How insulated you must be Matt, not to know about the Mayor's proposal to raise the funds through a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages like soda pop... REALLY, read a paper, watch the news, get a life...
On Jun 16, 2011, at 2:34 PM, Wolfe J. Matthew wrote: > Increase funding for schools. I agree. If you mean increase taxes to raise > revenues for schools, I could not disagree more. The worst thing that City > Council could do for the children and everyone else in Philadelphia is > further chasing jobs out of the city by increasing taxes. > > There are areas that the district could economize. One that annoys me is the > school closing issue. The school district has 70,000 empty seats in its > schools, over a third of its overall capacity. That will go up due to the > courts stopping them from their illegal practice of capping charter school > enrollment. How many schools could they close next year? Ten percent? > Twenty five percent? How much money would that save? How many are they > closing? None, of course. > > Undoubtably the schools have a financial crisis due to the incredible > mismanagement of Arlene Ackerman and the School Reform Commission. The fact > that blame can be easily assigned does not justify throwing the children > under the school bus, however. Public education is one of the areas that is > a core municipal service and must be funded. New or increased taxes are not > only the answer, but a large reason we have the problem we have now. City > spending can and should be re-priortized. What should the city be spending > money on? Public safety. Sanitation. Maintenance of the transportation > infrastructure. Public education. That's about it. If you went through the > budget and crossed off everything that had the word "program" attached to it, > you would do little damage to the core municipal services noted above and > have plenty of money for the real priorities, including education. Economic > development programs. Health and welfare programs. All well-meaning and > most have positive results. Certainly not more important than fulfilling the > City's responsibility to educate its children, however. Some Councilmen have > proposed shifting some spending. More should be done. > > Even looking at those core services, there are other things to look at. > Could private trash haulers work less expensively and more efficiently than > our current sanitation crew (which I think does a pretty good job)? We > should look into it. While we're looking at privatization, how about the > health centers. Do we have hospitals that are under capacity? Why is the > city in the business of owing a gas utility, a water utility and an airport? > And since we are on the issue of education, remember that public education > and public schools are not synonymous terms. Expansion of charter schools > and hopefully the voucher bill under consideration in Harrisburg could be a > game changer. > > The bottom line is that there is a real need. It should be met by City > Council. The City's problem is not that it taxes too little but that it > spends too much. I agree that there should be more money for education. > Look to other areas than taxes. > > -Matt Wolfe > > > On Jun 16, 2011, at 1:44 PM, Rick Conrad wrote: > >> Hi, >> >> I just sent emails to all 17 Philadelphia City Council members urging them >> to save vital educational programs by voting to increase funding to the >> Philadelphia School District. Please join me in urging them to do the right >> thing for our kids by clicking the link below: >> >> http://action.nutter2011.com/p/sy/action/public/?action_KEY=6372 >> >> Thanks. >> >> > > J. Matthew Wolfe > Law Offices of J. Matthew Wolfe > 4256 Regent Square > Philadelphia, PA 19104 > (215) 387-7300 > matt...@wolfe.org > > >
