School District Budget
With City Controller Alan Butkovitz set to release the city's annual audit of the Philadelphia School District, parent advocates are calling for increased scrutiny of the district's growing ranks of private contractors.
By Bill Hangley
 Listen Now [1 minute 8 seconds]
WHYY News, April 30, 2008
Parent advocates are calling the latest school budget grim. On Tuesday, Leroi Simmons of Parents United for Public Education told City Council that $2.3 billion dollar budget does nothing for his school, where only one in four students graduates.
"Everybody's talking about, we gotta reduce the drop out rate," said Simmons. "There is zero money in the budget for Germantown High School. What are we going to do to move these children to a level where they can at least achieve?"
Simmons and his fellow advocates called on Council to push the district to spend less on private contracts and more in the classroom. They want council to investigate the tens of millions spent annually on disciplinary schools, privately managed schools, cleaning services, testing services and more. Councilwoman Marian Tasco said she sympathizes with the request, but doesn't expect council to deliver.
"That's not our role. Our role is to appropriate the taxes and authorize the taxes from the city," said Tasco. "But in terms of the ability to give that oversight to the school district, we don't have the funds to do it either."
Tasco said that it's up to the School District to evaluate its own contracts. She's counting on incoming school CEO Arlene Ackerman to take on that task.
Additional Information
It's Our Money Blog: Doing the Math for the School District
Daily News Editorial: DO THE MATH, SCHOOL DISTRICT
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