Public Education in Philadelphia: The Crucial Need for Civic Capacity in a Privatized Environment

Abstract

A broad coalition of educators and community groups is necessary to achieve equity and excellence in urban schools, Ms. Blanc and Ms. Simon argue. But the Philadelphia schools' system of privatization and strict contractual obligations presents obstacles to those goals. ********** LIKE MANY other U.S. cities, Philadelphia experienced a prolonged period of deindustrialization and job loss during the second half of the 20th century. As in other northern cities, the process of suburbanization went hand in hand with white flight, increased racial segregation of the city and its schools, and increasingly inadequate funding of the school system. During this period, education activists and school reformers were unable to rally the civic community in support of policies that would have helped to maintain equitable or high-quality education in Philadelphia's public schools. Today, the city's long-term trends of job loss and depopulation appear to be reversing. school district has also made rapid changes and has been at the forefront of a national trend toward private-sector involvement in urban education. However, there are reasons to question whether the form of public/private collaboration pursued in the School District of Philadelphia is an adequate basis for a policy agenda that can reverse the city's long-standing history of educational inequity based on race and social class. PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT WITH URBAN SCHOOLS In the 1990s, the work of Clarence Stone and his colleagues affirmed the importance of public participation in education, arguing that only broad-based public engagement with urban schools can overcome the problems stemming from underinvestment in the children of the poor. According to this line of research, individual decision making and market forces create a radically uneven distribution of educational resources in the United States. However, Stone and his colleagues argued that underinvestment in urban children is not inevitable: The combined actions of the government and nongovernmental sectors can provide a compensatory response to underinvestment in children in urban school systems. (1) In an empirical investigation of 11 cities undertaking school reform efforts, these researchers found that school reform was more successful in cities with higher levels of civic capacity. In the more successful sites, representatives of a range of sectors--including grassroots and community groups as well as the business community and traditional civic leadership--were willing to go beyond conventionally conceived self-interest. They worked together to develop a shared vision and plan for action, and they created a context in which ongoing collective problem solving could take place. Other researchers have also argued that independent, locally based organizations familiar with local schools and school policies play critical roles in addressing issues related to educational equity. For example, in a national study of community organizing for urban school reform, Eva Gold and Elaine Simon demonstrated that organized community groups were able to mobilize their constituencies and develop networks of relationships in order to overcome persistent obstacles to school reform, such as continual turnover of leadership and competing priorities of local and state politicians. (2) Several examples from Philadelphia's history suggest that in the second half of the 20th century, community and civic groups, as well as educators, identified viable solutions to key challenges facing the schools. However, none of these efforts was able to leverage the sustained civic capacity needed to address the critical issues of urban public education. Challenges of racism, equity, and accountability. As African American migration to Philadelphia and other cities around the country increased after World War II, Philadelphia rapidly developed a highly segregated school district. …