Holy Moly, Wilma, has there been finagling! I gladly cede to your
expertise in the School District's system here. After five years, I'm
barely knowledgeable enough to testify that finagling exists. But sure
it does, you betcha. I saw it.
There seem to be two kinds of SD finagles: statutory finagles, in which
a particular school or set of schools is conferred with special
exceptions to achieve system-wide missions (e.g., desegregation or
specialized programing); and "petty-cash" finagles, in which a principal
uses vague administrative powers to authorize certain students' papers
without much of an audit.
Viewed from the consumer's end, there are also two kinds of SD finagles:
ones in which you are aided by SD insiders, and those in which you trick
SD insiders. In other words, sometimes public-education consumers cheat
in order to get their children a good education.
I don't know any research on educational finagling, but I am sympathetic
to it because I suspect it often is the poor family's last resource. So
I'm not about busting it right now. I bet it benefits working-class West
Philadelphians more than it does the scions of the professoriate.
-- Tony West
Wilma de Soto wrote:
Apparently SOMEONE voted or finagled politically to have areas that are in
Alexander Wilson's 'catchment area' be eligible to attend Samuel Powel
instead before Penn Alexander was built and NOW be eligible to attend Penn
Alexander.
Only part of the former Powel exception area, which you have acknowledged is
in another part of the district, got the green light to go to Penn
Alexander.
As a 20+ year Employee of the School District of Philadelphia, there has
ALWAYS been finagling of 'catchment areas', usually known as "school
boundaries". The squeaky wheels, the ins and those who wield power usually
get what they want.
The rest are stuck with the traditional school boundary and feeder areas.
That is classic Philadelphia politics for those who know the ropes and how
to manipulate them.
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