oh, it's not April 1. This is real. The headline was a slightly sarcastic take from a very good writer in one of the weeklies. This was the article in the Philadelphia Inquirer: http://articles.philly.com/2012-04-24/news/31393163_1_school-level-achievement-high-quality-schools
but this piece by a longtime education advocate here is worth reading: http://www.thenotebook.org/blog/124747/youre-not-speaking-me-mr-knudsen
Diane Ravitch was just in town: http://www.thenotebook.org/blog/124757/new-york-no-model-ravitch-says
http://dianeravitch.net/2012/04/24/philadelphia-detroit-st-louis-who-is-next/
Two of the student groups put out a very good statement: http://home.phillystudentunion.org/PSU-Blog/philadelphia-student-union-youth-united-for-change-respond-to-districts-plan.html
Of course the education plan is sugarcoated with the usual doublespeak about restructuring, efficiency, etc. They didn't even bother with the attack on 32BJ SEIU local 1201. The message could not be clearer: take what we offer or your job is history.
There were of course one or two comments on Facebook along the lines of "we should applaud this because public education is a tool of state indoctrination." How people can be in such an ideological bubble to the point of total idiocy is always a wonder.
I'm ignoring Carrol's comment about "What about the kids?" because the other responses were good.
Seth
________________________________
Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2012 15:43:25 -0400 From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Philadelphia School District announces its dissolution To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Message-ID: <386620EF-2A91-460A-9701-B4E96BDB0BAC at panix.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
On Apr 24, 2012, at 1:05 PM, SK wrote:
> http://www.citypaper.net/blogs/nakedcity/Philadelphia-School-District-announces-its-dissolution-.html
>
>
> Philadelphia School District announces its dissolution
>
> Philadelphia public schools are on the operating table, reeling from a
> knockout blow of heavy state budget cuts. It was too much to bear
> after decades of underfunding and mismanagement at the hands of
> shortsighted Philadelphians and mean-spirited politicians in
> Harrisburg.
I kept checking the date on this - it's not April 1, right?
Doug