The decision by the state of Pennsylvania to take over Philadelphia’s public schools last December has been followed by a frenzy of competitive bidding by private firms seeking to cash in on the reorganization of the nation’s sixth largest school district. Dozens of companies have applied to serve as consultants and provide services, while dozens more have applied to run as many as 100 of the lowest performing of the city’s 264 schools.
Pennsylvania Republican Governor Richard Schweiker and Philadelphia Democratic Mayor John Street have announced the members of the School Reform Commission (SRC) that will manage the state takeover of the Philadelphia public schools. The takeover was initiated December 21 when Schweiker declared the seventh largest public school system in the United States to be academically and financially “distressed.”
The state of Pennsylvania has taken over the management of the Philadelphia School District, the seventh largest in the United States. The takeover, the largest of its kind in the US, includes turning over management of 45 so-called failing schools to a private, for-profit company, Edison Schools Inc. The move affects 210,000 students and 27,000 public school employees in the district.
December 9 marked 20 years since Pennsylvania death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal was arrested and charged with the shooting death of Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner. His case continues to draw national and international attention due to the denial of due process from judicial bias and police manipulation of evidence at his first trial in 1982. Former Governor Tom Ridge twice signed death warrants for his execution. He continues to sit on death row at the SCI Greene prison in western Pennsylvania.
Hours before the midnight November 30 deadline for the state takeover of the Philadelphia public schools, which includes the privatization of dozens of the district’s schools, Republican Governor Mark Schweiker and Democratic Mayor John Street announced the action was being postponed for at least three weeks. State officials said the postponement was needed in order to implement a “cooperative” rather than hostile takeover of the nation’s fifth largest school system.
In what is being characterized as a change from a “hostile takeover” to a “friendly takeover,” Democratic Philadelphia Mayor John Street and Republican Pennsylvania Governor Mark Schweiker have announced an agreement to begin the privatization of Philadelphia public schools beginning November 30. The plan is the most far-reaching attack on public education in Pennsylvania since public schools were started under the Free Schools Act of 1834, and makes the 210,000-student district the largest public school privatization project in the United States.
In a move that is brazenly undemocratic in its method and purpose, the state of Pennsylvania is preparing the privatization of the management of the School District of Philadelphia and total or partial privatization of two-thirds of its 264 schools. The state takeover of the fifth largest school district in the United States would involve the most radical reform ever undertaken in a large urban school district.
US political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal was prevented from appearing at an August 17 hearing held by the Pennsylvania Common Pleas Court to consider the reopening of his state appeal process. Although he had been previously ordered by the presiding judge to appear, a court administrator blocked Abu-Jamal’s release from prison in western Pennsylvania on the specious grounds that there was not enough room in Philadelphia’s jails to hold him during the proceedings.
The release of previously sealed search warrants obtained by the Philadelphia police during the Republican National Convention at the beginning of August, disclose that authorities specifically targeted activists because of their political beliefs. The newly unsealed affidavits show police identified key protest groups and organizers, stating funds for one group “allegedly originate with Communist and leftist parties and from sympathetic trade unions” or from “the former Soviet-allied World Federation of Trade Unions.”
A standing room only crowd of over 15,000 Philadelphia School District employees voted unanimously by a voice vote Tuesday morning to authorize the executive board of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (PFT) to call a strike if talks with the school board do not result in an acceptable contract.
On August 15 the last of more than 450 protesters arrested during the Republican National Convention (RNC) were released from Philadelphia jails. Most were arrested either committing acts of civil disobedience to protest capital punishment in the US or during a police raid on a warehouse where about 80 people were preparing signs, banners and puppets for demonstrations.
As of August 11, 228 demonstrators arrested during the Republican National Convention remained in Philadelphia jails. Those released continued to recount incidents of physical and psychological abuse, including hog-tying leading to bleeding and extreme pain, beatings, sexual abuse, withholding of medications, and overcrowded cells.
In what one civil rights attorney, representing demonstrators arrested during the Republican National Convention, called “a civil rights catastrophe of the first order,” 341 protestors remain jailed in several Philadelphia city prisons. Most were arrested August 1, preparing or participating in non-violent civil disobedience to protest capital punishment.
As part of Tuesday's day of protest against the death penalty during the Republican National Convention, a press conference was held on the theme “Democracy and the Death Penalty: Challenging the Republican and Democratic Convention Assumptions.”
Over 450 demonstrators are being held by the Philadelphia police after rallies, marches and acts of civil disobedience against the death penalty on Tuesday. As the Republican National Convention was celebrating “Prosperity with a Purpose” several miles away, those arrested were reportedly being held under harsh and brutal conditions.
Some ten thousand demonstrators marched and rallied July 30 in Philadelphia on the eve of the Republican National Convention, calling for measures to address poverty, injustice in the legal and prison system, environmental degradation, and discrimination based on race, gender or sexual preference. A common theme reflected in the banners carried by demonstrators and the remarks of some of the speakers was the essential identity of the Democratic and Republican parties, and the increasing domination of the political system by big business.
About 1,000 angry Philadelphia residents attended a rally July 23 to demand the prosecution of police officers involved in the beating of carjacking suspect Thomas Jones 10 days earlier. The beating, in which Jones was kicked or punched 59 times in 28 seconds, was videotaped by a local television news helicopter and broadcast around the world. Those attending also expressed outrage at the firing of 45 shots in a residential neighborhood in the initial attempt by police to apprehend Jones and the July 18 killing of a mentally ill homeless man, Robert Brown, by Amtrak police at Philadelphia's 30th Street Station.
An unarmed 45-year-old homeless man was killed Wednesday morning, July 18, by an Amtrak police officer at Philadelphia's 30th Street train station. The shooting occurred two weeks prior to the arrival of thousands of delegates, politicians, lobbyists and media personnel attending the Republican National Convention, to be held in Philadelphia. Many will pass through 30th Street station, which is Philadelphia's stop on the rail line serving the Northeast Corridor between New York City and Washington DC.
In yet another case of police brutality that has drawn national headlines, more than a dozen Philadelphia cops were shown beating a wounded suspect on live TV on Wednesday, July 12. The scene was reminiscent of the brutality meted during the reign of Philadelphia Police Chief and Mayor Frank Rizzo in the 1970s, or more recently the beating of black motorist Rodney King by Los Angeles police.
Activists preparing for demonstrations during the Republican National Convention, to be held in Philadelphia from July 31 through August 3, charge that they have been under constant surveillance by police in the past month. Unidentified men with cameras have reportedly openly watched and photographed organizing meetings.
