Activism
Mayoral candidates’ forum aims to emphasize education
West Philadelphia HS advocates seek financing
Immigrant communities decry cuts in services
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Activism around the city
Mayoral candidates’ forum aims to emphasize education
Education activists have come together to make sure that the city’s educational problems are front and center in this year’s mayoral election.
A candidates’ forum on education issues, sponsored by the Cross City Campaign for School Reform is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on April 12 at Congregation Rodeph Shalom, on N. Broad and Mt. Vernon Sts.
The sponsoring groups are also surveying the mayoral candidates on what role they would play as an education leader, as well as their stances on issues such as school privatization, the state takeover, dropouts, and bilingual education.
“We need the next mayor to jump on this school reform issue,” said ACORN member Ken Jones, who highlighted teacher quality, school safety, and adequate funding as critical concerns his community organization will raise with the candidates.
At a February press conference announcing the mayoral forum, high school student activists hammered at the poor conditions at their schools and reminded the candidates that many of them are 18 and can vote.
Student William Elkins-Crosby of Youth United for Change, who attends the recently established Kensington Creative and Performing Arts High School, deplored the lack of performing arts facilities and musical instruments at his school.
Challenging the mayoral candidates to address the issue of safe schools, Sayre High School senior and Philadelphia Student Union member Kenyon McGriff said, “We don’t just want to hear about more police, more security, and more restrictions for students.… Will you support student organizing for a better school climate?”
Other organizations sponsoring the April 12 forum include the Eastern Pennsylvania Organizing Project, Education Law Center, Good Schools Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth, and Philadelphia Education Fund.
For information, call Allison Balter at the Education Law Center, 215-238-6970.
West Philadelphia HS advocates seek financing
Supporters of a new West Philadelphia High School worked for over a year to come up with a common vision for the new facility involving small schools on a shared campus. Then they successfully negotiated community differences about where the school should be built, winning a District OK last fall for the school’s sports fields as a site.
They knew that one last piece of property needed to be acquired to complete the site. But they did not know until this winter that it may be two years until there is new bond money available in the District’s capital budget to start the project.
And so the Philadelphia Student Union and other groups that have been pushing for the new school say they now must lobby District officials and others to secure financing for the $60 million project.
CEO Paul Vallas responded to the groups in January that the school can still be funded and built by 2009, using District operating dollars, through a “turnkey,” lease-purchase arrangement. But as of late February, School Reform Commission members said they have not yet seen how the CEO proposes to fund this project within the constraints of a deficit budget.
Advocates for the new high school asked the SRC for a solution to the financing problem at a January meeting. Afterwards, Student Union member and West Philly junior Tiffany Fogle promised, “We’ll come back to these meetings until we get what we want.”
Immigrant communities decry cuts in services
Local immigrant community representatives have called a community meeting to address recent School District cuts to immigrant student services.
The District’s elimination of an office charged with enforcing language access mandates and reaching out to immigrant and refugee communities sparked an angry protest from a group of twenty local immigrant community groups.
“These changes were made without any consultation,” said Regan Cooper of the Pennsylvania Immigration and Citizenship Coalition (PICC) in testimony at a January 17 School Reform Commission meeting. “Our communities need more services – not less.”
Members of African, Latino, and Asian communities testified to the SRC about the inadequacy of existing services and questioned cuts to what is a burgeoning population in the city. Immigrant community members say that this move was the latest in a string of declining services to immigrants. They cited the closure of newcomer centers and charged a lack of monitoring for quality language instruction.
District officials acknowledged the elimination of two central office staff positions but said that translation and outreach services have been absorbed by other departments.
CEO Paul Vallas agreed to attend the community meeting, scheduled for March 17. Among the group’s demands is an assessment of existing services to immigrant students, as well as a plan for improving services in ESOL and bilingual instruction, parent-school communication, dealing with interethnic violence, cultural sensitivity training, and curriculum diversity.
For information, contact PICC at 215-832-0809 or piccpa@yahoo.com.