Letters: Charter-school proposal would not hamstring Philly school district

SOME BALANCE is needed on the facts about House Bill 530, a proposed charter-school reform measure and the subject of your editorial on Wednesday ("Cloudy, Chance of Crisis).

HB 530 does not, as you claim, "eliminate enrollment caps for charters." In fact, enrollment caps already are forbidden by current state law, as the Pennsylvania Supreme Court made clear last winter: "Enrollment of students in a charter school . . . shall not be subject to a cap or otherwise limited by . . . any other governing authority." HB 530 does not change current law.

But it does provide significant steps to improve the operation of charter schools in Pennsylvania, especially when it comes to holding low-performing charters accountable:

* It creates a performance matrix to ensure that schools get charters renewed only if they demonstrate good performance.

* It creates a long-needed funding commission to examine and fix charter school funding, including special-education funding, within the next year.

* It increases Educational Improvement Tax Credit funding, which will help local educational organizations serving low-income students.

* It creates a uniform enrollment form for charter schools, so that schools cannot game the admissions process.

* It institutes necessary ethics reforms to prevent conflicts of interest among charter school board members.

HB 530 does nothing to harm the School District of Philadelphia, despite the district's protests to the contrary. The district's power to regulate low-performing charter schools derives not from capping enrollment, but rather from its willingness to authorize good schools and shut down bad ones. The School Reform Commission has begun doing just that, and HB 530 does nothing to prevent it from continuing to do its job in closing low-performing charters.

Mike Wang, executive director

Philadelphia School

Advocacy Partners

Breathalyzer devices must be fixed

An alert DUI attorney recently discovered that Breathalyzer machines used in Philadelphia were improperly calibrated during the first half of 2016, forcing the district attorney's office to review as many as 1,000 DUI cases. From Jan. 17 to June 29, Breathalyzer machines were calibrated with a solution that had expired - a criminal defense attorney's dream come true.

Each year, our government spends millions on DUI checkpoints, TV and radio ads, billboards, highway signs, bumper stickers and more in an attempt to reduce drunken driving. And each year, countless lives are lost in DUI accidents.

Those responsible for the calibration of Breathalyzer machines should possess enough common sense to double-check the expiration date on the calibration solution.

Rob Boyden

Drexel Hill, Pa.

Jobs for minorities

While reading your edition dated June 28, I came upon an article that concerned a federal jury judgment worth $2.3 million against the Philadelphia School District and late Superintendent Arlene C. Ackerman, which found that she had discriminated against a Bucks County company that was to install surveillance cameras at 19 schools the state had deemed "persistently dangerous." Ackerman, who was black, was reported to have told several administrators at a meeting in September 2010 that she was sick of the district's giving work to contractors who she said did not look like her. A former top district procurement official said Ackerman also said at the meeting that she would make sure that "all these white boys didn't get contracts."

According to the article, at the time, the district was exceeding its goal of participation of minority firms in its contracts.

The next day, Solomon Jones wrote a column describing how, in 2015, nearly 70 percent of city-funded construction projects did not reach the city's minority participation goals. Jones wrote that, after fruitless years of discussions about creating training programs and apprenticeship opportunities in the building trade unions, three out of four people in the skilled trades are white men. Women and people of color are largely excluded.

Unfortunately, or by design, these two articles were not published in your newspaper on the same day and on consecutive pages. Had they been, that would have given your readers food for thought.

Obviously, Jones and Ackerman had opposing viewpoints concerning fair and equitable hiring practices.

Jack McGrath

Ocean City, N.J.

Kenney getting started

Thanks to Jim Kenney, this pathetic excuse for a mayor, Philadelphia is best known as being a sanctuary city and the first major city in the United States to tax sugary drinks. And he has only just begun.

I miss Mayor Nutter.

Sharon Reiss

West Mount Airy