Why Philly should reject charter school coercion
The Philadelphia School Partnership wants the School Reform Commission to accept $25 million in exchange for approving thousands of new charter school seats. It's a really bad deal that the School District of Philadelphia can't afford and the SRC should reject it.
On Wednesday, the SRC will vote on applications for dozens of new charter schools. The only reason they are entertaining the proposals is because the Republican-controlled state legislature is forcing them to: The provision was attached to legislation allowing Philadelphia to raise its own cigarette tax to fund schools.
The problem is that the new seats could cost the beleaguered District an enormous amount of money. That's in part because new charters draw students from private schools and in part because the District must pay for each new student who enrolls in a charter and also for the "stranded costs," including staffing and building costs, that they leave behind in traditional public schools.
It is gratifying that PSP acknowledges that there are costs, which it pegs at about $2,000 for each new student who enrolls in a charter. But the Boston Consulting Group, in a report for the District, put the cost at $7,000 per student.
That's a big difference, but as far the SRC's decision-making goes there should be no real distinction.
Either way, the District can't afford it. PSP is looking for as many as 15,000 new charter school seats to be approved. Using even their more conservative estimate, their cash wouldn't cover a first year of charter-school-expansion costs — let alone the costs that would accrue in following years.
The offer is classic PSP, a group backed by wealthy benefactors that has quickly become a powerful force in local education politics: It is superficially beneficent, but is in reality both misleading and coercive.
Let's start with "misleading," the coin of the realm in many public debates purportedly about "school reform." Most recently, PSP and other charter advocates have contended that there is a 40,000-student waiting list for charter schools. But the District has questioned that figure. PSP has refused to explain or substantiate it.
And then there's "coercive." PSP's offer is take it or leave it, a naked attempt to use private dollars to foist fiscally damaging policy changes on a cash-poor school system. This might be galling. But it is not surprising.
In 2013, City Paper revealed that PennCAN, a pro-charter and "reform" lobbying outfit that initially operated out of PSP's office, issued a secret report calling on then-Gov. Tom Corbett to use an orchestrated attack on the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers as an election-season ploy to distract voter attention from unpopular and draconian budget cuts.
Later that year, PSP reportedly lobbied Corbett to condition $45 million in federal aid to Philly schools on massive teachers' union concessions. Corbett only relented after City Paperrevealed that a sixth-grader had died of an apparent asthma attack after falling ill at a city school where, thanks to underfunding, no nurse was on duty.
Which brings us to the latest push for charter expansion. Last year, the state lawmakers finally approved a measure allowing Philly to raise its own cigarette tax. But they did so on the Why Philly should reject charter school coercion :: Blogs :: The Naked City :: Philadelphia City Paper: