Posted on 12/31/2012 10:15:23 AM PST by Morgana
PHILADELPHIA — Like many public schools here, University City High School is underused, underfinanced and underperforming.
William R. Hite Jr., the schools superintendent, says the closings will help keep the district solvent. More Photos »
Nearly 80 percent of its 11th-grade students read below grade level in statewide tests this year, while 85 percent failed to make the grade in math. Last year, about only a quarter of its students participated in precollege testing like the SAT.
Largely because of the lure of local charter schools, the school is one-quarter full, with fewer than 600 students for its nearly 2,200 seats. It needs major work on its infrastructure, including lighting and heating systems, that would cost an estimated $30 million.
Now, facing deep financial problems, the Philadelphia School District has proposed an unprecedented downsizing that would close 37 campuses by June — roughly one out of six public schools, including University City. If the sweeping plan is approved, the district says it will improve academic standards by diverting money used for maintaining crumbling buildings to hire teachers and improve classroom equipment.
The 237-school district faces a cumulative budget deficit of $1.1 billion over the next five years, after $419 million in state cuts to educational financing this year. The district’s problems are compounded by the end of federal stimulus money and rising pension costs.
Even after borrowing $300 million to pay the bills for this academic year, the district faces a deficit of $27.6 million, a figure that officials say will rise sharply in coming years.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
You might as well close them all.
The average test scores will actually improve.
"..they will improve academic standards by diverting money...to HIRE teachers.."
article says that enrollment is way DOWN..so why do they need to hire MORE teachers...?
I know that you know that we all know the answer to that question..
American taxpayers are racist if they don't adequately fund these schools.
(Absolutely everything in this country has become a scam and a joke!!)
The people who could care less about these failing kids:
1. Politicians
2. Teachers unions
3. Many of the parents
They’re closing schools so they have more money to give the teachers and thus more money to give the union and thus more money to give the Democrat party. Our little city decided that they couldn’t close any schools even though enrollment is declining. The real reason? The teachers union is scared to death that someone might buy the building and open a private school and take students out of the public schools.
The idea of a government school is dying, under the weight of its own fraud, waste, incompetence, and greed. Liberalism is finally reaching its limit, like socialism will (and always does), and is going to collapse.
Let it come, the quicker the better, and get education back in the hands of REAL Americans, not unions and socialists.
that’s fewer high-capacity ‘gun-free’zones for mass murderers/democrats to exploit.
Hoo wooda thunk it.
Another reason for the separation of School and State.
"Underperforming" is the cause of "underused," and "underfinanced" is a lie. School districts commit resources disproportionally to the least successful schools, but this does little to address the real reasons the students are failing to learn.
At least here in Pittsburgh they could do the math well enough to know that when enrollment dropped you had to close schools AND lay-off teachers.
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If those people start to homeschool, literacy rates should begin to skyrocket.
If they don't, nothing will change.
When can we expect to see similar headlines from Chicago, Detroit, and Los Angles, Miami, etc.....?
<Largely because of the lure of local charter schools, the school is one-quarter full
My son (a FReeper) attended a magnet school in Philly for the gifted and talented where teachers had masters and doctorates and the kids all went to college. There are also schools that focus on science, that let kids take college classes while high school seniors, and believe it or not, an agriculture program.
Any parent worth his/her salt becomes knowledgeable about the choices and steers the child in the direction of a special school. There’s no reason to send your child to a regular city high school with crappy teachers and even worse students when you can choose a program that can compete with the private schools.
I fully support charter schools and I'm happy your son has done so well, but inner-city schools are failing because of the students. It's the student's responsibility to get an education.
You can't teach them if they don't want to be taught.
Jeepers. Thanks for the ping!
It's called Union math.
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