Title
Authorizing the Council Committee on Fiscal Stability and Intergovernmental Cooperation to hold hearings in order to fully examine and analyze the current and future financial condition of the School District of Philadelphia and to receive testimony from Mayor John F. Street and the Board of Education on proposed plans to stabilize the funding base of the School District to prevent fiscal insolvency, avoid a possible state takeover and insure a quality education for Philadelphia's public school children.
Body
WHEREAS, The Philadelphia Board of Education approved a preliminary spending plan on March 31, 2000 which totals $1.64 billion -- reflecting a 7.1% increase in spending with $45 million in new money earmarked for new programs, but with no money dedicated for increased teacher salaries; and
WHEREAS, The spending plan approved by the Board of Education has a cumulative deficit of $204 million and recent news articles have projected that the deficit could be as high as $300 million; and
WHEREAS, A 1996 Perks Reutter study estimated that $765 million was needed for capital and maintenance expenditures to simply raise public school facilities to a minimum standard; and
WHEREAS, The low starting salaries for teachers in the Philadelphia School System are ranked 59th out of the sixty-one nearby school districts, and recently the Philadelphia School District faced a severe teacher shortage which resulted in a temporary waiver of the residency requirement and other recruitment incentives; and
WHEREAS, The contract with the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers expires in August and Mayor Street has repeatedly stated that the teachers "deserve a fair contract;" and
WHEREAS, Mayor John F. Street has been hosting public meetings throughout the City at each of the school clusters and has stressed at each meeting that the schools will run out of money by next year without an increase in state aid, and the Mayor has been quoted in numerous arti...
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