Is Philadelphia the Next Chicago? (school closings)

[marmar]

from Dissent magazine:



Is Philadelphia the Next Chicago?
By Andrew Elrod - June 28, 2013


Last week four members of UNITE HERE, one of the four unions representing staff in the School District of Philadelphia, began a hunger strike that would culminate nine days later with a thousand-person rally at the state capitol. Two parents, organizers with UNITE HERE, and two cafeteria workers represented by the union fasted in protest of what the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (PFT) has termed the “doomsday budget.” That budget is an attempt by the School District of Philadelphia to fill a $300 million deficit by laying off 3,700 staff and eviscerating the teachers’ union contract.

In addition to ending teachers’ seniority protections and step increases (scheduled raises for consecutive years worked), the district’s proposal includes a wage cut, an increase in employee benefit contributions, and the elimination of necessary overtime pay—prep time for teachers and emergency visits by nurses. The plan would institute unlimited class sizes and reserve the right for the district to contract out union jobs. Other clauses absolve the district of the responsibility for providing water fountains and educators’ desks.

And all those cuts? That’s just the teachers.

The district’s entire safety staff (employees whose roles fall somewhere between hall monitor and security guard) will be gone in the fall, more than halving UNITE HERE Local 634’s membership. The staff is vital in a district that reported over 2,600 violent incidents last school year (the union says closer to 10,000). Whereas the teachers’ contract was proposed in February, it is this more recent announcement about security that brought parents and staff out to Pennsylvania governor Tom Corbett’s office for a week of protest. While the community may have been displeased with the mistreatment of teachers, it was outraged at the prospect of dangerous schools. ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/is-philadelphia-the-next-chicago

[Tree-Hugger]

1. Yes

It is getting ugly. I have a lot of friends who are teachers, support staff and principals in Philly. It's getting pretty scary there. It's spreading to the suburbs as well. A good part of it is thanks to Governor Gashole, who is fine with slashing education funding, but sees no problem giving tax cuts the frackers and building new prisons. We need him out of office and we need the legislature changed. Unfortunately, we have had some redistricting (correct me if I am wrong) and it seems like more Tea has been seeping through this state's cracks.

Good thing we will have more prisons now that schools in some of the worst and poorest neighborhoods lose funding. Coincidence?

[femmocrat]

3. Corebutt = Worst Governor Ever.

It's not just Philadelphia, although they are getting hit the hardest right now. The budget cuts have pretty much demolished some other districts including Chester-Upland, Harrisburg, and many others.


Here is a good link, listing financial problems in many districts:
http://www.pahouse.com/school_funding_2011cuts.asp?utm_source=listrak&utm_medium=email&utm

[frazzled]

2. Chicago did not cut teacher's wages or step increases (as proposed in Philadelphia)

They raised them, if you recall (and step increases were never even under proposals), making Chicago teachers the second-highest paid in the nation (if I remember correctly).

Chicago consolidated buildings, due to large losses in population over the past decade ... making it unfeasible to continue to pay for maintenance, utilities, and other services at the half-full schools. Yes, 545 teachers were pink-slipped (though some conceivably could be rehired). But that's 545 out of 23,290 in the district ... or .023% (less one-quarter of one percent) of the teachers. "The teachers laid off at the closing schools did not have either tenure or high-enough performance ratings for a chance to follow their students to available jobs in the receiving schools, according to the contract between CPS and the Chicago Teachers Union." So that's something that was in the negotiated contract. http://www.chicagolabor.org/news/news-clips/850-teachers-staffers-get-pink-slips-at-closing-turnaround-schools.

So no, it doesn't sound like the Philadelphia situation is a mirror of the Chicago situation at all.