Re: [UC] FW: In catchment or not, Penn Alexander will be forced to turn new ...
In a message dated 5/13/2011 6:25:15 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, wil.p...@comcast.net writes: Ostensibly, any public school who receives funding from taxpayers should never be able to turn away applicants who reside within the school's neighborhood boundaries. Of course, economic reality rears its ugly head. And one of the sad economic realities in Philadelphia (probably lots of other places, too) is that the management of the school district is, er, profligate might be a polite term although I can think of others. Dr Ackermann and her cohorts spend other people's money like it's, well, other people's money. And even by cutting the numbers reportedly being laid off from the central administration of the school district (ostensibly without any negative (and likely positive) impact in whatever passes for productivity up there, I understand it will still be top-heavy. Further firing people who sit at their computers and play solitaire and battleships all day for lack of any real work doesn't affect the culture of entitlement at the higher levels. The school district may not have some of the personality problems that afflicted the Housing Authority, but there are obvious strong parallels. I wish I were able to propose a practical solution. Certainly putting more control in the hands of City Council would be -- if not a step from the frying pan into the fire, than from the fire into the frying plan. Cynically yours, Al Krigman
Re: [UC] FW: In catchment or not, Penn Alexander will be forced to turn new ...
Thanks for your post Al. While I agree with your observations about the CEO of our school district I also feel we are choking on a gnat and swallowing a camel. The bloated bureaucracy of centralized school districts was supposed to be relieved by the corporate/educational accountability movement and the further entrenchment of charter schools in public districts. Instead we have reaped a bitter harvest of get-rich quick political schemers and the selling of the the districts assets to the highest bidder with nothing to show for it. For instance what happened to the Art Collection that was sold? Now buildings are being targeted for sale as schools consolidate under rightsizing. Ackerman et.al. are carrying out a much larger agenda which will result in the destruction of public schools in the US for poor, inner-city children. They are but small players on a huge stage built by right-wing entities such as The Broad Foundation, The Walton Foundation, The Philanthropy Roundtable, Americans for Prosperity and the 30 year-old Freedom of Choice movement. These big shots are seeking to control more public money and institutions for their private gain. Talk about spending other people's money ow about appropriating other people's money as one's own and giving nothing in return or any opportunity for redress. We are now in the final stages of this corporate fascism and it will expand to exclude anyone who is not a member of that very small exclusive club. From: krf...@aol.com krf...@aol.com Reply-To: krf...@aol.com krf...@aol.com Date: Sat, 14 May 2011 08:14:55 -0400 (EDT) To: UnivCity listserv UnivCity@list.purple.com Subject: Re: [UC] FW: In catchment or not, Penn Alexander will be forced to turn new ... In a message dated 5/13/2011 6:25:15 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, wil.p...@comcast.net writes: Ostensibly, any public school who receives funding from taxpayers should never be able to turn away applicants who reside within the school's neighborhood boundaries. Of course, economic reality rears its ugly head. And one of the sad economic realities in Philadelphia (probably lots of other places, too) is that the management of the school district is, er, profligate might be a polite term although I can think of others. Dr Ackermann and her cohorts spend other people's money like it's, well, other people's money. And even by cutting the numbers reportedly being laid off from the central administration of the school district (ostensibly without any negative (and likely positive) impact in whatever passes for productivity up there, I understand it will still be top-heavy. Further firing people who sit at their computers and play solitaire and battleships all day for lack of any real work doesn't affect the culture of entitlement at the higher levels. The school district may not have some of the personality problems that afflicted the Housing Authority, but there are obvious strong parallels. I wish I were able to propose a practical solution. Certainly putting more control in the hands of City Council would be -- if not a step from the frying pan into the fire, than from the fire into the frying plan. Cynically yours, Al Krigman
Re: [UC] FW: In catchment or not, Penn Alexander will be forced to turn new students away
A pity. Class sizes will increase to epic proportions across the district as charter schools are increased, school buildings are sold and schools combined under the Right Sizing initiative; schools with a lot less resources than Penn Alexander. If I were a parent in the catchment area, I would fight it. It is still a public school. From: Kimm Tynan kimm.ty...@verizon.net Reply-To: Kimm Tynan kimm.ty...@verizon.net Date: Thu, 12 May 2011 21:21:18 -0400 To: UnivCity listserv UnivCity@list.purple.com Subject: [UC] FW: In catchment or not, Penn Alexander will be forced to turn new students away http://www.westphillylocal.com/2011/05/11/in-catchment-or-not-penn-alexander -will-be-forced-to-turn-new-students-away/ http://phillyschoolsearch.com/2011/05/11/penn-alexander-institutes-controver sial-new-enrollment-policy/
Re: [UC] FW: In catchment or not, Penn Alexander will be forced to turn new ...
Ostensibly, any public school who receives funding from taxpayers should never be able to turn away applicants who reside within the school's neighborhood boundaries. Better off city dwellers have exploited this two-tiered system of the haves and have-nots for YEARS in order to avoid sending their children to the neighborhood schools in neighborhoods that were, shall we say, in transition. That's why Powel, etc. was an alternative for so long to Wilson and later Lea school. That was school choice without, school choice. Now, the tide has turned. Charter schools are still funded by by taxpayers as well as huge corporate funding sources such as Penn and therefore are public schools. However, they conduct themselves as private schools on taxpayers money. Penn Alexander is not a special program or magnet public school. As long as they are public schools, they should never be able to say they are only set up for smaller classes. ALL public schools, as well as private schools, function better with smaller class sizes. In fact, that is one of the few documented research factors that actually contributes to closing the achievement gap. NO public/charters should be permitted to turn away children who reside within their boundaries, but they do. Poorer neighborhood schools should not have to cut their already limited budgets and resources and increase class sizes and accept cast-offs in order to allow public charters or selective schools to turn away rightful applicants because that might contribute to a less than ideal learning environment. All public schools should be able to do this. From: krf...@aol.com krf...@aol.com Reply-To: krf...@aol.com krf...@aol.com Date: Fri, 13 May 2011 08:11:06 -0400 (EDT) To: UnivCity listserv UnivCity@list.purple.com Subject: Re: [UC] FW: In catchment or not, Penn Alexander will be forced to turn new ... In a message dated 5/13/2011 7:31:09 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, wil.p...@comcast.net writes: A pity. Class sizes will increase to epic proportions across the district as charter schools are increased, school buildings are sold and schools combined under the Right Sizing initiative; schools with a lot less resources than Penn Alexander. If I were a parent in the catchment area, I would fight it. It is still a public school. FYI: When Jasmine (four-going-on-twenty) didn't make the cut for kindergarten at the Alexander school, we looked into a few of the better charter schools (in Center City and South Philly), and also into Lea and Powel. The charter schools were wait list propositions with little likelihood of getting in. Lea was unimpressive, to put it mildly. Powel seemed better and they said we could register. By the time we heard back from Powel, we'd already decided to enroll at St Francis DeSales and are sticking with that decision. The item about Powel being overcrowded now reinforces that choice. St Francis is $2,000 plus some expense for uniforms. Compared with other local private school options, that's actually very cheap. And the quality of the education there is undisputed. We looked at two other church-affiliated possibilities as well. Spruce Hill Christian School (affiliated with Tenth Presbyterian in Center City) is three to four times as much. And a school run by a Baptist church further west than University City was $4000 -- and although it looked like a good option, I was concerned whether they had as established/proven a curriculum as either St Francis or Spruce Hill Christian. We were figuring on transferring to the Alexander school for first grade -- but now that seems to be an iffy proposition, too. Al Krigman
[UC] FW: In catchment or not, Penn Alexander will be forced to turn new students away
http://www.westphillylocal.com/2011/05/11/in-catchment-or-not-penn-alexander -will-be-forced-to-turn-new-students-away/ http://phillyschoolsearch.com/2011/05/11/penn-alexander-institutes-controver sial-new-enrollment-policy/
