Schools: Really, who knows anything?
Does anyone really understand the current state of the Philadelphia School District's finances?
DOES anyone really understand the current state of the Philadelphia School District's finances?
The numbers thrown around for the past few months seem designed to confuse more than clarify. The district's 2013–14 operating budget is $2.3 billion; $1.95 billion of that is presently in its coffers. For months we have been told that that is not enough. We are now told that the mere promise of $50 million - 2 percent of the budget - is enough to open schools. With more than 87 percent of the budget in place right now, why would the question be: Can we open schools on time? Isn't the real question: How can we keep schools running until June?
Philadelphians have become dizzy trying to follow the bouncing ball of pledges, promises, reassurances, money put on then taken off the table, workers laid off then brought back. Contradictory statements made by Superintendent William Hite have left many scratching their heads:
In July, he said that we cannot afford secretaries, counselors, assistant principals, librarians or safety workers; schools will have to open in September without them.
In August, he said we cannot open schools on time; they will be unsafe unless we can bring back the support staff laid off.
In June: We must find $304 million, no matter where that comes from, in order to operate a system of high-performing schools. In August: We must have $50 million for schools to operate at a "functional" level.
In June: We have an absolutely bare-bones budget; there is no more. In August: We can't tell you how or from where, but we just found $33 million in the budget to bring back some staff.
Dr. Hite has yet to explain how he arrived at his $50 million figure as the magic number needed to start school on time. His ultimatum that schools could not open without it created a crisis where there was none. Why did he find it necessary to place fear into the hearts of parents and students? There was no doubt that the district would receive $50 million from the city, whether through the mayor's method of borrowing against future tax income or that of Council President Darrell Clarke's to sell shuttered school buildings. The answer came two weeks ago at an SRC meeting convened with only one day's public notice: the manufactured crisis provided the justification needed for Dr. Hite and the SRC to eliminate seniority rights and salary step increases for members of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, thus negating 40 years of good-faith collective bargaining.
Since the state took over Philadelphia's schools and installed its own School Reform Commission, teachers, students and parents have watched as that body has made one disastrous decision after another - from hiring unqualified, high-priced superintendents to sitting by as these administrators took us down the path to financial and academic bankruptcy. Rather than admit its own culpability, and that of a governor who has yet to restore more than a pittance of the massive funding cuts of his last two budgets, the SRC has chosen to penalize those who played no part in these destructive decisions.
Philadelphians deserve straight answers from Chairman Pedro Ramos and Superintendent Hite. Parents, teachers and students need to know what they are facing when they return to school next week.
