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November 28, 2006

Charter battles in Philadelphia

Very interesting commentary on charter schools in Philly by Dr. Tim Daniels, Director of the Pennsylvania Coalition of Charter Schools.  As the district grapples with a $73 million deficit, naturally the costs of the city's charter schools are coming into union crosshairs.  Dr. Daniels helpfully does the math:

The solution proposed by the AFT for a current budget problem of $73.3 million is to propose a moratorium on new charter schools! Further, this moratorium wouldn't take effect until the fall of 2008! The budget problem is now. The proposed solution won't impact this year's budget! The problem and the solution make no mathematical sense.

The figure of $4.6 million in unanticipated cost for charters is small compared to the deficit of $73.3 million. And, this amount is a pittance compared to the total budget of $2.04 billion dollars. In a year when the Philadelphia School District is committing more than $60 million to one small new high school, what might be sacrificed in the growth of charter public schools is truly tragic. It certainly doesn't reflect what the citizens of Philadelphia want.

If Daniels is accurate, what the citizens want are more charter schools (20,000 kids are presently on waiting lists).  But then, what people want for their kids rarely if ever works its way into the discussion. 

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