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!