Hite: Pa. school plan is 'a recipe for disaster'

Hite: Pa. school plan is 'a recipe for disaster':
Hite: Pa. school plan is 'a recipe for disaster'

Tucked into a late-night school-code bill passed by the Pennsylvania Senate this week are details that some education watchers - including the Philadelphia superintendent - say could cripple city schools.

Aimed squarely at the Philadelphia School District, the "opportunity schools" language would remove from local control up to five low-performing schools per year.

The state Department of Education would seize the struggling Philadelphia schools for at least three years, with the option to either turn the schools over to either a charter or outside manager or close them outright.

Both Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. and Philadelphia Federation of Teachers President Jerry Jordan on Friday sounded alarms over the provisions - which all Philadelphia senators voted for, seemingly as part of a budget deal that would bring to the district a $100 million boost in state aid.

Long wary of Philadelphia and its schools, some Harrisburg Republicans have demanded increased accountability in exchange for more funds.Hite noted that Philadelphia has begun turnarounds - including charter conversions - at more than 30 schools in the past several years, despite extreme budget challenges.

"I do question why there is specific legislation just for Philadelphia when probably no one else in the Commonwealth has turned around the number or percentage of schools we have," the superintendent said in an interview. "There's no proof that there's no will to do this here. What we haven't had is the revenue."

Hite, who said the district had trouble attracting a deep pool of charter organizations to take over three more district schools in the fall, questioned the wisdom of "just willy-nilly designating a number of schools to give to somebody or to do something with."

He called it "a recipe for disaster."

Forcing the district to lose five schools per year - and possibly creating that many more charters - would deepen the very financial problems that lawmakers have cited as reason to be skeptical of Philadelphia.

"I do worry that their requirements will create a larger problem, or larger structural deficit than the one we're facing already," Hite said.

Jeff Sheridan, Gov. Wolf's spokesman, said the "opportunity schools" language was part of the budget compromise that

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