This was originally a comment on the thread about the Daily News articles criticizing the way the city has approached the stimulus proposals in the ARRA.

I wanted to repost this as a standalone because I believe this was one instance of Philadelphia getting it right.

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This year I had the honor of working with Media Mobilizing Project (www.mediamobilizing.org) in their successful efforts at organizing the Digital Justice Coalition, a citywide coalition of Philadelphians ranging from PhillyFIGHT to SEIU to the Taxi Workers Union to the Public School Notebook, to come together to address the city’s digital divide (one of the worst in the nation.)

Thanks to the federal stimulus package, the School District of Philadelphia stands to gain more than it has seen in decades.

What that means:

• The state will stay on a six year track for bringing all districts up to adequacy level spending. Because of the economy, the state had backed down from the funding formula, claiming they would move to a “seven-year” plan.

• Philly gets $361 million next year, $120 million into the general fund, and the rest?
  

  Many school officials, including those from Philadelphia, said yesterday they were still analyzing the proposal and could not say much about how they would spend any of the money.

Yikes. Kind of makes the gaps in Imagine 2014 more urgent than ever.