Why America Should Care About Philadelphia’s Children
 |
| “A Public School System From Hell” |
Philadelphia, the place where the Declaration of Independence was signed and the Constitution was written, and the site of the oldest residential street in the United States, has become the site where the nation’s drift away from its founding ideals is most acutely obvious.
A recent op-ed in The Philadelphia Inquirer described the situation of the city’s public schools as a “slow train wreck.” The district faced “a $304 million hole in the amount of money that’s needed to open safe schools.” A “rescue package” offered by the state was woefully inadequate. Recently, the city borrowed $50 million just to open the schools on time. And a big showdown between teachers and school administrators is expected later this month.
“This should be a big national story,” the op-ed writer concluded,”arguably as big as what happened in Detroit. At the end of the day, Detroit’s bankruptcy was something that happened on a piece of paper. What’s happening here is real kids and real schools.”
Indeed, what’s happening in the City of Brotherly Love should be a national story, which is why to get the narrative straight.
“A Public School System From Hell”
Writing at Salon.com, Aaron Kase explained how the state of Pennsylvania, led by its conservative governor Tom Corbett, has been intent on turning the city’s school district into “a public school system from hell.”
Three factors – budget cuts to the city’s neighborhood schools, the city’s
