Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Universal Shame « City School Stories

Universal Shame « City School Stories:


Universal Shame

Notes from the Field
Submitted by Frank Murphy on June 5, 2011
If you haven’t seen Benjamin Herold’s recent post at the Notebook.org, you should take the time to read it.  Ben is doing an excellent job of investigative reporting concerning the operations of the School District of Philadelphia.
Here is a slightly revised comment that I posted on the Notebook blog in response to his article.
According to Chief Academic Officer Penny Nixon, “We lack the appropriate funding to provide our students with the education they deserve.”  In practice, this means most schools have no full time nurses, fewer counselors and greatly reduced support staff (noon time aides, school police officers, school climate aides, etc.).  In addition, music, art and extra-curricular activities are being reduced or eliminated.  This is a sorry state of affairs for our public school children.
The situation however is much better at the Universal Family of Schools. They have already managed to operate