Hite makes case for recurring funding stream for Philly schools

Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. understands City Council's frustration - another spring, another multimillion-dollar ask from the perpetually needy Philadelphia school system.

And this time, it comes with a request from the mayor for a $105 million property-tax increase.

But though it's often glossed over, the Philadelphia School District faces a sizable 2015-16 budget gap, and so the first $85 million that comes in from the city or state does not fund additional counselors or literacy programs. It just fills yet another hole.

Hite, in a Wednesday interview with the Inquirer Editorial Board, said he simply could not spend another summer talking about whether school would open on time, as he has both summers he has been superintendent.

The present conditions cannot become the new normal, he said.

"It has begun to create this terrible brand," he said. "It's about what our children and what our schools must do without. We are now at a point where there's nothing left to cut to provide a quality education for children. I'm up against this place where the revenue must be there, and it must be recurring."

District revenues have declined faster than enrollment, and fixed and mandated costs have created a structural deficit. Council has come up with $324 million in new money over the last four years, but some of that has been in one-time fixes.

The district's request would give schools, rocked by years of steep cuts, some flexibility to add staff or programs, things such as reading specialists or Advanced Placement classes. They must have that, the superintendent said.

"This is what it costs to educate a child," Hite said.

He has met with sharp pushback from Council, which last week grilled Hite and his team, suggesting the district was not transparent or accountable enough. Council President Darrell L. Clarke said he did not get a sufficient accounting from the district on how prior city funds were spent.

Before last week's hearing, Hite met with nearly every Council member individually, providing each with information "in painstaking detail" about how the city money would affect schools in their district.

And this week, district officials sent Council dozens of pages of documents supporting the district's request and answering their questions.

But "even in those meetings, there was a desire to do something," Hite said. "They understand the problem. But everyone is struggling with the mechanism."

A property-tax hike increasingly seems unlikely, with Council sources saying some combination of a jump in the use-and-occupancy tax, parking-lot tax, real estate tax, and a sale of real estate liens is shaping up to be the funding stream of choice, probably raising in the neighborhood of $80 million for schools.

Hite said he did not want to comment on any speculative numbers. His ask has not changed.

And he's not taking Council's grilling personally.

"My feelings aren't hurt," he said. "I respect Council's position as the authorizing authority for additional revenue. But I'm the superintendent, which means I have to tell you what it costs to educate children."

Children who started first grade two years ago have endured two years of deep cuts, he said. They probably don't have a full-time nurse in their school, and maybe not a full-time counselor. They likely don't have extracurricular programs, and there are not enough staffers in their hallways and schoolyards.

And now they're in third grade.

"It's time for us to make those investments now," Hite said. "If I'm scolded for advocating for additional revenue, I'll take it."