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School Funding Equity Program Update 06/02/02
The Philadelphia Public School system has undergone a state takeover and the "lowest-performing" schools are currently being split up between for-profit education management companies, the biggest being Edison, Inc. Edison, Inc. was hired for over 2 million dollars before the takeover to do an analysis of how to change the school system. Not surprisingly, they recommended themselves -- against the input they received at community forums.
Students, teachers, parents, unions and other concerned Philly residents have been organizing to get our schools away from private, for-profit companies and to demand the only thing that will really change our schools for the better -- a stop to the racist school funding inequalities in Pennsylvania. SEF believes in supporting student-led school reform, and this struggle has been an amazing example of the power of youth to analyze and make demands for their/our own futures. Over the past several months, students have organized huge demonstrations, marches, school walk-outs, and sleep-outs. Many students have also testified before the School Reform Commission and City Council during public hearings.
Here are excerpts from some of these students' testimonies:
[Ed. note: The following are reprinted from the Summer 2002 issue of Philadelphia Public School Notebook, a quarterly independent newspaper. For more info, email psnotebook@aol.com or call (215) 951-0330 x107.]
Sonia Isard
Philadelphia High School for Girls
Philadelphia Student Union
"It is actively undemocratic for private corporations to control public education. Corporations are not accountable to citizens because citizens don't have the power to influence decision-making in corporations.
I have just been informed that I, a student in the Philadelphia School District, do not have an influence over my own education. Instead, different aspects of my education will be controlled by people are who involved for the profit motive, and not because they care about my education.
We, students and members of the Philadelphia Student Union, made our position abundantly clear: we want parents, students, teachers, and those most affected to control our schools. We want our local government to control our schools. We do not want private corporations involved.
When a public service like education moves out of the public sector and into private hands, the democratic process is threatened. Corporations are not accountable to the vote, and the vote is the only thing that we have to work with."
Jesenia Nieves
Edison High School
Youth United for Change
"From what I know so far, Edison Schools Inc. is a private corporation with their own curriculum, their own teaching style, their own ideas and our money.
Yes, I believe in a new and different curriculum, but their curriculum, developed by people in New York City, is the same old Eurocentric curriculum but in a different perspective. I don't want that curriculum.
For so long people have been waiting for students to work and fight for our rights. Now that we are, it seems pointless [and] meaningless because it's going to be taken away from us. We need to have local control over our education. We cannot hold Edison's shareholders accountable to our education.
Students are priceless and you can't buy us. We are making a difference; we are changing the schools."
Jacob Winterstein
Masterman High School
Philadelphia Student Union
"Anyone who supports change knows that education management organizations are definitely a change-a change for the worse! When you hand schools over to for-profit companies, you step back into time, into the realm of politicians who pass the buck and separate children by class and race into those who have and those who don't. You are no better than supporters who vouched for separate and unequal schools in the 1960s.
If you want to be radical, if you want to make real change, prove it. You need to be in the Governor's ear every day demanding that he change the current funding formula. You need to hand the schools over to people who actually have a stake in the schools. The SRC needs to empower students, teachers, and community leaders. Not money hungry CEOs.
Every day our city, state, and School Reform Commission have the opportunity to show my fellow students and me that you care. Prove to me that you care about my education. Prove to my fellow students and me that you want to make our schools the best public schools in the country. Show me you care by doing something radical to make our schools better-not by hiring for-profit companies.
Someone once said, 'History repeats itself until learned.' Let's learn from our country's mistakes. Together let's make a just society, and let's start with our schools."
Natalio Alvarez
Olney High School
Olney ASPIRA Club President
"How is it that no one-no one!-has taken the time to explain to us what this takeover entails and how it will affect us as students and community members?
Is it really the students who benefit from this change? And if not, we need to know how to prepare for what lies ahead of us.
The School Reform Commission has never addressed important issues such as curriculum and educational development. They only talk about contracts to private corporations.
They won't listen to us, the students or the community, about our own education and what we think. We should have a say because we are the ones going to these schools, we live in the community, we know what goes on; therefore we know what is best for us, and they don't."
Emmanuel Filpo
Edison High School
Youth United for Change
"At Youth United for Change we say NO to privatization and NO to a state takeover of Philadelphia Public Schools.
Part of my frustration with this issue is the silence of school and public officials, and community groups, School District employees and politicians making deals with private corporations about my education.
I have something to say to you. There is a saying the surfaced about World War II, and it goes something like this: First they came for the Jews, and I wasn't a Jew so I did not say anything. Then they came for the socialists, and I wasn't a socialist so I did not say anything. Then they came for the unions, and I was not a member of the union so I did not say anything. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to say anything.
I want to tell you that this is not going to happen again. First they privatized the prisons, and they are only prisoners so few said anything. Now they are coming for me. You can no longer be silent."
Selamawit Tewelde
Bartram High School
Philadelphia Student Union
"Privatization isn't the answer to save schools. It's the answer for people like [the SRC] who have given up on us and don't believe we deserve the best schools.
You all [SRC members] were brought here, not to improve schools, but so that the governor could keep the schools open without giving our schools the funding that we need and deserve.
And I don't think these for-profit companies care about me or my education. They care about making profits. This isn't about what we need any more. This is about what you [SRC members] want. This is all dirty politics.
I know what real reform is. It doesn't come from for-profit companies or ridiculous sound bytes like 'treating families as parents.' It certainly doesn't come from taking over schools without giving the community a voice in that process.
Real reform comes from engaging parents, students, teachers, and community members in their schools. Something [the SRC has] never tried to do, and will fail because of it."
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