Philly Students Present Another Vision For Imagining 2014

On February 25, outside of the Philadelphia School District's building, came together a diverse crowd of people, eight rows deep, provoking the very image of community that they hoped to see implemented in the city's public school system.
The Philadelphia Student Union (PSU) hosted this event, where students, parents, and those in the community joined to voice their concerns over the proposed 5 year strategic plan called Imagine 2014. It has been proposed by CEO of Philadelphia Schools Arlene Ackerman to help solve the crisis of education.
The city's drop out rate is close to 50%, and 57% of the public schools have been dubbed as "failing" by the state's standards. The plan calls for the 30- 35 lowest performing public schools to be shut down, and then reopened either under private management or as charter schools. The idea is to bring in outsiders to the School District, who can manage the city's schools- a call for change from the in-city control that has overseen Philadelphia's downfall in quality education.
While most see the obvious need to better the schools in Philadelphia, there are those who do not think aspects of Imagine 2014 represent the right course to take. And they believe they have precedence to fall back on.
This call for change is not all that unfamiliar from actions taken in 2002, when the School District gave over a number of Philadelphia's lowest performing schools to outside managers, one of them being the for-profit organization Edison Schools inc. The results of that decision were not so favorable.
According to a recent PSU press release, "Seven years and over a hundred million dollars later, six contracts were taken away from managers, including from the for-profit Edison Schools, and another 20 contracts were given one additional year of probation because of lackluster performance."
"It's the same thing seven years later," said Erika Almiron, assistant director of PSU, in an Inquirer article.
Ackerman's plan does share common goals with PSU, though. They want smaller class sizes and more guidance counselors. Imagine 2014 has plans to help incoming high school freshman with their graduation goals right from the start. It also wants there to be more formal preparation for the SAT, and for all high school students to have some sort of career experience. Both see the hiring process for teachers as inadequate, for one of the main complaints in the school district is the under qualifications of the educators. Ackerman' plan promises to change how potential teachers are evaluated, and wants all newcomers to be hired by June instead of August.
The problem has never been the ultimate goal. The problem is in the execution.
The fact that this community action led by PSU took place 55 years after Brown v. Board of Education is no coincidence. The battle to desegregate schools was won in 1954, and many of the opposition of Imagine 2014 believe that a new battle against segregation has reared its ugly head in the present.
Now, they're not trying to segregate schools by race, but by a social standard,said Khalif Dobson, a member of PSU.
The fear is that the proposed Charter Schools will alienate those of a certain class level. A major concern about Ackerman's plan is that it will promote gentrification in neighborhoods. his worry is backed by the bleak results of the Mayor of Chicago's Renaissance 2010 plan, which many fear Ackerman's proposal emulates. Mayor Daley's plan had closed 61 of its public schools and reopened 46 of them as charter schools. The goal is to have 100 of them opened by 2010. The Charter Difference: A Comparison of Chicago Charter and Neighborhood High Schools” shows that the charter schools enroll fewer poor students, as well as those who are non-English speakers and have special needs. Not only has the level of education barely improved over the neighborhood schools (ACT scores were only up .89), but communities have suffered. Renaissance 2010 was born out of a business plan, and students have not felt comfortable about their schools being sold.”
As one public school student expressed outside of the School District building in her self-written take on Martin Luther King's I Have a Dreamspeech, businesses should not be trying to buy their schools.
The dropout rate of public schools is about half of the student population, and trying to fix this with a business approach does not make sense. The notion of giving contracts to outside managers, of essentially turning schools and students' education over in a transaction sounds too impersonal. How can students be expected to want to stay in school if such a disconnect could be allowed to continue to grow? If students are expected to stay in classes, they need to feel a bond with their schools. The schools need to become a part of the actual community, integrated into the students' very lives.
PSU's action was a complete demonstration of such a dream. These were students who came to save their schools. They came out as a community. Students from West, Sayre, Overbrook, Masterman, CAPPA, Central, Bodine, and various other high schools, as well as groups such as the Unified Taxi Workers Alliance, Asian Americans United, and SEIU Local 32BJ, united their diverse voices as one, and showed what it would be like to have a binding of community and education. The sickening drop out rates were thrown out the window, for these students came to fight to stay in their classrooms. Their level of organization was truly something to behold. Everything these students did showed contrary to the horrendous numbers that the School District has shown. These were students who demonstrated various talents. They read self-written poetry, they rapped, they showed action with their signs, and even displayed a short, satirical skit based on Renaissance 2010.
PSU's plan to right the education crisis comes through in their Student Success Centers. These are centers that would be inside of schools, and they would help with SATs, career development, and equity. They would help neighborhoods to get better access to college guidance, and the resources that they sometimes do not receive.
PSU hopes that West Philadelphia High School can one day be considered a prime example of what these students desire the city's education to emulate. PSU is currently organizing to involve the community at West. The goal is to have students, parents, churches, small business owners, and teachers all contribute. The high school would be small community center schools, with four of them inside of the building. The same exact number and students would remain. The educational themes, chosen by the actual students and community, would be urban studies, creative and performing arts, auto, and business.
"We are determined to make West a school where students want to be," says PSU's website.
Make public schools a community effort, not business models.

PSU Action 2.25