Students’ Response to School Budget Cuts

Notes from the Field

Submitted by Angela Chan

When I decided to teach, I believed that the betterment of our nation depends on growing compassionate and caring citizens, and on creating an engaged citizenry that must include even those who live in the poorest communities.  As a public and as a nation, we have determined education to be so important to the common good that we would collectively fund it for all children.  I thought, what better way to invest my life and energy than to be a public servant, to do the important work of educating our young, and not just to do this work anywhere, but to commit to those communities and schools with the least resources.

The last few years of budget cuts to public education has shaken my belief that our country and political leaders value the well being of every single child, rich or poor.  Across school buildings in Philadelphia, staff will hear their principals say, “We have a limited budget for next year.  We only have enough money for a principal and enough teachers for every class.  We don’t have any funds for books or supplies.”

Many who do not work in schools have only minimal understanding of the implications of the reality of those words.  For the last two years, my students have lost some of their favorite teachers: our school police officer, a full-time technology teacher, and bilingual counseling assistants who have worked with us for years.  Now we must tell our students that they might lose everyone else who is not a teacher.  Next year, we, along with all public schools in Philadelphia, might not have a Dean of Students, an office staff, a counselor, an instrumental music program, noon time aides who supervise lunch and recess, extracurricular activities including sports, and books and supplies.

I struggled to help my students understand this senseless predicament.  Our children come to school everyday expecting to be in a place of learning.  How do we explain that we lack even the basics to sustain our schools?  My students are smart, and they understand fairness.  Sooner or later, they will make the connection between what is happening to their schools and how this can come to happen.  They will come to understand marginalization and know that some groups do not matter in the grand scheme of our nation’s operation. Read the rest of this entry »

Notes from the Field

Submitted by Frank Murphy: October 16, 2012

The Philadelphia School Partnership has gone live with a new website that ranks schools in the city of Philadelphia according to five categories:

• Academics (based on standardized test results in Reading and Math: PSSA {public and charter schools} Terra Nova {parochial schools})

• Safety (based on fewest number of self reported serious incidents)

• Student Attendance (self reported)

•Achievement Gap (“an indicator of a school’s record in helping students of limited financial means learn”) It is not clear what this indicator means or how the gap is determined.

• College Bound (how many high school graduates enroll in 2 or 4- year college in the year after high school) It is not clear if this is also self-reported.

This site lists nearly all of the public, charter and parochial schools in the city.  Each school reviewed received an overall score in addition to a score for each of the above listed categories.  The highest score a school can receive is ten.  The lowest score is one.

When you go onto the site, first check a school configuration category.  Your choices are Elementary, Middle School and High School.  After you have made this selection, click on search.  You will be told how many schools are included in this category and they will be listed according to their overall score from highest to lowest.

This feature alone offers a tremendous insight into what standardized test score reporting really tells us about the differences between schools.  And for the most part it’s all about the money.    As you scroll from the best ranked to the lowest rank schools in any of the grade configurations, you can easily identify where the more economically well-to-do neighborhoods of the city are located.   You can also see which schools serve a greater percentage of children from a higher socio-economic status.  It is pretty clear when examining the information on this website that the children who reside in our more affluent neighborhoods are the ones who score at the highest test performance levels.

Read the rest of this entry »

Notes from the Field

Originally posted on the Philadelphia Public School thenotebook blog

by Frank Murphy on Jun 12 2012 Posted in Blogger commentary

The Philadelphia School Reform Commission recently chose to ignore a great opportunity to encourage and support authentic grassroots school reform efforts in the District. They did so by rejecting a self-governance school reform plan submitted by the Creighton Elementary School community.

Members of this school community had sought the support of the School Reform Commission for their proposed self-governance initiative to bring parents, community members, and teachers together to work on ensuring that their school is moving toward greater success.

This notion of self-governance is similar to a model described by Research for Action’s Eva Gold and Elaine Simon in which community organizing can create a new forum for school accountability. According to Gold and Simon, public accountability “is essential for improving urban public schools. Broad-scale, collective responsibility increases and diversifies the resources available for improving schools and also permits new voices to participate in defining when a school is ‘successful.’” Read the rest of this entry »

Notes from the Field
Submitted on June 11, 2012 by Frank Murphy

Almost everyday, some bad news story concerning the School District of Philadelphia seems to be in the newspaper. Budget shortfalls, school closures and employee layoffs are commonplace events. The education of our city’s children has become a political football. It seems that nearly every person with some kind of power or title in our city and state wants to give a good kick to Philadelphia’s schools.

Everyone these days, powerful or not, proclaims to be an expert with their own ideas on how our schools should operate. They say our schools are “broken”. Are they really or have schools become the convenient scapegoats for our society’s unwillingness to take responsibility for all of its citizens? For all of these experts’ criticisms, none of them show any willingness to provide the resources necessary to fully support our public schools. What a depressing state of affairs this all has become.

Amidst this political bickering and acrimony, our schools are indeed taking quite a beating. But despite this sorry situation, there is cause for hope. Teachers, those inspirational people who do the real work of educating our children, haven’t surrendered to the chaos that threatens to overwhelm our school district.

Teachers continue to walk into their classrooms every day and help their children to learn and grow. They know how to plant the seeds of wonder and excitement in their children’s minds. They lovingly tend to their students’ needs, cultivating their development so that the habits of critical thinking and communication can take root.

Educators draw inspiration for their work from other great educators. Our role models aren’t famous business people, billionaires or ambitious politicians. We admire people who have both the commitment and skill to help children find the power of their potential.

It’s been another long and stressful school year. Thank you to all of the great teachers of our city who make our schools a good place for our children to learn and grow. And as you deal with the final details of closing out another year, take a moment to reflect on why you have chosen to be a teacher.

Here is a great song to listen to as you renew your resolve. It is a musical compilation of the words of Fred Rogers, a revered and truly inspirational teacher.

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 their publically-owned school buildings by using custodial and maintenance workers who are employed by the School District of Philadelphia.  This has cost the District $1.8 million of scarce public funds.  Universal also occupies these facilities rent-free.  They are doing well in these poor economic times.  Now they have taken possession of yet another public school, Creighton Elementary School.

They acknowledged this latest acquisition with the following statement;  ”We are excited and look forward to educating the children in a loving, holistic and nurturing environment, which we embody as the Universal Way.”

The “Universal Way” isn’t a very inclusive approach to dealing with the needs of the majority of Philadelphia’s school children.  The agreements which this charter management organization continue to strike with the managers of the School District of Philadelphia, have been beneficial to their financial bottom line.  They prosper at the expense of the majority of our public schools.

And they call this school reform?   I call it shameful!