The "Neo-Philadelphia Negro" Series - Part V - Education: "Once We Get People Who Love Our Black Children.......................Things Are Going To Be Different" - A 25 Year Update

A message on the wall at 52nd & Cathryn Avenue 

Scenario: When I was a student in the Philadelphia Public Schools in the 1980's I vividly recall the key talking point among the Educational Activists.

"When we get people in power (in the school system) who love our Black children and care about the Black community........................things will change for the better"

These exact words or those similar to it were repeated in the context of the struggle for "quality education" in the school system.

From Wikipedia    The School Board was created in 1850 to oversee the schools of Philadelphia. The Act of Assembly of April 5, 1867, designated that the Controllers of the Public Schools of Philadelphia were to be appointed by the judges of the Court of Common Pleas. There was one Controller to be appointed from each ward. This was done to eliminate politics from the management of the schools.^[3]Eventually, the management of the school district was given to a school board appointed by the mayor. This continued until 2001 when the district was taken over by the state, and the governor was given the power to appoint a majority of the five members of the new School Reform Commission.

Question:  As we consider the present state of the School System Of Philadelphia - more than 25 years after these words were said - where any reasonable person could look at the "favorable people in power" over the administration and schools.....................can we all agree that the Educational Activists have WON the battle - with regard to the METHODOLOGY that they have identified as their course for victory?"

Question2:   As we consider the results that are seen in the various schools can we all agree that despite the victory in their methodology the cause of "Quality Education for Black Children" has NOT been met?

School District Of Philadelphia In The News & Under Fire
The Newspapers were full of articles focusing on the problem plagued School District Of Philadelphia.

• Mayor Reverses - Seeks Tax Increase To Pay For Schools
• Leadership Crisis In The Schools System
• Veteran Educator Chosen To Lead Problem Plagued MLK Jr High School
• Closing The Schools Budget Deficit
• White Flight From Philly Impacts Demographics, Schools

Veteran Educator Chosen To Lead Troubled MLK Jr High School

The School District of Philadelphia on Thursday named veteran educator William Wade to head the low-performing Martin Luther King High School in East Germantown.
Wade, who most recently served as head of Vaux High, a district Promise Academy, has had success "in reversing the downward spiral of academics at some of the country's most underperforming schools," district spokeswoman Jamilah Fraser said in a statement.
In taking the post, Wade was optimistic.
"In the weeks ahead, I look forward to rolling up my sleeves and preparing a comprehensive academic overhaul plan for this school," Wade said. "My mission is simple: Provide the same quality education to the students of King that I would want for my own children."

The school has failed to meet state standards for several years running. In 2009-10, just 22 percent of King students met state goals in reading and 20 percent in math.

The high school had been set to become a charter earlier this year under the district's Renaissance school plan.

In April, the company that had signed on to run MLK as a charter withdrew its bid, citing a climate of "unrelenting hostility."

Foundations, a New Jersey nonprofit, was the second potential charter operator that month to walk away from King.

The decision came amid allegations of conflicts of interest and political wrangling involving School Reform Commission Chairman Robert L. Archie Jr. and State Rep. Dwight Evans (D., Phila.) over the school's future. The school is adjacent to Evans' West Oak Lane district.

Based on the school's 1,100 students, a charter operator would have received about $10 million.

The district on Thursday also named Richard Gordon, currently an assistant principal at Washington High, as Wade's successor at Vaux.

What Is MY Agenda?
Simply put - you are not going to hear this type of scrutiny and skepticism from most people who CLAIM to be primarily concerned about the Black community.

I have stated several times in the past how there is a COST for each passing article which works to obfuscate our collective attention away from the "Permanent Interests" WITHIN our community as we are lulled into the consciousness that certain people profit from as we follow them, focusing on the enemies that they keep dangling in front of our eyes.

There is no justification for the academic situation in Philadelphia being as it is.
Despite all of the STRUGGLES that our community has engaged itself in over the years - the present state of affairs show that there were some missing elements in the exercise.

It Is Time To "Operationalize" The Notion That "Education Is The Great Equalizer" In Our Society

Based on my knowledge of how "my" people think the words in the section heading are words meant for others who are expected to recognize their valuation of our people by granting us "equal, high quality education".

I return to my argument which goes beyond the TRANSACTIONAL indictments surrounding the most frequent issue - "School Funding".

• A city is an entity created by the state
• A formerly unincorporated area in the state petitions for a "city charter"
• This legal representation gives the people in the plot of land the franchise right to:
• Collect Taxes
• That Fund Municipal Services
• Education
• The Court System
• The Water & Sewer & Sanitation Departments
• The Streets & Highway Maintenance Department
• The Police & Fire Department
• With The Theory That They Will Provide A HIGHER STANDARD OF LIVING To The Constituents Than The Distant Government At The State Level Could Provide

To be clear - the state does not abdicate its Constitutional Responsibility to provide education when these franchise rights are granted.  Instead it has the obligation to regulate the antics of the local franchisee who are executing these services.

The hair trigger tendency to sue the state for more educational funding (see Philly, Chicago, etc) is a choice to obfuscate from the core issue:  IS THE CITY STILL A VIABLE CONCERN?

The tendency to look past the fundamental expectation that the franchise will fund its own affairs as the load is placed back upon the state increases the chances that the city in question will have their fiscal and economic development choices ABSTRACTED from its ultimate end.   The choice to have the city as a "cost center" that is funded at increasing amounts by the state is a violation which is in the "Anti-Matter" zone of a "Voting Rights Violation".

The automatic reaction to a state take over of a local institution (ie: a school take over) draws claims of "Voting Rights Violations".  The local people who promoted the people into power now see their elected leadership thrown away as the state puts their own people in as emergency managers.

The point that I make is that as the local elected officials are retained but the system is increasingly INSOLVENT - the judiciary instigated demands for more state funding allows the local officials to remain in power and spend money all the while violating their end of the franchise agreement of economic viability per the maintenance of a tax base.

In the private sector a corporation that is no longer viable is dis-incorporated, its assets liquidated and its leadership toosed.  While a government entity is not a corporation - the failure to prune failed entities and reform the space with new, more effective distribution strategies - produces the same dysfunction in both arenas.  

With all due respect - there are certain operatives that work as "Social Justice Activists" that serve the due role of defending the present dysfunctional distribution system and block any necessary reforms that are a major PART OF THE PROBLEM.  They are functionally defending the failures that harm Black children the most.   In their perverted sense of rationality - it is their stand as a MORAL AUTHORITY on what America SHOULD BE spending its money on which allows them to stand their ground - regardless of how much harm is done to the Black students that are matriculated off of the same cliff each year.

There is always a well placed  CONSPIRACY theory that is inserted as a means of driving the Black parents are are INDEED standing against their own PERMANENT INTERESTS by protecting the failing school system into believing that there is a nefarious intent within those who are proposing alternative educational distribution models. 

With the previous seeded planted in the minds of the people these Embedded Confidence Men are able to convince the parents that "The Koch Brothers" desire to expropriate the money used to educate Black children and get more billions.............

• From the Schools that are not educating them
• From the Prisons that are warehousing them
• From the Social Services Programs that feed them
• From the Government Health Care Programs that service them

The one point that one notices is that ALL OF THESE engagements in which the "Servicing Of Black People" is made PROFITABLE - occurs while BLACK PEOPLE INTERACT WITH THE GOVERNMENT - in pursuit of SOCIAL JUSTICE SERVICES.   

Most of the alternatives demand that the Black Community develop the ORGANIC COMPETENCIES to do for self.    

One can understand why a group of operatives who have no plans to make the "Least Of These" into the "Un-Least Of These" would be fearful of such plans.