Privatising Philadelphia school management

After years of failed reform efforts, management of Philadelphia schools – the sixth largest system in America – is about to be privatised. Governor Mark S. Schweiker (Republican) ordered the move over the objections of Mayor John F. Street.

Observers say the schools have for years suffered from a revolving door of top executives, on and off centralisation and decentralisation of administrative authority and lawsuits by activists demanding more funding. Some 57 percent of the city's 210,000 students fail state-mandated mathematics and reading tests.

Schweiker noted recently that only 13 percent of the district's high school juniors are able to read the newspapers with basic comprehension – and that doesn't include the 50 percent who drop out.

Under the plan, the school system's top 55 administrators will be fired and replaced with managers hired by a private firm – most likely Edison Schools Inc.

Edison or other private firms would run Philadelphia's 60 worst schools in partnership with clergy, universities, business owners or even local politicians.

Principals in other schools would collect bonuses as large as 30 percent if they raise student test scores – while as many as 1,500 teachers would be offered $7,500 raises to serve as mentors to less experienced colleagues.

Students would be given one million new textbooks and $51 million would be spent to spruce up the city's 264 schools.

To pay for the plan, the school system's headquarters building would be sold.

Experts say the plan – approved under a state law – is the most radical reform effort ever tried in a large public school system.

Source: Michael A. Fletcher, Pennsylvania to Privatise Management of Philadelphia's School System, Washington Post, November 6, 2001.

For text http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac3/ContentServer?articleid=A44837-2001Nov5&pa
gename=article
For more on Privatising School Management http://www.ncpa.org/iss/edu/

RSA Comment:
South Africa desperately needs the type of reform described in the above article. Private managers can be held accountable and will not be members of the trade union to which government administrators belong. They will consequently be free to concentrate on the job of improving the public school system, knowing that they have to succeed in order to keep their contract. Predictably, one of the first changes they will introduce will be to create incentives for teachers who perform well, a mechanism that is usually not found in government schooling systems.

Eustace Davie, Director, FMF.


FMF Policy Bulletin\13 November 2001