues having just voluntarily voted to take a pay cut so that there is more money coming into our schools for our children," said Chris Lehmann, founder of the Science Leadership Academy in Center City. "As the stewards of the children of the city, we urge City Council to now do their part and make the money available so that our schools do not have to choose between having a librarian or a science teacher or a gym teacher or an art teacher.
"The children of Philadelphia deserve a world-class education, and we need City Council to fund our schools so that we can give our children the education they so richly deserve," he added.
The principals are putting together their budgets for next year. Faced with the prospect of not having sufficient funding to meet their needs, the group is relying on $200 million from Philadelphia, including $120 million that was committed last year as part of a rescue package. This, they say, is still not enough.