January 30, 2024
Provided image/School District of Philadelphia
At the School District of Philadelphia's first State of Public Education address, officials including Mayor Cherelle Parker and Superintendent Tony Watlington rallied for more money to fund Accelerate Philly, the district's five-year strategic plan.
At the School District of Philadelphia's first-ever State of Public Education address, its nonprofit arm revealed an ambitious goal: $40 million in five years.
Officials said the benchmark would help fund Accelerate Philly, the district's five-year strategic plan that calls for 62 "strategic actions," including establishing paid parent ambassador roles, replacing analog cameras at 150 schools and piloting Mayor Cherelle Parker's much-touted year-round school calendar at select locations. Current allocations in the city budget, they continued, would not be enough to cover the costs.
"In order for our students to claim the future that they deserve and desire, we need more dollars," Kathryn Epps Roberson, president and CEO of the Fund for the School District of Philadelphia, said Tuesday.
Accelerate Philly was a frequent topic of discussion at the district's inaugural State of Public Education address, a nearly two-hour event that included speeches from Roberson, Parker and Superintendent Tony Watlington. School officials shared findings from the plan's first year in action and outlined goals and hurdles for the remaining years ahead.
"It is clear that we're moving in the right direction," Watlington, who took over the superintendent role in 2022, said. "But we've got a lot of work to do."
The superintendent highlighted some improvements made, like attendance. Regular student attendance rose from 57% to 60% in the 2022-2023 academic year while regular teacher attendance increased from 77% to 84%. Student academic achievement also improved in 13 out of 17 areas, particularly Grade 11 literature and Grade 3 math.
During that same academic year, the school district introduced Let's Talk, an artificial intelligence-powered chatbot designed to provide parents with school district information in English and Spanish. Let's Talk received almost 3,000 messages in its pilot phase, the district said.
Officials painted an overall picture of a district turning a corner, pointing not only to encouraging numbers but also to a recent landmark court decision. Last February, the Commonwealth Court ruled that Pennsylvania's current school funding system is unconstitutional, which could free up more funds for the Philly school district.
Parker, a former teacher, lamented the "crumbles, crumbles, crumbles of funding" in Philadelphia schools, insisting "they really do deserve the whole loaf."
Even as more money seems possible, a large amount of federal funding is set to run out soon. In 2021, the school district received a $1.1 billion reimbursement from the American Rescue Plan Act to get schools shuttered by the COVID-19 pandemic back up and running. That funding will end in September, leaving the school district with a massive shortfall.
To help bridge the gap, the Fund for the School District of Philadelphia aims to raise $6 million in the next year, ramping up to $40 million by 2028. The nonprofit released a 15-page booklet outlining its initiative Tuesday.
"No institution is more important to the vitality of this city, the future of its residents and businesses than the public schools," Roberson said. "And so when it comes to funding, this has to be a public and private effort. It's not an or, it's an and."
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