Title
Honoring the 25th Anniversary of the Philadelphia Public School Notebook for its commitment to using local, independent, ambitious journalism as a tool to bring access to information to Philadelphia's public school community, and to provide resources to those working for quality and equity in Philadelphia's public schools.
Body
WHEREAS, The Philadelphia Public School Notebook is an independent, nonprofit news service that provides news and commentary on the City of Philadelphia's public school system and community; and
WHEREAS, In 1994, a group of concerned and engaged parents, teachers, and community members formed the Notebook as a quarterly newspaper dedicated to providing insight on the state of Philadelphia schools; and
WHEREAS, The history of the Notebook's founding largely speaks to the turbulence of the Philadelphia School System in the 1990s and the need for in-depth news and information about the Philadelphia schools for parents and caregivers, educators, and other community members. After the departure of Superintendent Constance Clayton and a Commonwealth Court ruling ordering that educational inequities due to racial and economic segregation of Philadelphia schools be rectified, community members organized around the "need for an independent progressive voice to help make sense of issues and promote and organize for a radical new agenda in the Philadelphia schools;" and
WHEREAS, Thanks to a grant from the Bread and Roses Community Fund, the Notebook published its first issue in May 1994, with over 10,000 copies of the 12-page newspaper distributed with a banner headline reading, "Unfair State Funding for Schools Challenged;" and
WHEREAS, Over the course of its 25-year history, the Notebook became an indispensable tool for holding public officials accountable and ensuring they were doing right by public schools. In fact, Notebook reporting often led to groundbreaking policy change and made national headlines. The Notebook's coverage of ...
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