City of Philadelphia - File #: 120628

• File #: 120628
• Version: 0
• Type: Resolution
• Status: ADOPTED
• File created: 6/21/2012
• In control: CITY COUNCIL
• Title: Calling upon Council's Committee on Education to hold hearings to determine the best, most efficient and effective form of governance and accountability for the Philadelphia School District.
• Sponsors: Councilmember Oh, Councilmember Blackwell, Councilmember Green, Councilmember Quiñones Sánchez, Councilmember Greenlee, Councilmember Kenney, Councilmember Goode, Council President Clarke, Councilmember Squilla, Councilmember Bass, Councilmember Johnson, Councilmember O'Brien, Councilmember Jones, Councilmember Henon, Councilmember Tasco, Councilmember Reynolds Brown, Councilmember O'Neill

Date	Ver.	Action By	Action	Result	Tally
1/23/2013	0	Committee on Education	HEARING NOTICES SENT
1/23/2013	0	Committee on Education	Cancellation of Scheduled Public Hearing
6/21/2012	0	CITY COUNCIL	Introduced and Ordered Placed on This Week's Final Passage Calendar	Pass
6/21/2012	0	CITY COUNCIL	ADOPTED

Title
Calling upon Council's Committee on Education to hold hearings to determine the best, most efficient and effective form of governance and accountability for the Philadelphia School District.
Body
WHEREAS, The Philadelphia School District is the ninth largest school system in America with 249 public schools and 80 Charter Schools serving roughly 192,000 students; and

WHEREAS, On December 21, 2001, the Secretary of Education found the Philadelphia School District to be in distress, thereby suspending the powers of the Board of Education, and placing a "School Reform Commission" (hereinafter "SRC") in charge of the District; and

WHEREAS, Beginning in April 2002 and continuing to the present day, the SRC has annually proposed the closure or privatization of various schools throughout the City; and

WHEREAS, Since its inception the SRC has had three Superintendents and currently has an interim Superintendent all of whom have attempted to "turn-around" the performance of the District resulting in minimal increases in academic performance and continually poor managerial and financial performance; and

WHEREAS, No mechanism has been established to hold the SRC accountable for their actions to City Council or the citizens of Philadelphia; and

WHEREAS, Throughout the country and throughout the world cities of similar size utilize school district governance structures that provide for accountability and academic performance far greater than what we currently experience in Philadelphia; and

WHEREAS, Globally, the United States ranks 14th in academic performance, however, it has the highest annual expenditure per student as a percentage of GDP; and

WHEREAS, The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania ranks 22nd nationally in education and Philadelphia ranks 477th out of 545 school districts throughout the Commonwealth; and

WHEREAS, Amongst urban school districts of similar size, Philadelphia ranks in the bottom three with only Baltimore which is a state...