Wilma, I perfectly agree with you that there should never be such a prerequisite.
Politically, though, do you see any way for us to achieve it -- as long as poor Philadelphians are politically isolated from the funding sources controlled by non-poor Pennsylvanians? Which gives them a better shot at success: isolation or connection?
If whites began this process by fleeing the city and disinvesting in it ... then isn't the logical remedy for them to return to the city and reinvest in it? White flight and gentrification can't both be bad at the same time.
All forms of urban change involve displacement and its pains shouldn't be taken lightly. But I don't see any way for urban education to become normal again, unless a full range of social classes (race isn't really the key) returns to the city. Neighborhoods do change over time. White flight was driven by change. Do you think ethnic and class change can grind to a halt now? Would it even be good for change to be halted? To me, the question is how changes should be managed.
I don't see any particular point in bashing Penn when it is merely one of many non-public partners now pitching into the School District in many different ways. Penn didn't think this movement up, after all. If Penn is bad, then they all are equally bad, no? Or if Penn is specially bad, then someone should study the other intervenors and explain what they are doing better that Penn is doing worse.
-- Tony West
What I was saying is there should NEVER be a prerequisite that poor children should have to wait to garner any benefits from "middle-class" Whites re-discovering Public Schools, that have received infusion from corporations, universities or other institutions and re-entering the School System. The system CAN and SHOULD be funded equally without the non-poor being bundled with the poor. It just has not happened and most people think the poor do not deserve this because they did not pay for it. The poor children in question in this situation ARE black from which whites fled and began the disinvestment in public education and other City Services. Can YOU accept or even admit the disinvestment went with that 'middle-class' population's flight, and their attempts to return and re-claim the schools and area will result in those poor kids being pushed out? When one tries to present this and veil it with 'silk hands', I feel is one is trying to do is defend Penn at all costs and deny gentrification has and still displaces people of color, not to mention broad brush people who have concerns as anti-Penn/gentrification. If it were not Penn, it could be some other institution. It matters not to me. Can you accept that and admit that?
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