Activism
Rally for funding equity draws busloads to Capitol
Organizing against military in schools
Parents rally for funds, more equity for Title I
Rally for funding equity draws busloads to Capitol
Early on a gloomy spring morning, hundreds of Philadelphians boarded buses to Harrisburg on May 5 to take a message to state legislators that it is time for all of the state's schools to be funded equitably and adequately.
Participating in "Philadelphia Day" of Good Schools PA's Stand for Children campaign, a coalition of elementary and high school students, parents, teachers, advocates, and concerned citizens rallied on the steps of the Capitol building and then swarmed the legislative halls to take their message to elected officials. The event was co-organized with Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth.
Mayor John Street boarded several of the buses before their departure from Philadelphia to express gratitude for the group's efforts. "It's imperative that we send a message that...we're not going to let people get away with not better funding our schools," said Street to one bus full of participants.
Speakers at the rally stressed that an investment in public education would have economic and social benefits in the future.
"Our legislature has a choice to make," said Keith Newman, a teacher at Morrison Elementary who brought 80 students with him to Philadelphia Day. "They can invest in our youth, or [they] can create more victims of crime and neglect."
Philadelphia Student Union member and Masterman High School junior Jacob Winterstein declared to the crowd, "Enough blaming students for the situation that we were forced into. Enough criminalization of students, because the real criminals are the legislators who want to mess with our future."
Rally speakers also included Mayor Street, Governor Rendell, and State Representative Babette Josephs.
Participants met with legislators to ask for support for equitable and adequate school funding and encouraged them to sign on to a Declaration of Educational Equity.
Since January, Good Schools PA's Stand for Children has brought more than 3,000 citizens to Harrisburg to push the legislature to pass a school funding bill that will give all children in the state an opportunity for a high quality education.
Each day the legislature has been in session, different groups of citizens have attended similar rallies. Philadelphians have been present at several other Stand for Children days, including Philadelphia Student Union Day, College Students Day, Jewish Community Day, and Quaker Day.
On June 26, Philadelphians will return to Harrisburg for Good Schools' statewide Rally for Educational Justice.
For more information, contact Good Schools PA at 215-332-2700.
Organizing against military in schools
From June 27-29, Philadelphia will be host to a national conference on militarism in schools organized by the American Friends Service Committee and several other organizations.
Called "Stopping War Where It Begins: Organizing Against Militarism in Our Schools," the conference will offer participants concrete skills and strategies for organizing against the increasing presence of military activities in schools, including JROTC programs and recruiting efforts.
"People will come to this conference and learn that there are moral, ethical, and even financial reasons to oppose militarism in our public schools," says conference organizer Oskar Castro. "And then they will learn how to take that knowledge and really apply it to their communities."
Organizers strongly encourage youth to attend.
For more information or registration materials, call Oskar Castro at 215-241-7176 or email ocastro@afsc.org.
Parents rally for funds, more equity for Title I
Protesting in schoolyards and at School Reform Commission (SRC) meetings, parents have been voicing their concerns about Title I funds. Members of the community group ACORN are calling for more funding from the federal government, while other parents are disputing the District's methods for distributing the Title I funds it already receives.
Title I is the largest single program of federal aid for elementary and secondary education. Through Title I, extra funds are given to school districts serving low-income families. Under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 (NCLB), more strings have been attached to the Title I funds than ever before.
At a rally outside of McDaniel School on April 24, dozens of ACORN members protested President Bush's decision to reduce by $6 billion the amount of funding for NCLB he had originally promised.
Carol Hemingway, ACORN Pennsylvania president, said the legislation's demands have not been adequately matched with the funding necessary to accomplish them. "Why set accountability standards for student test scores, teacher certification, and paraprofessional training, only to cap the money to fund them?" she asked.
Jerry Jordan, vice president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, said that NCLB's accountability provisions were impossible for any school in Philadelphia to meet. "No Child Left Behind is legislation that leaves every child behind," Jordan declared.
Meanwhile, POWER, a recently formed parent coalition, brought signs and strong words to an SRC meeting in April. The parents were protesting the District's decision to reallocate the Title I funds dispersed to individual schools, which has resulted in some schools dealing with severe budget cuts for next year.
The District allocates Title I funds, schools' primary source of discretionary money, based on the number of children in poverty enrolled at individual schools.
But regardless of poverty levels, all schools in the District receive a base amount of Title I funding; schools with high poverty levels receive funding far above the base. This year the base amount was $75,000. For elementary schools, the amount was dramatically raised to $250,000 for next school year, even though the overall pot of Title I funds didn't grow to accommodate the new base amount.
Dozens of schools with the District's lowest poverty levels have seen their Title I funding increase to $250,000, while high-poverty schools are losing equal or greater amounts of Title I funds.
CEO Paul Vallas says the new formula ensures that no school will lose more than 25 percent of its Title I funding next year. He says the changes will stabilize Title I funding for future years and distribute the funds more equitably across the District. Valles also expects schools to get additional Title I funds this spring.
At the April SRC meeting, while coalition members held signs that said, "Inequity will not be tolerated," POWER member Dwayne Ming said the new policy will have a negative impact on schools serving large numbers of students of color and poor students.
"Our schools have been underfunded for years, and this will leave our schools with even fewer resources," said Ming. "We believe this is criminal, that it is illegal."
For more information about ACORN, call 215-765-0042. For more information about POWER, call 215-778-8728.
Kensington students have plans for new high school
Kensington High School students have a vision of creating a high school that is small and responsive to students' interests, and they are working to make it a reality through the District's Capital Improvement Plan.
According to the District's Capital Improvement Plan, groundbreaking for a new high school facility to replace Kensington High is scheduled for 2005. District CEO Paul Vallas has indicated that he would consider speeding up the process.
The students, members of the Youth United for Change (YUC), propose that the School District build the new Kensington High School as a campus of four small schools, each with a unique career and academic theme. Each school would serve about 400 students and have its own principal. The four small schools would share some resources and facilities, like sports teams, a library, and a lunchroom.
The YUC students have even identified a site for the campus at Front and Berks and received the support of the group that owns the land, the Norris Square Civic Association.
The students' plan is based in part on a listening campaign they conducted by visiting 15 classrooms and listening to over 300 students. Students overwhelmingly supported the idea of a campus of four small schools.
The YUC students have further strengthened the plan through research about the small schools movement and visits to several small schools in other cities.
"There's a small schools movement that's being created in Philadelphia, and students are at the forefront of that movement," remarks YUC Assistant Director Andi Perez.
The students have been meeting regularly with Vallas to discuss their plan. They are presenting the plan at a community forum on small high schools at Kensington High on May 21.
For more information, contact YUC at 215-423-9588.
E.M. Stanton coalition wins fight to save school
After a community-wide fight in support of the school, on April 16 the SRC voted to keep E.M. Stanton Elementary School open for at least two more years.
Stanton, located in South Philadelphia, was one of four schools in the District targeted for closure at the end of the school year because of a combination of low enrollment, low test scores, and old facilities.
Deputy Chief Academic Officer Ellen Savitz says that the District will monitor the school's enrollment and review the decision in two years. If enrollment remains at current rates in two years, Savitz says the District will consider closing it. "We're not saying we're coming back in two years with a hatchet. We're coming back in two years to take another look," she said.
Beginning in January, the Save Stanton School Coalition waged a campaign to preserve the close-knit community and strong neighborhood ties that have been built at the school. Coalition members spent months getting petitions signed, building political support, and developing alternative plans to keep the school open.
The District has followed through on one of the Coalition's proposals -- to reinstate the Head Start program that had previously been housed at Stanton.
The coalition also impressed City Council President Anna Verna when they testified at the City Council budget hearings in late March. Verna remarked, "In all of my years in the community, I have never seen the community rally on one issue as they have on the Stanton school issue."
Stepheni Trott-Batipps, a coalition member and grandmother of three Stanton students, says that the relationships that have been developed within the community have been an important result of the campaign to keep Stanton open.
"The community is who really wins," she remarked. "We had a voice in what goes on in our neighborhood, and it's just the beginning of having a voice in what will happen in the future."