Working reforms

When the state of Pennsylvania took control of the Philadelphia public schools last summer and decided to privatize them, many dubbed it the grandest school reform experiment in the history of American education. The decision ignited strong opposition from teachers' unions and bands of students who protested with signs reading: I AM NOT FOR SALE! SAY NO TO PRIVATIZATION!\nStudents had a legitimate reason to be upset; 45 of the city's schools would be managed by two nonprofit companies, three for-profits and two universities. Despite their worries, the reforms were pushed forward. Philadelphia's rotting school district has been doing an incredible disservice to society by allowing ill-prepared students to enter the collegiate and/or working world. \nThis qualitative decline of public education in urban areas across the country has been growing immensely, yet many have turned a deaf ear to those who have been advocating reform for years. Walter Williams, an economist at George Mason University, has long commented and written on the sad state of public schools and has even accused the schools of delivering a fraudulent education and issuing fraudulent diplomas.\nProfessor Williams' assessment gets to the heart of the issue. While a diploma is a tangible sign of a student's mastery of a certain curriculum, in reality, students are given diplomas when their understanding of the subject material is well below average.\nSelemawit Tewelde, a recent graduate of Philadelphia's Bartram High School, affirmed this educational tragedy in an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer last week. \n"The education that I received at this public high school puts me below everyone else in magnet schools or suburban schools," she said. "I'm not prepared for college." \nAlthough Tewelde is an intelligent girl who became president of her class, she has been denied admittance to West Chester University, Penn State University and Kutztown University; her last hope is a pending application to Lincoln University. \nThe sad state of the public education system is that there are entirely too many students like Selemawit Tewelde. Schools are grossly failing to provide students with the tools they need to excel in a world and an era that is called the "information age." Because of elementary and high school shortcomings, colleges are pressured with remedial education and affirmative action in an attempt to abate the problem. With privatization, however, it appears that viable solutions are in sight.\nFor some of the reformed schools, the quality of the curriculum has improved greatly and the students deal with more challenging topics. "Now we're no longer writing, 'I love my mom. The dog is big.' We're writing, 'There are many parts to a cell,'" said Anita Duke, principal of Wright Elementary, to Time magazine. Wright Elementary is now run by Victory Schools. Victory performed so well with the five schools it managed this year that the school district has awarded the company with another school to run next year. \nFinally, the privatization of the school district has harshly cracked down on what Philadelphia schools chief Paul Vallas calls "social promotion" -- promoting a student to the next grade regardless of the work he or she has done. More than 70,000 students will be attending summer school this year because of failures in classes, exams, behavior or attendance.\n"Finally! Teachers have wanted this kind of guidance for years!" Jacquelyn McPherson told Time. McPherson is not only a school guidance counselor, she is a representative for the teacher's union.\nAlthough it is too early to tell how the experiment will turn out for Philadelphia, people are getting used the heightened productivity and efficiency of the newly managed schools. The skepticism that abounded earlier this year has converted into faith for many students, teachers and administrators. Hopefully, schools across the nation will follow suit and finally give students the attention they deserve.