Philadelphia’s public schools will have enough funds to reopen on time this fall because of a last-minute plan for the city to loan the school district $50 million. But students will return to schools that have been mostly stripped of arts, extracurricular activities and support staff.

The district closed 24 schools this spring and laid off 3,783 employees, including 646 teachers, more than 1,200 aides, 127 assistant principals and virtually all school secretaries and guidance counselors. The loan from the city is allowing the district to hire only about 1,000 of these employees back.

The dire lack of funding has led some schools to appeal directly to parents for contributions, with one elementary school asking each parent to kick in $613.

The state, meanwhile, under the leadership of Republican Gov. Tom Corbett, has refused to release $45 million in federal funds targeted to Philadelphia unless the teachers’ union and other school employee unions make significant contract givebacks. Under Corbett, the state has cut $1 billion from education statewide while it has expanded tax breaks for corporations and the energy industry and made plans to spend $400 million to build a new prison in Philadelphia.

“We’re all just kind of stunned this could be happening in modern time, that a government would not choose to fund education,” said Lisa Criniti-Ciervo, who has two children in Philadelphia schools. “We’re all just kind of appalled.”

ABC News, Aug. 16
Philadelphia Daily News, Aug. 13