Full House at West Philly Town Meeting on Local Control of Schools
Panel discusses why returning control of our schools to the people of Philadelphia is needed
Over a hundred people gathered last night at Monumental Baptist Church to press for ending the 13 year old failed experiment with the School Reform Commission and return our schools to local control. For PCAPS this demand is part of a broader campaign to elect a Governor and legislators who are committed to quality education for all children.
A panel of parent Kia Hinton from ACTION United, Maureen O’Driscoll, Kindergarten teacher at JB Kelly and two student members of BPSOS, Kenneth and Cassandra from Central and Girls High talked about what state control of schools has mean’t for them. All three speakers hit on the impact of the failure of the state to fund our schools. The other theme was the SRC denys all of us a democratic voice in determining what happens in our schools. Rev. Dr. Matsen, the pastor of Monumental Baptist also spoke, focusing on the historic and continuing inequality between inner city schools and the affluent suburbs. State Representative James Roebuck opened the meeting with a strong pledge of support for the local control campaign.
Besides hearing from the speakers, town hall participants, phoned, tweeted, wrote postcards and emails to City Council and the Mayor calling for allowing the ballot question on returning our schools to local control to go forward. Working Families Organization Director Kati Sipp told the audience that in spite of 40,000 signatures on petitions to Full House at West Philly Town Meeting on Local Control of Schools | WeArePCAPS:
PCAPS Statement on School Redesign Initiative
For years many of us have called for teacher led, community based approaches to improving schools as opposed to school “turnaround” policies that arbitrarily replace school staff and turn schools over to charters or outside managers. In that spirit we welcome the School Redesign Initiative as a District effort to respond positively to these concerns. The SRI does open a window for educators, pare