Philadelphia Takes a Loan to Open Its Schools

[marmar]

via truthdig:


Philadelphia Takes a Loan to Open Its Schools
Posted on Aug 16, 2013


In a jarring example of the institutional failure sweeping the country, Philadelphia, a former manufacturing behemoth, agreed to borrow $50 million so it could open its public schools on time this fall. Even with the loan, campuses will open with a minimum of staffing and “sharply curtailed extracurricular activities and other programs,” The New York Times reports.

“The concept is just jaw-dropping,” said Helen Gym, who has three children in the city’s public schools. “Nobody is talking about what it takes to get a child educated. It’s just about what the lowest number is needed to get the bare minimum. That’s what we’re talking about here: the deliberate starvation of one of the nation’s biggest school districts.”

The emergency comes as other major cities, including Chicago, Los Angeles and Detroit, the latter of which filed for bankruptcy last month, do not have enough money to run their full range of public services. Philadelphia’s tax base withered as middle-class people left the city, raising the overall poverty rate of the population that remains. Heavier tax burdens have been shifted onto people who need public services but are unable to pay for them.

The shortfall has driven some Philadelphia school administrators to desperate ends. Daniel Lazar, principal of Greenfield Elementary School in central Philadelphia, sent a letter to parents last week asking for a $613-per-student donation to fill a $355,000 budget gap at his school. ................................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/philadelphia_takes_a_loan_to_keep_schools_open_20130816/

[no_hypocrisy]

1. This is exactly how Detroit got into the situation it's in today:

Instead of raising taxes, the City borrowed money from banks, it couldn't pay back the loans, and the banks "foreclosed" on the City. Right now, appraisers are putting an amount on property that's public parks, the art works in the City's museum, etc.

[BumRushDaShow]

6. Philadelphia is not Detroit

Detroit was a one-industry town. Philadelphia is not.

There has been a running feud between City Council (that wanted to sell shuttered school properties) and the Mayor (who is a DLC shill who wanted to borrow the money).

But the other problem is that elections have consequences and when people sat out the 2010 election after sweeping Barack Obama into office in the state in 2008, the loons like Corbett got in in that off-year, and many Congressional "swing" districts that are purple but had Democrats elected in them, almost all became GOP due to the low turnout. Couple that with 2010 being a census year with redistricting, and it's a hot mess.

So while people like Corbett luxuriate in their own Hilton Head vacation property that he failed to mention in his ethics filing, the children and teachers in school systems statewide suffer and the elderly and poor booted off of Medicaid also suffer. He used the tried and true Clarence Thomas defense of being "confused by the language" regarding the ethics forms.

This is why it is important for the state party apparatus to get that vote out in 2014.

&feature=youtu.be

[liberal_at_heart]

7. it's important to get liberal democrats in office in 2014. DLC dems will do nothing to fight

this problem.

[xchrom]

2. du rec.

[dtom67]

3. look for a wave of privatization and complete annihilation of teachers unions...

as Debt has proved to be the best way to seize assets from the Public domain and bust unions.

[liberal_at_heart]

4. my heart sank when I read this. I don't know whether to be heartbroken or furious.

I am both. When are we going to start fighting this? There used to be slogans for fighting global warming saying our children will one day look at us and ask us why we didn't do anything. Well, this too I guarantee you our children will one day look at us and ask why we didn't do anything. What will tell them? Where are you democrats? why are you silent when it comes to Race to the Top and defunding our public education system? Why do you do nothing? Education was the reason I became an independent and this only confirms that I made the right choice. I hope to have some liberal candidates to vote for, but I would rather vote for a third party than to be part of a party that would just sit by and allow this to happen to our children. This is disgusting. Shame on the democratic party for allowing this to happen.

[mnhtnbb]

5. This is so sick. So wrong. I was a high school student in CA in the 60's when

this movement started--and Ronnie was governor--to starve public schools.

It just makes me sick.