Philadelphia City Council FY2018 Budget Hearings, 17 May 2017

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From YouTube: FY2018 Philadelphia City Council Budget Hearing 5-17-2017 Lynda Rubin Testimony

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From the FY2018 Philadelphia City Council Budget Hearing held Wednesday, May 17, 2017:

Retired School Counselor and Teacher Lynda Rubin testifies on the School District of Philadelphia Budget.

Full hearing: https://youtu.be/iqhGkEr2774

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Who would like to go next good afternoon? My name is Linda Rubin I'm, a reporter scuse me I'm, a retired school counselor and a member of the Alliance for Philadelphia public schools. I am a school counselor who retired after 38 years old, served in one school in South, Philadelphia, D, new insell and three previous years, teaching at Walton elementary at 27th and Huntington streets, which I love Walton elementary. It's been close, but it was Walton elementary school 27th in Huntington, I student taught there I taught there.

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It was I was thrilled and the only reason I left. It's because I became a counselor consistently consistency and stability matters for educators, students, families and communities. But what path is our school district taken?

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Creating a very uneven school system where some schools can raise money for staff equipment trips, while in the neediest schools, existing staff are forced out to make way for new staff, with little to no knowledge of the neighborhood children or even each other, but the appearance of change while exerting control has been accomplished, the SRC and district Blane PFT and Casa staff and deny them contracts and resources to enable them to do their jobs.

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Conversely, the SRC is pouring money into a host of outside contractors like Cambridge Inc, a global corporation, to come in and identify the problems of what the school district had dubbed priority schools after a couple of visits, a very few short observations and classrooms and some brief meetings with and surveys of parents. Now, this SRC is seeking to outsource teacher preparation programs to unaccredited corporate models like relay, who use scripted, training programs and principal programs like Philly Plus, we're not even school law.

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Is the ship is being made to privatize the operations of our schools and hiring the cheapest labor we can get regardless of the quality or how few years they stay. Charter schools have been overtaken from their original design for educational innovation by corporate entities who hide behind supposed non profit companies, but make no mistake. Hedge funders don't invest in nonprofits for nothing. We can't even seem to hold non-performing charter schools to account, even when their academic progress is on a downward trend for 3 to 5 years.

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At the less SRC meeting, Michael Karp defended Delmont charters, lack of academic progress on the high poverty level of its students will have in charters touted as their reason for being that they can do better with these students if they can't. Why are they allowed to continue renewal after renewal after renewal at a new charter application?

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Hearing this year, Kip's CEO mark vanilla was asked by hearing officer Allison Peterson, why Kipp was applying to open a new school instead of concentrating on fixing an existing non-performing Kipp school, he replied with every school, we're getting better we're able to increase our support staff. That helps, huh and my last comment is at last week's hearing- Councilwoman Blackwell you correctly chastised superintendent height.

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When he had certainly said the principals are choosing not to have librarians when he, when you said you're, making their decisions for them, based on your funding, thank you for pointing out that Hobson's choice that schools are being given every day, I'm imploring City Council, to do its due diligence during the school year, not just at budget time to look to learn about what the SRC and district are doing behind their pretty words. Thank you so much. Thank you.