School safety undermined

WHEN THE STATE Department of Education shuttered the Philadelphia School District's office of school safety on Friday they threw three people out of a job.

The Education Department says those layoffs were among 255 painful departures imposed on state workers who showed up Friday to find they had no job.

Two state legislators call the action "mysterious and shocking." Philadelphia state Reps. John Taylor and Bill Keller held a press conference outside the shuttered office yesterday - Jack Stollsteimer, who headed the office, attended - to complain about its loss and to demanding that state Education Secretary Gerald Zahorchak reverse the decision. They say the action to close it is illegal, and the idea this is a budget move is "laughable."

Both were authors of the Safe Schools Advocate Law passed in 2001 that mandates an advocate for Philadelphia. That office last year issued a report damning some of the district's methods for dealing with crime and violence in the schools. The report was not released by the state and Stollsteimer suggests he is being punished for his work.

The state says that there was nothing mysterious about the action, since the cut was in the February budget.

There's no doubt that a school safety advocate is an important tool for the district to monitor and reduce crime and violence in the schools. While the rate has declined, the fact that 15,000 criminal incidents were reported in 2007-2008 makes this a priority for teachers, parents, and students.

But there has to be a better way to solve this problem than public sniping. We're glad that the lawmakers are outraged, but we also know they're not alone.

Their pain and indignation over the loss of a critical service is being shared all over the state. One way to solve this problem is to get a state budget resolved, pronto.