Like many other urban school districts...Philadelphia faces a teacher shortage this year. A big recruitment effort has filled most of the vacancies...But now the district faces a new challenge--turning its novice teachers into seasoned professionals. 91 FM's Julia Barton followed some of the new recruits on their way to the classroom. [Listen] [Read the transcript]

Philadelphia School Superintendent David Hornbeck says it's a critical year for the district, as it tries to win back the confidence of many parents and public officials. The district faces a very tough budget, as well as shortages in teachers, space, and textbooks. But, as 91FM's Neil Tickner reports, some education experts say a lack of public confidence complicates the District's efforts to reform. [Listen] [Read the transcript]

91FM's Bill Fantini profiles Philadelphia School Superintendent David Hornbeck. [Listen] [Read the transcript]

This week, 3 and 4 year olds in New Jersey's 30 poorest school districts are supposed to be showing up for their first day of pre-school. Last year the New Jersey Supreme Court ordered state officials to pay for pre-school in what have become known as the "Abbott" districts. Since then, school superintendents have been arguing with the State Education Department over how to fulfill the court mandate. With that argument unresolved, students in different districts will show up to find vastly different pre-school classes. 91 FM's Eugene Sonn filed this report. [Listen] [Read the transcript]

As the school year opens in Pennsylvania, the issue of school vouchers remains undecided... supported by the Ridge administration vouchers are seen by their supporters as a way to allow parents to choose which school their child attends not only public but private and parochial as well..they also say that competition for students... an open market of education if you will... will lead to improvements in the public schools. But critics argue that vouchers, which come from taxpayer dollars, drain resources from the public school... and that providing funds for parents to send their children to parochial schools violates the separation of church and state. Unlike charter schools, which are sprouting up all over Pennsylvania and other states, vouchers programs can only be found in the cities of Milwaukee and Cleveland, and the state of Florida... lawsuits have been filed seeking to overturn those programs. When the Pennsylvania legislature returns to Harrisburg the Ridge administration will once again seek to implement some kind of voucher program in the Commonwealth.
91FM's Martin Wells discussed vouchers with Guy Shirocki, director of the public affairs office for the Philadelphia Archdiocese...and Rudy Wemiold, the chairman of the Public Education Coalition to Oppose Tuition Vouchers. [Listen]

Students in the Philadelphia school district head back to class today, as the new school year gets underway. But about 85-hundred students won't be going to the public schools and the won't be going to private or parochial schools either. Instead they'll be attending the ever growing number of charter schools.
Charter schools are actually public schools but they're run more or less independently. The school is run under a contract worked out between those who organized the school...such as parents or teachers, and the body that oversees the school...such as a local school board or state board of education. This contract...or charter...outlines what the school goals are, how it will be organized and run, and what outcomes are expected for its students.
Now beginning their third year in Pennsylvania, charter schools are proving to be popular among parents who say they are either feed up with what they perceive as the poor quality of public education, and in many cases can't afford to send their children private or parochial schools.
WHYY's Martin Wells took a closer look at charter schools, speaking with Sean Duffy, President of the Commonwealth Foundation, a non-partisan public policy think tank, and Linda Harris of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers. [Listen]

On the first day of school, 91FM's Julia Barton visited Kensington High School to find out what's on the mind of students, teachers, and administrators there. [Listen]

91FM's Martin Wells on one school's response to recent school violence. [Listen] [Read the transcript]

All this week, 91FM has been looking at concerns of the Philadelphia School District - and education in general, One issue - 'school security' was brought to the forefront by the various incidents of violence that occurred during the last school year. Amid the flurry af reaction from experts and commentators after the shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado in April, WHYY/TV12 produced a program in which YOUNG PEOPLE from the region were given the chance to express THEIR feelings. Here is a sampling from "STUDENT VOICES ON VIOLENCE... ANYBODY LISTENING?" [Listen]

Radio Times program on the challenges of teaching (9/10/99) [Listen]