An Interesting Take on Fixing Urban Schools...

The American Spectator has an intriguing and provocative article out on fixing inner city schools that have largely failed across America.  Of course the common-sense solution, which more and more inner-city students/parents are demanding, has a lot to do with school choice and letting the free market fix the problem.  from the article:

 "a father, concerned about his son’s attendance there, walked in past “two police cars…[an] everyday routine…. There was violence. Fighting. Disrespect and drugs.” The father complained to the principal about what he saw, and she “shook her finger” at him, admonishing “don’t tell me how to run my school ” That is precisely the response I would have expected from a modern-day unionized public school principal. The father would have been received more cordially if he had complained not about the chaotic environment of the principal’s school but about the police presence out in front..should the public tolerate an educational system that is “destroying any hope or possibility” of its students being prepared to live normal lives? What is more, Moore has the answer, to wit, increased state support for vouchers which would allow the unions to maintain their failing system, but provide for alternatives for parents interested in their children’s well-being."

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Philadelphia Public Schools and the Slow Motion Train-Wreck

Could this tragic collapse be the harbinger of what is to come for huge, urban, under-performing public school districts nationwide?

The fate of the nation's eighth largest school system hangs in the balance.  Over the last thirty-three years, multiple entities have struggled to control an out-of-control school system that was swallowing massive amounts of tax revenue and growing at the teacher, support and administrative ranks on one hand, yet losing enrollments and  under-performing at producing literate graduates on the other.

As this article chronicles, in 1981 after a series of devastating strikes by the teacher's union, a panel comprised of state and local appointees took control of Philadelphia's public schools.

Fast forward to 2014.  Graduation rates are down, Schools are violent, classroom discipline is out of control, enrollments at traditional schools are flat or declining, while charter school enrollments have quadrupled (A moratorium on the establishment of new charter schools has been established, to boot).  residents with the means to do so have enrolled their own children in private schools or they have moved to the suburbs.

Meanwhile, the average teacher salary in this district stands at $71K, with benefits it averages $110K. (These figures represent income levels that are double the median income in Philadelphia) Not too shabby!  Generous as it is, however, it is unsustainable.  Layoffs are underway again, and as a stop-gap measure to shore up funding, new taxes have been levied on cigarettes and an added sales tax has been levied.  The district still faces an $8 Million shortfall.

So an historic, controversial decision had to be made.  The contract with the union was terminated.  Teachers will now have to contribute a small amount toward their own health care plans (they previously contributed $0) and pay raises are being held in abeyance. These commonsense measures that the rest of us have known as reality for the last two decades, applied to these employees, are now termed to be "Union Busting"   What a joke.   And what a mess.