Dear Philadelphia: “We are above the law”
(Read City Paper’s article here)
In December after months of thoughtful deliberation and a full legal analysis by our lawyers at the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia, we decided to file a complaint against the William Penn Foundation based on the
On Public Integrity and Our Ethics Complaint
A few months ago, I made the decision to sign on to a complaint filed with the Philadelphia Board of Ethics. The complaint, signed by members of Parents United for Public Education, the NAACP, and the Philadelphia Home and School Council, was concerned with the William Penn Foundation’s financing of a private consulting group in order to drive the direction of our city’s public education policy. Signing was a tough personal decision, and I weighed it for a long time before committing. William Penn has funded and continues to fund many laudable institutions and initiatives in our city, which I and other Philadelphians use and appreciate. Yet no institution, however worthy or powerful, should be above criticism. And no individual should be excluded or intimidated from participating in a public process of shaping education policy—or denied the right to scrutinize the ethical or legal nature of actions taken in order to influence that process.
I and my co-signers believe that the William Penn Foundation moved into the arena of lobbying when it contracted directly with the Boston Consulting Group to create and promote a plan to privatize school district management, expand the charter school sector, and target a huge number of Philadelphia’s public schools for
I and my co-signers believe that the William Penn Foundation moved into the arena of lobbying when it contracted directly with the Boston Consulting Group to create and promote a plan to privatize school district management, expand the charter school sector, and target a huge number of Philadelphia’s public schools for
