------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Dec. 13, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
HUNDREDS FORM HUMAN CHAIN: STUDENTS PROTEST PRIVATIZATION OF PHILADELPHIA SCHOOLS By Betsey Piette Philadelphia On Nov. 29 hundreds of students walked out of Philadelphia high schools and took to the streets to protest a looming state takeover of the city's school district. The action was organized by the Philadelphia Student Union and Youth United for Change. The students later formed a human chain around the school administration building to protest plans to allow Edison Schools, Inc., to privatize some of the city's schools. "We're fighting for our rights," one high school senior told reporters. "We're fighting for our future." Angry students extended their protest by camping overnight outside Mayor John Street's office. They refused to leave City Hall until they had won a demand for a meeting with the mayor, where they laid out their own ideas about how to run the schools. Late the next day, just hours before a midnight deadline that would have triggered a hostile state takeover and privatization of the city's public schools, Mayor Street and Pennsylvania Acting Gov. Mark Schweiker announced a three- week extension of negotiations over the future of the 210,000-student district. Two weeks earlier both Street and Schweiker had claimed victory when the latter backed down on plans to appoint Edison Schools, Inc., to manage the district's central office. But the public wasn't fooled. Schweiker's plans still included a state takeover of the school board and the privatization of 60 of the city's schools, 45 under Edison's control. Community groups, students and unions that had been demonstrating against Edison in Philadelphia and Harrisburg responded to this "victory" by intensifying their efforts. One day before the student walkout, over 2,000 people blocked traffic in an anti-privatization rally and disrupted the city's official Christmas tree-lighting ceremony at City Hall. The protest by union members, community leaders, parents and students, led by the Coalition to Keep Our Public Schools Public, jammed Center City streets at the height of rush hour and nearly drowned out the mayor as he took to the stage to light the tree. ANTI-WORKER LAW IS CONTESTED To stop the takeover the coalition filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Pennsylvania Act 46, which makes city schools subject to state rule. Another lawsuit will be filed, this one claiming that parents, teachers and other opponents of the state takeover have been locked out of negotiations. Street had previously blocked passage of a City Council resolution recommending a public referendum on the privatization issue. Pennsylvania Act 46 was passed in 1998 primarily to break the teachers' union. In a secret, late-night session in October, it was amended by state legislators to lay the grounds for Schweiker to abolish the Philadelphia Board of Education and replace it with a five-member State Reform Commission. The state claims that the Philadelphia school district's $215 million deficit can only be resolved with a state takeover. In August the state paid Edison Schools $2.7 million to conduct a study and make proposals on how to deal with the district's financial problems. Edison is the nation's biggest for-profit manager of public schools. Opponents of the state takeover argue that the district's budget deficit developed because Pennsylvania has one of the country's most inequitable educational funding systems, one that particularly hurts rural communities and cities such as Philadelphia. Compared to their immediate suburban counterparts, Philadelphia classrooms are under-funded annually by well over $60,000 per classroom, a gap that widens each year. More than 80 percent of Philadelphia's students are children of color; 78 percent are from low-income households. A racial discrimination lawsuit against the state of Pennsylvania aimed at rectifying the funding disparity on federal civil-rights grounds was decided in the city's favor, but shelved by Street as a concession to the state. Equal funding was high on the students' list of proposals. They are also proposing a technology plan for each school, one counselor for every 250 students, after-school homework help rooms, and a ban on private companies managing public schools. At the student protest, one ninth-grader complained that there were only 12 books in a class of 30 students. A tenth- grader said her school needed a new heating system. "I'm tired of being cold," she said. State and city officials claim that the stumbling block in negotiations over the state takeover is also a disagreement over funding. However, the three-week delay conveniently postpones any decision until Dec. 21. That date is the start of an 11-day break for students and teachers, who have been the backbone of protests against Edison. Schweiker also appears eager to reach a compromise with Street in order to avoid the appearance that the state's takeover is hostile, which would leave it open to legal challenges that could overturn Act 46. The current plan would be the biggest experiment in a for- profit company running public schools in U.S. history, setting a dangerous precedent for other large, urban districts to follow. Opponents of the state's plans have pledged to keep the heat on. They announced an escalating series of events to show that the public, parents, students and workers oppose both a state takeover of the schools and privatization. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. 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