I’m using this month’s "Insight on Diversity" column to talk about an issue that, while certainly relevant to the diversity discussion, should be important to all of us. Philadelphia’s public education system is in serious financial trouble. Again. With a $304 million deficit, the school system faces its worst budgetary crisis since 1991 and, as usual, it’s not clear when a workable solution will be proposed, much less implemented. The city’s schools and the children they are supposed to educate are just too important to be left dangling in the wind while our leaders decide who pays. It is time to solve this problem now, and the organized bar needs to lend its voice and our profession’s expertise to the effort.
It’s not news that Philadelphia’s school district has struggled with funding issues for years. A history of chronic budget difficulties led to a state takeover of the schools and the establishment of the School Reform Commission in 2002. I think it’s fair to say that, for the most part, the more things have changed, the more they have remained the same. The district’s financial difficulties have continued over the past decade, exacerbated by the 2008 recession and the deep cuts in state aid that followed.
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