It’s time for Philadelphia’s public schools to be back under city control, GOP mayoral candidate Sam Katz asserted during a Monday campaign stop outside the George W. Childs School, 17th and Tasker streets.
The Republican announced that, if elected, one of his goals during his first term would be to restore home rule of the School District of Philadelphia.
The Pennsylvania Department of Education took over the "financially distressed" system in fall 2001. The move dissolved the local Board of Education, placing the district’s fortunes in the hands of the School Reform Commission.
Several months later, Mayor John Street negotiated a deal with then-Gov. Mark Schweiker for the city to have some representation on the SRC, yet the balance of power still favors the state.
Katz, whose campaign spent this week focusing on the education issues, predicted during the next four years the city and the district will "demonstrate that financial, managerial and academic performance of the school district has improved sufficiently to warrant the restoration of home rule."
Street is happy with the deal he negotiated with the state, said his campaign spokesperson Joel Avery, because in exchange for some control over the system, Harrisburg is contributing more money toward education than ever before.
"He orchestrated a structured state takeover and partnership that was designed to increase the state’s commitment and responsibility to provide high-quality education for all of its schoolchildren," Avery said.
The mayor also boasts that he had a hand in creating 24,000 openings in afterschool programs and that he hired the city’s first secretary of education, Debra Kahn. And by stopping the state from handing over the entire system to for-profit manager Edison Schools Inc., Avery said, Street is responsible for the School Reform Commission hiring school district CEO Paul Vallas.
The Street staffer also revived an issue that had surfaced during the 1999 campaign — Katz’s service on the city’s Board of Education.
Between 1981 and 1985, Katz was a board member, and during that time, Avery said, he missed more than twice as many meetings as any other member.
"The voters have no reason to believe he is going to do anything for education," Avery said. "When opportunity knocked, he didn’t open the door. He had the opportunity to do whatever he wants to do now. It was in his hands."
Katz discussed his absences — he counts that he missed 28 percent of the meetings as a board member. When former Mayor Bill Green appointed him, the mayor knew Katz’s full-time job required him to travel, Katz said, and that he would miss numerous board sessions.
The district was faced with a $223-million deficit when Katz joined the board. The Republican served as chairman of the budget committee and, before he stepped down, the systems deficit had been wiped out.
Katz refuted Street’s claim about Vallas, noting he had been a candidate for the job before the mayor ever negotiated the deal with Schweiker.
The Republican admires Vallas’ work. He has done a "tremendous job of restoring a sense of confidence to our students, parents and teachers," Katz said, adding the CEO also had instilled accountability among the administrators throughout the district.
Katz announced his plans to create a "Philadelphia Teaching Corps" consisting of all of the public school teachers in the city. The organization would encourage teachers to live and work in the city through housing programs, and it would offer professional development and continuing education opportunities to teachers.
