Certainly the schools need improvements and despite the many classes that are wonderful, far too many are not. There is no magic bullet, if there was one anywhere in the country to fix big city schools surely we'd know.
Money isn't the whole answer either, but paying teachers more thus making the profession more important, along with reducing class size and above all having exellent principals who really know how to make a school perform is a starting place. No complaints about the School District, however, excuses the secretive, way in which the Governor and State Legislature snuck the amendments through. It is simply unacceptable for Edison Schools, Inc. to run schools and also be governing them. This leaves it to control itself with no accountability by public officials who represent us taxpayers! Two local legislators, Senator Tony Williams (717-787-5970 or 215-662-5519) and Rep. Mike Horsey (717-783-1491 or 215-747-0757)voted for the amendments. They should hear your opposition to their sneaky vote. After all the months of what the city government thought were above board negotiations with the state, this was really a disgraceful action. The Mayor spoke out strongly against the passing of the amendment-- Call and thank him for representing the people of Philadelphia on this issue and encourage him to take a strong stand in favor of the local control of our schools: 215-686-2250 Now let's see if the public even gets to see the Edison report. ---- You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named "UnivCity." To unsubscribe, see <http://www.purple.com/list.html>. Archive is at <http://www.mail-archive.com/>.
