City and state still locked in battle over responsibility for Philly schools
by Dale Mezzacappa on May 03 2014 Posted in Latest news
On Monday, at its annual budget hearing, City Council will hear pleas from School District leaders for more money.
It is a familiar scenario. The same thing happens every year, only this time it is worse. The District says it needs $216 million just to keep the current level of service -- a level in which many schools do not have full-time counselors or nurses, most have no libraries, course offerings have been cut back and virtually all are scrambling for basic supplies.
Superintendent William Hite has said that without at least that much, the schools next year will be "empty shells." He warned this week that class sizes would rise to as high as 41 in high schools and 1,000 more staff will be laid off.
Ideally, the District says it wants $440 million in additional funds so it can not only restore cuts made over the last two years, but make a start on Hite's school improvement agenda. It is hoping to raise that by getting $195 million from the city, $150 million from the state, and the rest, about $95 million, through concessions from labor unions, particularly the teachers.
But the political and fiscal realities are not looking good.
City Council and Harrisburg remain locked in battle over who is responsible and who should bear the brunt of the burden for the city's schools, which have been under the control of the state since 2001. And while the District and the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers continue to negotiate, there has been no settlement after more than a year of talks.
A group of five advocacy organizations sent a letter Friday to Council President Darrell Clarke urging him to pass a sales tax extension that would send $120 million annually to the schools. The state legislature has authorized it, and the District is already counting on that money.
But Clarke wants to split those revenues between the schools and the city's lagging pension fund and instead increase the tax on a pack of cigarettes by $2 to raise money for education. City Council has passed such a measure, but it