Hundreds form human chain
Students protest privatization of Philadelphia schools
By Betsey Piette
Philadelphia
On Nov. 29 hundreds of students walked out of Philadelphia
high schools and took to the streets to protest a looming state
takeover of the city's school district. The action was
organized by the Philadelphia Student Union and Youth United
for Change.
The students later formed a human chain around the school
administration building to protest plans to allow Edison
Schools, Inc., to privatize some of the city's schools.
"We're fighting for our rights," one high school senior told
reporters. "We're fighting for our future."
Angry students extended their protest by camping overnight
outside Mayor John Street's office. They refused to leave City
Hall until they had won a demand for a meeting with the mayor,
where they laid out their own ideas about how to run the
schools.
Late the next day, just hours before a midnight deadline
that would have triggered a hostile state takeover and
privatization of the city's public schools, Mayor Street and
Pennsylvania Acting Gov. Mark Schweiker announced a three-week
extension of negotiations over the future of the
210,000-student district.
Two weeks earlier both Street and Schweiker had claimed
victory when the latter backed down on plans to appoint Edison
Schools, Inc., to manage the district's central office. But the
public wasn't fooled. Schweiker's plans still included a state
takeover of the school board and the privatization of 60 of the
city's schools, 45 under Edison's control.
Community groups, students and unions that had been
demonstrating against Edison in Philadelphia and Harrisburg
responded to this "victory" by intensifying their efforts.
One day before the student walkout, over 2,000 people
blocked traffic in an anti-privatization rally and disrupted
the city's official Christmas tree-lighting ceremony at City
Hall. The protest by union members, community leaders, parents
and students, led by the Coalition to Keep Our Public Schools
Public, jammed Center City streets at the height of rush hour
and nearly drowned out the mayor as he took to the stage to
light the tree.
Anti-worker law is contested
To stop the takeover the coalition filed a lawsuit
challenging the constitutionality of Pennsylvania Act 46, which
makes city schools subject to state rule. Another lawsuit will
be filed, this one claiming that parents, teachers and other
opponents of the state takeover have been locked out of
negotiations. Street had previously blocked passage of a City
Council resolution recommending a public referendum on the
privatization issue.
Pennsylvania Act 46 was passed in 1998 primarily to break
the teachers' union. In a secret, late-night session in
October, it was amended by state legislators to lay the grounds
for Schweiker to abolish the Philadelphia Board of Education
and replace it with a five-member State Reform Commission.
The state claims that the Philadelphia school district's
$215 million deficit can only be resolved with a state
takeover. In August the state paid Edison Schools $2.7 million
to conduct a study and make proposals on how to deal with the
district's financial problems. Edison is the nation's biggest
for-profit manager of public schools.
Opponents of the state takeover argue that the district's
budget deficit developed because Pennsylvania has one of the
country's most inequitable educational funding systems, one
that particularly hurts rural communities and cities such as
Philadelphia. Compared to their immediate suburban
counterparts, Philadelphia classrooms are under-funded annually
by well over $60,000 per classroom, a gap that widens each
year.
More than 80 percent of Philadelphia's students are children
of color; 78 percent are from low-income households. A racial
discrimination lawsuit against the state of Pennsylvania aimed
at rectifying the funding disparity on federal civil-rights
grounds was decided in the city's favor, but shelved by Street
as a concession to the state.
Equal funding was high on the students' list of proposals.
They are also proposing a technology plan for each school, one
counselor for every 250 students, after-school homework help
rooms, and a ban on private companies managing public
schools.
At the student protest, one ninth-grader complained that
there were only 12 books in a class of 30 students. A
tenth-grader said her school needed a new heating system. "I'm
tired of being cold," she said.
State and city officials claim that the stumbling block in
negotiations over the state takeover is also a disagreement
over funding. However, the three-week delay conveniently
postpones any decision until Dec. 21. That date is the start of
an 11-day break for students and teachers, who have been the
backbone of protests against Edison.
Schweiker also appears eager to reach a compromise with
Street in order to avoid the appearance that the state's
takeover is hostile, which would leave it open to legal
challenges that could overturn Act 46.
The current plan would be the biggest experiment in a
for-profit company running public schools in U.S. history,
setting a dangerous precedent for other large, urban districts
to follow.
Opponents of the state's plans have pledged to keep the heat
on. They announced an escalating series of events to show that
the public, parents, students and workers oppose both a state
takeover of the schools and privatization.
Reprinted from the Dec. 13, 2001, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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