Public Citizens Children and Youth (PCCY) recently reported for the period 2002 -2006, 78.4% of all juvenile arrests in Philadelphia were African American. It seems to have caught no ones attention.

In 2008 in Philadelphia, we can’t blame racism. We have elected three African American Mayors, we have had three African American Police Chiefs, and both Chairs of the School Reform Commission have been/are African American. Although most teachers are white, they overwhelmingly elected an African American as their Union President. We have come a long way from the time when an African American could not legally teach a white child. In Philadelphia Blacks have obtained equality and quite frankly, I believe our elected leaders are as angry about immoral activity as those fostering this ridiculous level of crime and ignorance upon our citizenry.

I and many others are grateful to Helen for all the work she puts in holding the School Reform Commission Accountable, but I believe she would agree we need more money and we all need to take action to make that happen.
1n 1991 the State of Pennsylvania changed its funding formula for education in Philadelphia. The states share of education previously at 55%, was reduced to 36%. Nine years later the State of Pennsylvania, with Tom Ridge as Governor, took over the School District of Philadelphia because it was in financial chaos.

I don't care if The New York Times is calling This American Life preciously hipster, maybe they are just jealous because Chicago Public Radio often accomplishes what The Grey Lady has failed to do most days: turn complex problems into a compelling narrative.

Today at the gym, I listened to this episode on how a global tidal wave of capital led to an excess of demand for mortgage backed securities which led to nonsense like No-Income-No-Asset loans and our present troubles. I love This American Life. A lot. To a point that I get a little crazy about it, but this may well be one of the best episodes I have ever listened to. I follow the sub-prime issue very closely, and I learned a lot from this episode. I also laughed several times.

The Ackerman era begins this week and I for one would like to wish her well. It is perhaps ironically fortunate she experienced such a rude welcoming from an employee of the School District on Friday. A pervasive lack of respect is the embedded culture of the School District. It must change.
The attitude of the city must change as well. Education is everyone’s job, including the posters on this board. Education affects our property values, our insurance rates, our sense of safety and security. Without serious improvement in education, Philadelphia will never reach its potential as America’s next great city.
Ackerman has a strong resume as a teacher. She has actually been successful in the classroom. This experience is sorely needed at the School Reform Commission and hopefully garners her respect and opportunity.

Hello,

I am sorry to say, that society is falling apart. You may already know that and feel that now. I say society is falling apart due to purely economic reasons, because it is true. As you know, I am also becoming an economist. Simply put if the people have less economic means, then society will not be able to function normally, as it should. The private economies are doing well, but the overall society is not.

Let me give you some background. In 1971, America went off the gold standard. The Bretton Woods Agreement terms changed. In that US dollars would no longer be backed by gold or silver, for that matter. From that point, America and other nations, could “print” money at will. A reason why we had such high inflation, or “stagflation” in the 1970s. Again we are having high inflation now.

Penn President Amy Gutmann recently announced the following initiative:

Today we are announcing a far reaching new financial aid initiative that will eliminate loans for financially eligible undergraduate students regardless of family income, making it possible for students from a broad range of economic backgrounds to graduate debt-free.

Penn's new program is the latest step in our efforts to widen access for students from all economic backgrounds, by expanding our no-loan program from low and lower-middle income families to include middle and upper-middle income families.

This new program will begin in September 2008, and include all eligible undergraduates, not just entering freshmen. Effective that year, students with calculated family incomes under $100,000 will receive loan-free aid packages, while families above that level will receive a 10 percent reduction in need-based loans.

How much does a good education cost?

Last year the Pennsylvania House and Senate hired an auditor to figure out the minimum amount of money that should be spent per student in the state to provide a good education.

They found that each school district in the state needs to spend at least $12,057 per student-- $2,000 MORE per kid than the School District of Philadelphia spends just to provide a basic education.

The Philadelphia Student Union, Bread & Roses grantee and education reform group led by Philadelphia public school students, has helped organize a press conference tonight to release the full report to the media.

They need you to attend and show the press and the legislature how seriously we're taking the findings of this report on education funding. We have to convince House and Senate members to provide the moneyschool districts need to meet the new bottom line dollar amount that they have set.

If you can make it, RSVP here.

Rally & Press Conference for Our Schools
Today, Wednesday November 28 at 6 PM
Benjamin Franklin High School, 550 N Broad St
(near Broad and Spring Garden)

We don't need a study to know that there are real inequities from school district to school district across the state. However, having an objective, well-researched study makes it easier for all of us to agree on a baseline amount of money to spend per kid.

Please help make the efforts of education reform groups, like the Philly Student Union, to get fair and equal funding of schools, a reality. Show your support for equitable funding for school districts across the state by coming to the press conference tonight.

I love the way THE INQUIRER is pounding the quote-unquote "Philadelphia" Parking Authority. City GOP benefits from Parking Authority. It needs it. The story starts off promisingly:

Though the Philadelphia Parking Authority has fallen short in its promised funding for city schools, it certainly has been a boon for the Philadelphia Republican Party.

Authority employees and consultants have contributed at least $214,000 to the Republican City Committee since 2001, according to an Inquirer analysis of campaign finance data.

The contributions this year have reached at least $33,210, or more than 14 percent of the party's total.

I wonder if that's the single biggest cadre of funders? Of course, "cadre of funders" gets hard to define for a newspaper article, but still I wonder.

My humble suggestion to Philadelphia reporters pursuing these questions: the story I'd like to see is some attempt to sort out how much money could, potentially, be going to schools and how, exactly, the law designates that they are supposed to determine that figure.

This schools issue is a big part of why I want to lambast the PPA so badly. If it were just an issue of over-spending and patronage, I would care but I wouldn't care as much. The simple fact is that the PPA is making our city harder to live in by tightening up parking rules, but they aren't delivering on the promised benefit of that: getting some more money into education.

Pound them, Inqy! Pound them!!!

On November 24th, Rep. Payton and I recorded our second edition of The Legislator and The Agitator. You can download the episode in four individual tracks here.

01-The House Democrats Bonus Scandal

(14:57)

Introduction to the November 24th, 2007 show.

Discussion of the House Democrats recent firing of major staffers around large bonuses given to legislative staff.

We'll move into the issue of Reform and Rep. Payton's freshman class of Harrisburg Legislators.

02-Costing out - will the state ever pay for schools?

(16:07)

Good Schools Pennsylvania convinced the state to do a costing out study on what it would actually cost to pay for students around the state so we can do a better job of realistically discussing how much money we need to pay for schools. It started a big conversation on YoungPhillyPolitics.com.

Tony and Brady discuss the great amount of political maneuvering around this information as well as the lack of the real initiative to find the cash. Will it happen? Can it?

Also, Brady tells about the time that he fought back against a really big bully.

It makes sense in context.

Click "Read More" for the next two tracks!

This is a post that's been a long time coming. Here is part of its history.

During the Mayoral primary campaign, YPP hosted a post by a young woman named Renata Neal. Renata grew up in Germantown, and attends West Chester University through the Core Philly Scholarship program. Her mother worked as a volunteer for Chaka Fattah's mayoral campaign, and Renata likewise voiced her support since Fattah had helped create the program.

But one of the questions that came out of that post was why a talented young Philadelphian had to leave the city of Philadelphia to get an affordable education at a public university. Philadelphia has many prestigious and wonderful colleges and universities -- but most of them are private, which makes their tuition steep, especially for first-generation college students who are unwilling to take on debt or who can't easily navigate the scholarship system. Temple, which like Penn State is a public/private commonwealth university, has undergraduate tuition twice that of West Chester. If Renata, who as a young, full-time student had been offered scholarships, had to look elsewhere -- what opportunities were there for nontraditional students, finishing their degrees part-time, or trying to return to school after a long absence?

Mark Cohen noted then that he was working with the state university system to try to bring a new four-year state university to the city of Philadelphia. I've had this in my mind ever since then. And I think it's a wonderful idea -- for college students like Renata, for students nothing like Renata, for our schools, for our neighborhoods, and for our city. What's more, it's a project that in principle all of our elected officials, from city office to Congress, can work to make happen. If you want to know more, read after the jump.

As new NCLB legislation will soon be introduced, now is the time for action.

Merit Pay for Teachers vs. Merit Pay for Students and Families
How will merit pay for teachers benefit the 74% of Kindergarten/First Graders who on their first day of school are not reading ready and thus start out behind? How will merit pay for teachers improve their achievement at this critical stage of learning and development? (Based on the inner city school I work in, typical though of inner city schools).
You know what they say; those who don’t study history are doomed to repeat its mistakes. Researching Merit Pay as far back as 1710 it is apparent Merit Pay systems have always failed. Merit Pay leads to falsified results and a narrowing of the curriculum.