The Fairness Doctrine

Current Philadelphia School Board member Joyce Wilkerson may not get reappointed to her position because of her perceived “unfairness” to charter schools. The irony in this is hard to miss.

Because it’s been gone since 1987, most folks probably don’t know what the Fairness Doctrine was. 

But at one time, this FCC rule required television and radio stations to take time out of their daily menu of police dramas, soap operas, and game shows to have multifaceted discussions on the issues of the day. 

While now you might have entire television networks devoted to one point of view, that wasn’t the case in the days of the Fairness Doctrine. But ironically, cable was what got the Doctrine killed. 

Thanks to cable, you can now get all of the debate on the issues of the day you could possibly want thanks to the myriad of cable networks that assault us with information and misinformation on an almost constant basis. 

Now what does this have to do with Friday’s Committee of the Whole meeting on Mayor Cherelle Parker’s appointments to the School District of Philadelphia’s board?

Well, I’m talking to you about the Fairness Doctrine because the subject of fairness, or in the case of charter school supporters, the perception of the lack thereof, came up a lot on Friday.

While I’m a big fan of people and entities not being treated unfairly, until you can close a failing charter school as quickly as you can close a conventional public school and for the nebulous reasons that these schools are often closed in the School District of Philadelphia, miss me with that charge. 

The nominations of eight of the nine board appointees, — current President Reginald Streater, Crystal Cubbage, Joan Stern, Cheryl Harper, Wanda Novales, Whitney Jones, and current board members Sarah-Ashley Andrews, and Chau Wing Lam — were passed out of the Committee of the Whole on Friday. The nomination of the ninth member, former School Reform Commission chair, and current school board member Joyce Wilkerson, was held.

For most of the last week, charter school lobbyists were going to council members calling for Streater and Wilkerson to be left off of the board because they felt they were unfair to charter school entities. During their tenure on the board, no new charters have been approved and many of the current charters haven’t been allowed to expand.

For several of the Councilmembers, it was an argument that resonated. 

“I’d like to ask Joyce Wilkerson and Mr. Streater this one question: Do you think you treat charter schools and public schools fairly?” Councilmember Curtis Jones asked. “Is there an apples-to-apples comparison?”

Now, that’s a fair question to ask. As part of her One Philly message, Mayor Parker has stressed that there is no us vs. them when it comes to conventional public and charter schools.

It looks like an even more fair question when you understand why Jones, as well as Councilmembers Isaiah Thomas and Anthony Phillips were asking it. Black charter school operators have expressed feelings of being judged more harshly than their White counterparts when it comes to their schools. Thomas made a point of pointing out that a significant chunk of the charter schools closed were helmed by Black operators.

(I wonder if that includes the operators that closed themselves. One of the things I found most interesting about this hearing was that the closing of the Mathematics, Civics and Sciences Charter School was never mentioned.)

But when it comes to fairness, or the lack thereof, I go back to the meetings regarding the school closings of 2013 and 2014. 

I remember a couple of nights when I sat in the School District of Philadelphia building as groups of parents, students, and teachers came before the School Board and pleaded on behalf of their schools. Their pleas fell on deaf ears and the schools were closed through a simple majority vote.

Meanwhile, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is to close a charter school. Don’t believe me? Go to the Department of Education’s website and check it out for yourself.

There were a lot of things that made me scratch my head during this day-long meeting — the game between the Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago White Sox started 20 minutes after the meeting finally ended — but the part about fairness stuck with me. 

And you’ll have to forgive me if the people who should have been demanding it were the parents whose kids go to schools that can be closed with the stroke of a pen.