Quietly, battle over private management of schools rages on

Philadelphia reform experiment enters second year

by Paul Socolar

Photo: Harvey Finkle

Students at FitzSimons Middle School, which was turned over last fall to Victory Schools. Victory has divided the school into separate boys' and girls' academies.

The noise level is lower at School District headquarters this spring, but the political struggles over private management of schools continue.

Despite the departure of the Ridge/Schweiker team from Harrisburg, there is still strong support among influential state legislators and on the School Reform Commission to extend the experiment in privatized school management that was started last year.

The decision last April by the School Reform Commission to bring in seven outside education management organizations (EMOs) to manage 45 Philadelphia schools was the outcome of a raucous political battle over a school takeover plan pushed by the former governor. Student and community organizations went toe-to-toe with elected officials; the mayor and City Council entered the fray against the governor and powerful Republican state legislators.

The most controversial of the EMOs, Edison Schools Inc., was ultimately asked to run 20 schools, far fewer than expected. Two universities, two other companies, and two nonprofits were also awarded contracts to manage clusters of schools (see School Reform Commission).

As the District decides what to do in Year 2 and renegotiates contracts with its outside managers, the changes this spring are less dramatic -- so far.

District officials maintain that it is too early to say whether the managers are improving schools, yet the experiment is being expanded to some additional schools.

Three of the EMOs -- Temple, Foundations, and Victory -- will each be managing one additional school in the fall. One private company, Chancellor Beacon Academies, will be losing its contract to manage five schools; District officials said the company hadn't established a presence in those schools.

"We said we'd be making adjustment or changes after the first year based on what we had seen and what we had experienced, and we'll be making adjustments next year too. It'll all be tied to our overall evaluation of their performance," CEO Paul Vallas said.

The biggest private manager, Edison, managed to hold onto all its schools, despite speculation to the contrary. But Edison is not happy with the amount of money the District is offering for Year 2 of their contract and has been seeking out allies in Harrisburg to garner support on this contract dispute.

Big gifts to legislators

Officials of several EMOs, including Edison, have contributed thousands of dollars to the campaign chests of key state legislators like John Perzel, Dwight Evans, and Anthony Hardy Williams (see Money Talks). Perzel and other legislators have expressed concerns about the treatment of EMOs in Philadelphia.

Vallas said he has met with legislative leaders and received some letters from legislators expressing concern about his decision to cut the extra per pupil funding that EMOs have been receiving. Vallas explained that he wants to "spread the resources more broadly" -- redirecting about $10 million of that EMO funding to pay for improvements in high schools, which were left out of last year's reform plans.