Lisa Haver testifies at City Council budget hearing. (Photo: Larry McGlynn)
Members of Philadelphia’s Board of Education, along with Superintendent Tony Watlington, Sr. and senior members of his administration, appeared last week in City Council as part of the ongoing hearings on the proposed city budget and the district’s own proposed budget for the next fiscal year. After all of the speeches, questions and answers (and non-answers), one conclusion was unavoidable: the board and the administration will do little to disrupt the status quo. Members of the Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools (APPS) advocated for the restoration of school librarians. Members of the Lift Every Voice parent organization reminded Council members that Art, Music and Recess are not “extras”. High school students asked for safer and healthier facilities.
Board of Education President Reginald Streater repeated his assertion that the board is working to make the district more “child-centered”, but the board’s spending priorities tell a different story.
For example, Superintendent Watlington assured Council that his administration would remain “focused on testing”, which means spending more time and money on both testing and test prep classes. It was disappointing that no Council member asked why his administration would be more focused on testing than on learning. Overtesting stifles creativity in both teaching and learning. A data-driven district cannot be a child-centered one. As one student from the Academy at Palumbo told the board at its April action meeting, and whose testimony was read at the Council hearing, “I am not just a statistic, and neither are my peers.”
Several people testified about the need to restore school libraries, an issue raised at nearly every board meeting since its reinstatement eight years ago. Unfortunately, board members and administrators were not present on the second day of hearings, which were set aside for public testimony. Since the board rarely responds to public speakers at its own meetings, it would have been nice to hear one of the Council members ask the board why the district has only three full-time librarians for its 118,000 students in 220 schools. A district with only three fully functioning libraries is not a child-centered district.
As the specter of more school closings looms, APPS members told Council members that the board has scheduled no more public hearings before its final vote on closures next fall. The board’s public meetings last fall were marred by misinformation as district officials deflected direct questions from parents about the future of their children’s schools. The board has said that they are not closing the schools because of financial issues, but they have yet to give a reason. Council should ask the board to answer questions that are keeping their constituents up at night: how many schools will be closed? In which neighborhoods? And most importantly: Why? A board which operates in the dark is neither child-centered nor community-centered.
The district, once again, is facing a large deficit. Mayor Cherrelle Parker told Council at the hearing that while she loves “the idea of doing more”, she could not support an increase in the district’s share of funds from city’s property tax this year.
Yet the mayor and some Council members are already supporting the decrease and eventual elimination of the Business Income and Receipt Tax (BIRT), thus pushing a discredited trickle-down economic scenario in which tax breaks spur big businesses toward more job creation. Children First Executive Director Donna Cooper pointed out in her testimony that she does not hear her neighbors clamoring for tax breaks; what they do want is more funding for better neighborhood schools.
At the end of this month, the board will vote to approve next year’s budget, expected to total almost $5 billion. As the governing body of the school district, the board has a duty to explain its spending priorities. Rarely does the board engage in deliberation before casting votes on items totalling tens of millions at its action meetings.
City Council’s Education Committee, which has yet to hold a meeting in 2025, should convene a hearing on the board’s spending priorities. Bring back Board of Education members and Superintendent Watlington so the parents, students, educators and community members can get some real answers.
Lisa Haver is a co-founder and coordinator of the Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools (APPS). She is a former Philadelphia public school teacher.
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