A lot of school news in the past few weeks to share:

School Safety
The District’s Safe Schools Advocate has been in the news slamming the District regarding its failures on ensuring safety – or should I say, some strange interpretation of it, since apparently he defines it as the number of students expelled from schools and closing “loopholes” like an appeal process, according to a yet unpublished report.

What he gets right: the climate is declining in schools, and options for getting troubled students help in time is as impossible as ever. Teachers, who have seen the loss of aides, NTAs vice principals, school-home liaisons and a burgeoning class size, ARE dealing with far more abuse with far fewer resources.

What he misses the boat on: his recommendations – expelling kids automatically, closing appeals processes, increasing the number of disciplinary school replacements and hiring a “discipline czar”? Anyone who argues that the solution to complicated issues of violence and climate is throwing out thousands of students onto the streets and closing appeals processes is not only short-sighted but irresponsible.

The Inky ran an editorial a few days ago about how people should run against the incumbents to shake-up the local political scene. Looks like Michael Nutter takes exception to that in the case of Bob Brady, however. I copied his op/ed below from today's Inquirer.

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New political blood? Why, sure, but we need veterans like Brady

By: Michael A. Nutter is mayor-elect of Philadelphia

Of the many images I carry with me from the days after the mayoral primary, one is of an editorial cartoon. In it, I am depicted as the quarterback standing behind an offensive line of Bob Brady, Chaka Fattah and Dwight Evans.

I was reminded of this image when I read your Nov. 29 editorial, "Wanted: New Political Blood."