Back to school: It’s worse than you think
Philadelphia public schools are opening for the new school year on Monday without many of the basics any reasonable person would expect. Paper, for example. Guidance counselors. Nurses.Amid an agonizing financial and leadership crisis, the appointed School Reform Commission, which has run the district since the state took it over a dozen years ago, passed a “doomsday” budget this past summer that included cuts so drastic there was no money for schools to open this fall with funding for things such as paper, new books, athletics, arts, music, counselors, assistant principals and more. Teachers were laid off. This came after theclosure of a few dozen schools.
How did this happen? The state government has financially starved the district for years, and the city’s public school system has been subjected to one reform experiment after another.
How bad is it? Superintendent William Hite made some accommodations to allow schools to open, but parents say the answer to the question is this: Worse than you think.
Here to explain is Helen Gym, a Philadelphia public school parent and activist. Gym is a founder of Parents United for Public Education, a citywide parent group focused on school budgets and funding to improve achievement and accountability in the public schools. She is a former editor of The Notebook, an independent Web site about Philadelphia public schools. She is also a board member at Asian Americans United, a Chinatown-based community organization focused on education, youth leadership,