In the last three presidential elections, the people of Philadelphia overwhelmingly rejected the dangerous and repressive agenda put forth by Donald Trump and the Republican Party. Why, then, are local government officials, in particular the Philadelphia Board of Education, appointed by Mayor Cherelle Parker, using the tactics of the Trump administration to silence their constituents? Why are they aligning themselves with the individuals and organizations working to weaken and defund public schools?
Earlier this month, ICE arrested a Columbia graduate student, a legal resident of Palestinian descent who had led student protests last year, without due process and with the intention of deporting him. Last fall, the district suspended a teacher from Northeast High School, caving to pressure from an outside organization. The district did not charge the teacher with violating the school code or the rights of any students or staff member.
The White House has begun a campaign of fear and intimidation against protesters and perceived enemies, spreading fear and stifling free speech. The Board of Education has brought in Philadelphia police officers to threaten with arrest those who stand with signs at public meetings. Public speakers are surrounded by security officers when they come up to testify.
Trump and the GOP have made clear their intention to privatize public schools though ramped up school choice and vouchers, with the goal of eventually eliminating public education, as outlined in Project 2025. The Board of Education, with minimal public input, is moving now to close more neighborhood public schools. After a series of public meetings last fall rife with disinformation, the board appointed a special committee, whose meetings are not open to the public, to advise the board on how many schools to close and in which communities. The board has scheduled no more public meetings before its final vote next fall.
At the same time the board moves toward eliminating more public schools, they have embarked on a campaign of capitulation to the well-funded and politically connected “pro-choice” special interests who have lobbied for charter expansion, vouchers, and school closures. On October 17, 2024, the board hosted a special convening for charter administrators and pro-privatization organizations, including Philadelphia Charters for Excellence and Elevate 215 (the former Philadelphia School Partnership), at which they unveiled their Project RiSE (Reimagining School Excellence) initiative. Project RiSE, in many ways, shifts power from the board to the charter operators they are supposed to regulate. As the state-imposed School Reform Commission did in 2018, the board is allowing the charter operators themselves to reformulate the charter performance framework which largely determines whether the school is renewed for another five years.
Although charter schools claim to be public schools, the convening was not open to the public, not even to any parent or community organization. In fact, the board didn’t unveil Project Rise until four months later at its February 2025 action meeting. None of the convening documents were released to the public until APPS filed a Right to Know Request. Those documents reveal the board’s disturbing capitulation to the vendors and organizations with wealthy backers and political influence.
Seven of the nine Board of Education members were present for the convening. The same board members who don’t venture across their security barriers at public meetings, who rarely respond to public speakers, circulated among charter representatives, conversing and answering questions. Breakfast and lunch buffets were served, and a free candy table was set out. Keynote speakers included Kelli Peterson, Chief Accountability Officer of New Orleans Public Schools–actually an all-charter district imposed after Katrina, which has been a well-documented disaster. Is the board considering privatizing the entire district as the SRC almost did twenty-five years ago?
The RiSE presentation states: “The current framework has served our children well for the better part of a decade.” That is simply not true. The board regularly renews charters that fail to meet basic academic standards, that fail to provide services to students with special needs and English Language learners, that violate due process rights of students facing disciplinary proceedings including expulsion, and most egregiously, that hire and retain staff whose files are missing child abuse clearances and criminal background checks. There are no public renewal hearings.
The board’s Project RiSE 4-year timeline includes no public hearings. At a time when the board should be exercising its authority to make charter operators more accountable to the public who funds them, not to mention their own students and families, the board is ceding power to charter CEOs and their investors. Decades after the first charter school was established in Philadelphia, it is clear that the privatization of public schools has not improved education for the city’s children. But the charter sector has built a powerful financial and political patronage system over the years.
Public education is facing an existential crisis, on both a national and local level. Instead of capitulating to the forces of privatization, the Board of Education should be using its power as the governing body to strengthen the city’s public schools.
Lisa Haver is a former Philadelphia teacher and co-founder and coordinator of the Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools (APPS).
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