180 Days of Instruction... Are You Sure?

I am a history teacher at Central High School and methodically pace my classes. Frankly, I have no choice. There’s a lot of material to cover in World History. My curriculum and professional duties call for teaching students everything from the emergence of Homo sapiens in Africa’s Great Rift Valley to the collapse of the Soviet Union and rise of US hegemony – all in one academic year. It’s a daunting task but one that can be accomplished if I follow the rigorous pacing guideline I’ve set for myself during Pennsylvania's legally mandated 180 school days. This year, however, I’ve found myself falling further and further behind and I had no idea why… until I looked at the School District’s academic calendar.

For the 2014-15 academic year, the School District of Philadelphia has set aside an unprecedented 16 professional development half-days for high schools. Elementary school teachers have it worse and are burdened by a whopping 19 half-days. By comparison, in the 2013-14 academic year, high schools had 8 half-days and elementary schools had 11.

The vast majority of these new half-days are meant to roll out the state-of-the-art Harrisburg-mandated teacher improvement system, also known as the “SLO” in teaching circles. Incidentally, according to a recent poll of over 1000 teachers, only 9% believe the SLO process will improve their teaching. Even less, 6%, actually believe that the SLO process respects educators' professional knowledge and skills... but I digress.

The other six half days (9 for elementary schools) are meant to be parent-teacher conference days – during the workday from 12:00 to 3:00pm. (These are in addition to the two parent-teacher evenings we host each academic year.) Needless to say, hardly any parents are able to make it to these afternoon sessions because, wonder of wonders, they actually have to work. These days of even more squandered education end up being nothing more than a building full of teachers who wait for the parents that inevitably never arrive.

In addition to this wasted instructional time, Harrisburg has also mandated that we begin issuing standardized Keystone Exams (at a cost to local taxpayers of $176 million) to all high school students on a yearly basis. Last year, we were required to test students in three subjects, resulting in two more half-days per exam administration, for an additional total of 6. Eventually, Harrisburg has indicated they would like students to be tested in a total of 10 Keystone Exams, likely resulting in 20 more half-days by decade’s end.

Finally, the School District of Philadelphia is so technologically inept that it requires teachers to enter students’ final grades over a week before school is over. They claim that they need time to print report cards, send them to schools, and allow for teachers to hand them out. Every other district in the area either posts grades online or mails out the report card, but I guess Philadelphia needs to save on postage costs in order to pay for Superintendent Hite’s recent $30,000 raise. In 2014-15, this discrepancy between the time the online grading system shuts down (June 10^th) and when students are still legally required to attend school in order to reach that threshold of 180 days (June 17^th) will result in another 5 days of lost instruction.

In total, when one adds up the required SLO half-days, pointless mid-afternoon parent teacher days, mandated 3 Keystone Exam administrations, and lost end of the school year days, I am losing 22 half days and 5 full days of instruction. That is 16 days of lost instruction, or over 3 weeks of classes when students are not learning.

In fact, if the state has its way and instates all 10 Keystone Exams, I will soon be losing 23 days of instruction, or nearly 5 full weeks of precious time with students. An entire month of lost education… and for what?

As the School District’s contract negotiating team continues to demand that the members of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers teach a longer school year, I have a demand of my own: Stop wasting my time with useless “professional development” half-days, standardized test administration, and bureaucratic incompetence. If not, then instead of analyzing why the Soviet Union collapsed and how the 21^st century was shaped, my students will be left believing that the last major event on the world stage was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand.

Are Philly Teachers On Par?

THIS ARTICLE CAN BE ACCESSED AND DOWNLOADED FROM THE PFT'S CAUCUS OF WORKING EDUCATORS WEBSITE. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO DISTRIBUTE IT TO COLLEAGUES, FRIENDS, FAMILY, AND OTHER COMMUNITY MEMBERS.

SRC Chair Bill Green, Mayor Michael Nutter, and Governor Tom Corbett have recently said that the reason they decided to impose contract terms on the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers is because, unlike other school districts in Pennsylvania, Philadelphia teachers do not contribute toward health care. Philadelphia teachers, they claim, have not sacrificed enough for the children of Philadelphia.

The number Green, Nutter, Corbett, and the SRC have been throwing around is that it will only cost Philadelphia teachers 5-13% of the insurance premium, or approximately $25-$75 a month - a reasonable request. What they fail to mention, however, is that that particular quote is for a single individual under a high deductible plan. Under the District’s new benefits, the SRC is now eliminating their previously cheaper Keystone HMO 15 $0 deductible plan. The new standard plan, Personal Choice 320, has higher deductibles and only covers 90% of inpatient hospital costs. This move deceptively forces teachers to “buy-up” to the Personal Choice 20/30/70 plan, which costs $24,239.64 per year ($2019.97 x 12). 

For someone who earns $55,000, the resulting $6319 yearly premium amounts to a 26% contribution (not 13% as quoted in the papers) and is, in fact, a 11.5% pay-cut for a Philadelphia teacher earning $55,000. If, God forbid, you have a spouse who works and would like to add them to your plan, it adds up to an astounding $8139 premium, or a 34% contribution resulting in a nearly 15% pay cut.

So what about those teachers in other schools that already pay towards their health care? How do Philadelphia teachers compare? Are Philadelphia teachers, as SRC Chair Bill Green stated, on par with them?

I decided to research what teachers who earn $55,000 in other districts pay towards their health care for a $0 deductible family plan (including spouse), and here are my findings:

                  

DISTRICT	CONTRIBUTION	ANNUAL CONTRIBUTION	AVERAGE SALARY	MAXIMUM SALARY	SOURCES
Centennial	$61 a month	$732	$87,237	$111,867	CBA
Lower Merion	2.2% of salary	$1,210	$92,161	$120,393	CBA
Wissahickon	14% of premium	$3,393	$81,412	$112,376	CBA
Council Rock	16% of premium	$3,878	$91,138	$107,469	CBA
Neshaminy	16% of premium	$3,878	$79,563	$107,469	CBA
Central Bucks	16% of premium	$3,878	$75,141	$109,596	CBA
Lower Moreland	6% of premium	$1,454	$82,415	$105,612	expired CBA New CBA Updates
Tredyffrin/Easttown	11% of premium	$2,666	$81,394	$111,900	CBA
PHILADELPHIA	26% of premium 34% of premium	$6,319 or $8,139 (spouse)	$70,307	$90,051	CBA Salary Schedule Proposed Contributions

*(Note: I researched over 20 districts, and while all the numbers are remarkably consistent with these findings, I only chose to include those districts that actually have their contracts posted online so that readers know the data is 100% accurate.)

Philadelphia's Most Prized Public Employees

The following piece, in edited form, was published in the April 16th, 2014 issue of the Philadelphia Daily News.
It was also published, in edited form, in the April 17th-23rd, 2014 issue of the Philadelphia CityPaper.

For those of us who choose to enter urban public education, we don’t expect to get rich. The fact that we serve our fellow citizens and, in some small way, contribute toward alleviating society’s ills is often reward in itself. In exchange, we also like to see every now and then that society appreciates our efforts and our sacrifices.

Unfortunately, the City of Philadelphia, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the School Reform Commission continue to denigrate and degrade us every chance that they get. When we ask for librarians to nurture a childhood spark of inquisitiveness, we get layoff notices and shuttered doors. When we ask for counselors to help guide society’s most vulnerable members through the treacherous waters of American inequity, we are given platitudes about how the money was given away in tax-breaks in order to spur economic growth. When we dare point our finger at a government that refuses to invest in our children, they shrug their shoulders and tell us it’s our fault for seeking a decent living wage.

And what of our “ludicrous” wages? Wages so high, they claim, that the SRC is seeking to forego any cost-of-living adjustments and, in fact, demanding that we give back 13% of it?

If salary is a measure of one’s worth, then society must despise the educators of our city’s youth. Earlier this month, TWU Local 234, the union that represents the city’s bus drivers, was offered an agreement by SEPTA that would give them a 5% cost-of-living wage increase over the next two years. If approved, this means that the average bus driver in the City of Philadelphia would now earn over $68,000. Meanwhile, the average city school teacher currently earns $70,790. If the SRC has its way, that figure would drop to $61,587.

SEPTA, like the School District of Philadelphia, gets a large proportion of its funding from Harrisburg. SEPTA also continuously runs deficits, like the School District, because the job of transporting commuters in one of America’s largest metropolitan areas is a Herculean task - as is the job of educating its children. 

What, therefore, are we Philadelphia educators left to believe? What should we think when one predominantly state-supported entity gets so much funding that it can afford to offer its public employees a 5% pay-raise over the next two years, but the other expects its public employees to take a 13% pay-cut?

Clearly there are priorities and these priorities do not rest with our children. 

Perhaps it’s time the teachers of this city abandon their sense of civic duty and their desire to inspire the next generation. Perhaps it’s time for them to exchange their numerous academic degrees for a driver’s license and a place behind the steering wheel.

Maybe then, we’ll finally get some appreciation.

Profits Over Pupils: Philadelphia's True Priorities

2013 is gone and, as far as public educators in the City of Philadelphia are concerned, good riddance. The worst budget crisis the School District of Philadelphia has ever faced is now last year's news.

Honestly, however, who can blame the city or state for vastly underfunding the education of our youth? After all, this budget crisis is a result of the greatest recession our city and state have seen in over a generation. A brief look at how Philadelphia's publicly traded Fortune 500 corporations fared in 2013 shows the dire economic situation our city is in, resulting in a School District underfunded to the tune of $304 million.

• Cigna (NYSE:CI) climbed from $54 to $86 per share for an astronomical return on profits of nearly 58%.
• Crown Holdings (NYSE:CCK) rose 23% from $36 to $44 per share.
• Aramark (NYSE:ARMK) began trading publicly last month after its IPO and has already jumped an astounding 35% climbing from $20 to $26 per share.
• Sunoco Logistics (NYSE:SXL) saw its shares jump from approximately $50 to $75 for a 52-week change of +39%. [Sunoco, formerly the largest corporation based in Philadelphia (NYSE:SUN) is currently a subsidiary of Energy Transfer Partners (NYSE:ETP)]
• Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA), currently the largest mass media and communications company in the world in terms of revenue and the namesake of the tallest building in Pennsylvania, saw its stock value rise 36% from $38 to $52. According to Comcast's most recent SEC filing, the corporation's trailing 12 month revenue stands at nearly $64 billion with a gross profit of $42.64 billion. Those 12 month trailing profits, again, stood at $42,640,000,000. I thought I'd add the zeroes there for dramatic effect. Oops, there's one $0 I forgot: the amount of property taxes that Comcast pays to the School District of Philadelphia - NONE. Comcast has cost the children of Philadelphia $28.8 million since 2008 by not paying its fair share of property taxes.

Why, these aren't the numbers one would expect at all from a city and state that continue to cry that there simply isn't enough tax revenue. In fact, as the School District of Philadelphia hobbled along on a bare-bones budget, Wall Street saw record revenues in 2013. The S&P had its best year since 1997 and the Dow Jones hasn't seen these types of gains since 1995!

2013, however, wasn't a bad year for all educators in the city - just for those who choose to work with society's poorest and most vulnerable members. While the School District demands that we public school teachers take a 13% pay-cut, make 13% contributions to our healthcare, and forego all cost-of-living adjustment until 2017, other educational institutions in the city such as the University of Pennsylvania gave their professors and administrators exorbitant raises. PENN's President, for example, was given a whopping 43% raise in 2013 and now earns nearly $2.1 million... God forbid these educators who sacrifice themselves in order to mold the privileged future Wall Street gluttons of Wharton should not be properly compensated. 

PENN's Board of Trustees Chair, David Cohen, who heads the committee that determines salaries, claims, "We have the best university president in the country in Amy Gutmann and we believe her compensation should reflect that reality." Incidentally, PENN, Temple, Drexel, and the other universities in the city also do not pay any property taxes to the District, a loss of nearly $200 million a year in property tax revenue, because they claim "non-profit" status -- even though they had combined profits of over $1 billion last year.

David Cohen, by the way, is also the same person who recommended that Philadelphia public school teachers make the aforementioned 13% concessions in order to help solve the District's budget issues while he brokered a deal with Harrisburg. I suppose that, unlike PENN, he doesn't think we have the best public school teachers in Philadelphia -- nor should their salary "reflect that reality." What qualifies Cohen to make recommendations about Philadelphia's public schools? Well, apart from giving Gutmann a 43% raise and demanding teachers take a 13% paycut, here's what else he accomplished in 2013:

1. As Vice President of Comcast, he cashed in an annual salary of $16.2 million (Pulling in that kind of money, I'm sure he's a public school parent with vested interest.)
2. He held a $32,400 a plate dinner fundraising event for the Democratic Party at his Mt. Airy mansion. President Obama was in attendance as well, and why wouldn't he be? Cohen helped raise over $500,000 for Obama's re-election campaign back in 2012. 
3. He held a Republican fundraising event at that same Mt. Airy home to help kick-off Governor Corbett's re-election campaign. Who cares about political ideology when you have the money to pay off both sides?

Meanwhile, as profits continue to skyrocket for private entities in the city, thanks to the machinations of special interest groups, the middle and lower class children of Philadelphia continue to suffer from the effects of shuttered libraries, devastated after-school activities, drastically reduced school staff, and a complete lack of support personnel essential for the operation of any large building - let alone one filled with children. Federal, State, and City funding of schools have stagnated for the past few years, clearly out of step with the vast profits being reaped by the aforementioned corporations and private universities.

The School District's adopted 2013-14 budget of $3.1 billion was laden with debt-service to, once again, corporate America. Aside from the actual $1.32 billion cost of instruction and the state-mandated payment of $704 million to charter schools (read my article on Philadelphia's Charter Problem HERE), the District's third most expensive budget item at $264 million was debt-service. In 2012, for example, the District was forced to once again borrow money due to lower than expected tax revenues and government contributions: $300 million through a bond sale just to cover operating expenses. That loan cost the District a whopping $22.2 million in interest payments for every year from 2014-2034 and effectively destroyed the District's credit rating into junk bond status, finally breaking the camel's back under a mountain of debt. The School District of Philadelphia now spends more money on debt-service than it does funding transportation, food service, and utilities in all of its buildings combined. To put it another way, that interest payment is enough to hire 2,400 teachers, with an average salary of $67,000 and an average benefits package worth $40,000 each.

So, where does that leave us teachers in 2014? Should public school educators be as optimistic about the coming year as the rising stock prices of our numerous Fortune 500 corporations? Not so fast. As those entities earning record profits continue to shirk their responsibilities, the District is forced to balance its budget on the backs of the only individuals they have some sort of control over - their teachers. The demands made upon the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers is degrading to the point of humiliation (you can view the full list HERE). Teachers have urged their union leadership not to budge as contract talks drag on, or there will be hell to pay. 

At least there's one thing to look forward to in 2014 - the School District has recently announced that its 2013-14 deficit of $304 million will most likely climb by yet another $100 million. So what's the good news? Well, it looks like there is no end in sight for the gains of Philly's Wall Street giants and the exorbitant salaries their executives pull in... I'm sure one of them will step forward, start paying the same amount of taxes as the rest of us, and do their civic duty for the betterment of society as a whole.

Right???

The PFT: The most ineffective of Philadelphia's unions?

The recent announcement that SEPTA's TWU Local 234 (the union representing bus drivers and other transit workers) is beginning to meet in order to hammer out a new contract deserves to be viewed in light of the currently ongoing Philadelphia Federation of Teachers contract talks and the soon to expire Fraternal Order of Police #5 contract. Like the recently expired PFT contract, the current SEPTA and FOP contracts expire in a few months. Like the SEPTA and FOP contracts, the PFT contract dates back to 2009. All three unions are also taxpayer funded and, as such, targets of city and state politicians seeking to tighten their fiscal belts.

SEPTA's unionized workers recently chose Willie Brown as their new president. Yes, that's the same Willie Brown who led SEPTA through a controversial and inconvenient 6-day strike in 2009 as the World Series ended. That strike even disrupted the polls on Election Day. Willie Brown lost his re-election bid in 2010, but just won back the post (TWU and the FOP hold elections every 3 years, unlike the PFT which holds them every 4 years) and will be negotiating TWU's new contract with SEPTA.

Here is a brief summary of the expiring five-year contract with SEPTA:
  --> $1,250 "signing bonus" to each union member

  --> raises of 2.5% in the second and third year

  --> 3.5% raise in the fourth year

  --> 3% raise in the final year

While this 2009 contract gave an effective cost-of-living adjustment of 12% to the city's bus drivers (with an extra $1250 bonus), the city's teachers received a measly 6% increase as a result of their 2009 contract. Police officers received a whopping 14.7% increase during the same time.

New bus drivers now get $32,900 a year, and drivers with four or more years experience are paid $54,800 a year. Remember, however, that they are due a 3% raise in December. That means a 4th year bus driver (qualification of a high school diploma and driver's license) will be making nearly $56,450, not including time and a half for overtime. Current 4th year teachers with the District earn $54,365. That means, starting in December, many of the city's bus drivers will be earning more than the city's teachers.

In fact, when we look at aggregate earnings over an average 30-year career, Philadelphia bus drivers earn more than Philadelphia teachers with a Bachelor's Degree. The following chart details the difference using the 2013 contract-negotiated salary of each union. I used an extremely conservative estimate of $25,000 per year for undergraduate studies (including tuition, books, housing costs, etc.).

Some may view TWU Local 234's successes in obtaining a fair wage and benefits package for their members as a result of their aggressiveness and willingness to use labor actions. (The Police union is legally barred from going on strike and often settles their contract in arbitration.) SEPTA workers went on strike in both 2005 and 2009, causing vast disruptions to the city and destroying the public image of their union and its leaders, such as Willie Brown. The PFT's president, Jerry Jordan, takes the other approach and attempts to gain as much public support as possible for the teachers and their union. Jerry Jordan has been extremely successful in this respect. Only 11% of the city currently blames the teachers and their union for the woes of the district, with over 80% focusing their ire on those who control the purse-strings, namely the city and state governments. 

Such public support is great, but if one does not use it, then to what end? Despite this massive show of support, the teachers have not called for a true strike in over 30 years... Act 46 be damned. Instead, the PFT leadership chooses to open schools at understaffed levels, tells teachers to "do their best" with what little resources they have, and instructs them to wait it out. Unfortunately, the time for a strike is already past us seeing as the public would most likely say, "Well, you've been working for a month under these deplorable conditions, so they can't be that bad. Why strike now?" 

Meanwhile, as teachers trudge along in overcrowded classrooms with no paper, no technology, no libraries, no counselors, no after-school funds, and no support staff, Willie Brown is vowing to fight for such small but important changes in his members' working conditions as new mirrors on every bus, wanted posters clearly showing those who have assaulted bus drivers, an increase in undercover police or surveillance, and a stern promise to halt any attempts at privatizing mass transit by Harrisburg.

An analysis of the three largest tax-supported unions in the city shows how this lack of aggressive negotiation has hurt Philadelphia's teachers. Perhaps the PFT's ineffectiveness lies in its static and stale leadership. Whereas SEPTA's Willie Brown and the Fraternal Order of Police's John McNesby have both faced challenges to their positions and recently labored "in the trenches" with other members of their workforce, Jerry Jordan hasn't stepped foot in a classroom since 1987!

This chart, compiled from publicly available contracts, shows the ineffectiveness of the PFT when compared to SEPTA's TWU Local 234 and the Police Department's FOP #5. Notice the difference in cost of living wage adjustments each year for the past decade:

Ignore for a minute, if you will, the fact that Philadelphia bus drivers and police officers have had salary increases at nearly DOUBLE the rate of teachers over the past decade. This shortcoming becomes even more glaring when one considers that the inflation rate from January 2004 to the present month stands at 26.28%. This means that, over the past ten years, while bus drivers have gained a real wage increase of 9% (plus a $1250 bonus) and police officers have gained a real wage increase of 14%, teachers have actually taken a PAY CUT OF 6%. This is even more insulting when one considers that, in order to gain employment, teachers (unlike all bus drivers and most police officers) must obtain, at a minimum, a Bachelor's Degree which costs well over $100,000 in average 2013 college tuition costs.

The issue of degrees is even more insulting when one considers how the PFT has negotiated top salaries for Philadelphia teachers in the form of their "Senior Career Teacher" classification. Philadelphia is the only school district in Pennsylvania that requires its teachers to earn a Masters Degree, plus 60 graduate credits AND two teacher certifications in order to earn that top salary. Here is a quick snapshot of some other districts and what their top salary education requirements are:

When one considers the prohibitively expensive cost of post-graduate study, pursuing these courses of higher education can be quite cost restrictive. Other teacher unions around the state, unlike the PFT, have taken this into account and negotiated contract terms with their respective districts that reimburse teachers for a vast majority of that tuition. Where does that leave us? Philadelphia teachers must pay the MOST to earn the LEAST.

Of course, there is one way for Philadelphia teachers to earn more than even the highest paid suburban teacher, avoid these costly education courses, and not worry about the fact that we have effectively taken a 6% pay cut over the past decade. You could join the union leadership. Everyone on the PFT's contract negotiating team earns well over $110,000 and more than any of the highest paid suburban teachers. In fact, one of the first things negotiated in the PFT contract, on page 2, is that "annually, the President of the Federation shall inform the School District of the salary to be paid to each employee on approved leave with the Federation. The School District shall adjust each employee’s salary accordingly." That's right, PFT leadership has the right to tell the District what it must pay them, and can alter it every year!

Jerry Jordan hasn't taught in a classroom since 1987, doesn't have a Master's Degree, and still managed to pull in $150,000. But Jerry Jordan doesn't earn the highest salary in the PFT headquarters on Chestnut Street. That honor goes to ex-PFT president and current AFT-PA president Ted Kirsch, who pulls in nearly $200,000 according to public disclosure documents filed with the Department of Labor.

Let's hope Ted Kirsch, the PFT leadership, and Jerry Jordan emulate their lesser paid counterparts, Willie Brown and John McNesby, and earn those salaries during the current contract negotiations. Now more than ever, Philadelphia's teachers need strong union leadership that will get them competitive wages and better working conditions, not more excuses and continuous rallies that seem to go in circles. If not, we may have to start looking for a new career that respects us as professionals, furnishes us with the work environment we deserve, and helps us bring home a decent wage that provides for our families...

I hear SEPTA is hiring.

A Fortnight's Analysis of the News

INTERNATIONAL & NATIONAL MEDIA COVERAGE

• Our city's shame has made it halfway across the world onto Chinese TV. I suppose they wonder how we could play politcal brinkmanship with the education of ours kids... It's OK - we have a law called "No Child Left Behind" in this country... so that must mean no child is being left behind.

• Education Week, the largest national newspaper covering K-12 education has devoted an entire page in covering the dire situation in Philadelphia. Here is a moving excerpt:

Rebecca Poyourow choked up when thinking about how finances at Cook Wissahickon Elementary School have worsened despite efforts by her and other parents to fundraise, volunteer in afterschool clubs and organize a tutoring program to offset the effects of cuts in state aid a couple of years ago.  "I feel like we're staring into the abyss," Poyourow said. "I thought we could just put our hands in and make it work." Sabra Townsend hired a lawyer after her son's high school in the Germantown section of the city was closed and he was rejected by the other five schools to which he applied - including the one that was supposed to take children from the closed school."I'm sitting here like, 'What do you expect me to do?'" Townsend said. To be sure, many parents haven't followed the debacle and the little they've heard about it hasn't shaken their intent to send their children back to school. When Borges-Carrera asked parents at freshmen orientation day Thursday how many knew there would be no guidance counselors in the school, about half the hands went up.

PENNSYLVANIA NEWS

• PA Secretary of Education William Harner (the one who has been holding the city's $45 million hostage along with Budget Secretary Charles Zogby) was ousted earlier last week by Corbett over allegations of "inappropriate behavior" even though he has only held the post for 3 months. Did Harner know some inside information about the expired PFT contract that he did not feel comfortable about, or was this a legitimate firing, or am I over-analyzing? Dr. Carolyn Dumaresq, who now has the final say on the $45 million which is apparently linked to our contract, is now Pennsylvania's 3rd Secretary of Education since Corbett took office in 2011, raising serious concerns about Corbett's ability to govern...

• The results are in for the Keystone Exams that were rolled out last year and Central and Masterman were the only two high schools in the city with failure rates of under 10%. It's sad how everyone expected the poor performance by mainly minority students in the city's other high schools.... Well it turns out the rich white kids in the suburban districts, like the girl interviewed for this article from Lower Merion, didn't do so well either. According to the ranking member of the PA Senate Education Committee from Chester County talking about students in his county, "since the plan has been phased in, 60 percent of students failed Algebra I and Biology and 45 percent failed Literature. As many as 75 percent of students have had to retake the test."  I guess now that rich white kids in the suburbs can't even pass PA's high-stakes standardized tests, they must be bad! What really got my blood boiling though, was how the article ends and the inherent inequality of how poorer kids are educated in this state is nonchalantly dismissed: Joseph J. O'Brien, executive director of the Chester County Intermediate Unit, pointed out that Keystones will not provide new information. He predicted the more affluent districts will do substantially better than the poorer ones. "Thus, we will spend a large amount of money we do not have to provide something we already know," he said.

Where's the money for schools though?

• Corbett has just hired high-priced lawyers (at $400 an hour) to defend a federal lawsuit challenging the state's 1996 ban on gay marriage because the PA Attorney General, Kathleen Kane, refuses to defend the case, calling it unconstitutional.

• These mother-fracking frackers. These fracking companies and their fracking corporate directors have cheated the state and residents out of billions of dollars.

PFT PUBLIC RELATIONS CAMPAIGN

• Immediately following Monday's membership meeting, the PFT released an AFT funded poll showing the shifting attitudes towards Mayor Nutter and his teacher attacks, thereby showing our increased community support: Sixty-five percent of voters said they were "dissatisfied" with Nutter's education performance, while 30 percent reported being satisfied. Those numbers shifted from May, when 39 percent of voters were satisfied with the mayor's handling of the schools and 54 percent were dissatisfied. Corbett didn't fare any better - his negativity rating in Philadelphia is 48 percent, while the mayor's is 46 percent.

• The AFT and PFT have continued the PR campaign attack against Nutter and Corbett, seeing as it has worked so effectively. Here's the new ad although, according to George Jackson, the PFT spokesman and communications director, it has been temporarily halted because Nutter finally agreed to meet with PFT leadership some time at the end of the week.

• Jerry Jordan also had an editorial earlier this week in the paper where he said: "But rather than keep the focus on a conversation about how to increase revenue for schools (and whom to hold accountable for this mess), Mayor Nutter instead wants to shift more attention to work rules in the PFT contract. These kinds of personnel management concerns are worthwhile to discuss, particularly in more secure economic times. But to focus on work rules when our schools can't afford copy paper is an irresponsible distraction from what really matters."

ACT 46 & PFT STRATEGY

It seems that the PFT's lawyers may be taking the stance that Act 46 was ENACTED in 1998, authorizing the state to take over the District at any time, even though it did not do so immediately. On December 21, 2001, then Secretary of Education Charles Zogby (now Corbett's Budget Secretary and the one who is really pulling the strings to hold the $45 million hostage) actually TRIGGERED Act 46, thus creating the SRC and authorizing the state takeover.

Since then, the District has negotiated, in good faith, with the PFT for a 2004-2008 contract, 2009 extension, 2009-12 contract, and current 2013 extension. That is a LONG TIME of good-faith negotiating and NO contract imposition - thereby creating a legal argument that Act 46 was a one-and-done deal. If a contract was to be imposed, it should have legally been done when the SRC was created, or at the very least when that first contract expired in 2004. The argument would be: Why did the SRC continue to negotiate in good faith, honor those contracts, and not impose their own terms? THAT is why Pedro Ramos, a "seasoned attorney who leads his firm's government, education and social sector practice" (straight from the District's website!) sought Harrisburg's approval to impose contract terms in 2012, instead of doing it outright - Ramos basically doesn't think the SRC still has the authority to do so and imposing terms could lead to a teacher LOCKOUT... and that's a whole different store from a strike. Read more about a possible lock-out in this article with interviews from PFT attorney Deborah Willig, Charles Zogby, and Jerry Jordan.

Keep in mind, however, that the PA Supreme Court is currently composed of 4 Republicans and 3 Democrats... Would this Republican majority vote against a law passed by a Republican Governor and Republican legislature, currently being pushed to the forefront by another Republican Governor and Republican legislature?

PAY CLOSE ATTENTION to what Michael Masch (to be fair, a Democrat) recently had to say on the matter in an exclusive interview with The Notebook:

Does the School Reform Commission even have the right to impose contract terms on the PFT – and unilaterally cut teacher pay – if no contract agreement is reached?“If the SRC is going to take that position, they should cite where they get the authority,” Masch said.Masch was a member of the Board of Education when it was disbanded, and subsequently became a member of the SRC before joining the Rendell administration as state budget secretary and then the District as its finance chief. He has been part of several contract negotiations in these various roles and said he heard several legal opinions on the issue of whether the District can impose its own terms.Ultimately, he said, a judge or judges will have to interpret the state law – so-called Act 46, or the Distressed School Act – that gave the SRC power to run the District.But he cited some relevant portions of the law, arguing primarily that the SRC had one shot to impose contract terms – in the contract right after it was formed. Because the SRC has repeatedly bargained with the PFT on issues such as salaries, benefits and the length of the school day, Masch said that it is arguable that it has forfeited its right to impose terms now, regardless of its financial bind.The law says, “If upon the termination of a collective bargaining agreement in effect on the date of the declaration of distress under this section a new collective bargaining agreement has not been ratified, the School Reform Commission shall establish a personnel salary schedule to be used until a new agreement is ratified.”“Once the SRC is created, the contract in effect expires,” Masch said. “If the union and District refuse to ratify a contract at that moment, the SRC can impose a pay plan. But it doesn’t say that it can do that at any subsequent time in the future.”

SYRIA??

Here's something to think about as the School District of Philadelphia, one of the nation's largest public school systems, prepares to open with a skeleton staff on Monday because of a manufactured $304 million shortfall...

• As we draw closer to war with Syria, remember that EACH Tomahawk Missile costs $1.5 million and continuing to keep our aircraft carriers within striking distance costs $25 million PER WEEK, PER SHIP. This puts a price tag on any type of military engagement at a minimum of $1 billion. When asked about this potential cost, the US Navy chief said these costs would not be "extraordinary" because, if you put it in context, it really won't be when one considers the wars with Iraq and Afghanistan cost over $4 trillion.

• Russia also just declassified a detailed 100-page report submitted to the UN months ago saying that the Syrian rebels used a Sarin gas attack first - the reason UN inspectors were in Syria in the first place. The Bush Administration (oops, I mean Obama) says they don't need any evidence from UN inspectors, it's GO TIME.... Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

It's nice to see where our country's priorities lie.