The impending crisis won't just affect Philadelphia and Chester. The budget crunch is statewide, where an estimated 27 percent of districts have passed extraordinary property tax increases to fund their schools. Public schools in wealthy townships will likely continue to provide a fantastic education. But the attacks on teachers' unions, the tests, the charters, the vouchers and the "right-sizing" are the endgame for politicians and businessmen that have long perpetuated a segregated, two-tier American public school system. If Knudsen's proposal goes through, the country's eighth-largest school district, in its fifth-largest city, will no longer exist in any meaningful sense. And neither will any remaining pretense that America offers everyone, regardless of race or class, an equal shot.
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Who's Killing Philly Public Schools?
Each of these players has done damage; none has come close to addressing the district's core problems. If Philly's public school system does eventually crumble, all of these culprits will share the blame.
Who's Killing Philly Public Schools?
Underfunded. Overburdened. About to be sold for scrap.
"The leadership of Philadelphia," says Hornbeck, "ought to gather the leadership of not only of big districts but of rural areas that are also being disadvantaged by the state, and say to Harrisburg, 'We're just not going to take it anymore.' Instead, what's happening again is a tucking of tails, and saying, 'This is our fault here in Philadelphia. We're sorry, Harrisburg.'"
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