Anderson@Large

Philly’s Political Cultural Heritage

On July 15, 2009, I moved to Philadelphia. I’m a walker who has enjoyed discovering the city’s hidden history and cultural heritage. The once underrated City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection is now a magnet for millennials and empty-nesters.

I’m also a lifelong activist and citizen watchdog. The reactions to the conviction on all counts of Congressman Chaka Fattah showcase the underbelly of Philly’s political culture which more than 100 years ago was described as “corrupt and contented.” Fattah and his enablers boast about his “accomplishments.” Fact is, the poverty rate in the second congressional district is higher today than when Fattah was first elected in 1994.

With an overall poverty rate of 26.3 percent, Philadelphia is the poorest big city in America. Nearly 37 percent of the city’s children live in poverty. Philly has the highest rate of deep poverty (12.9 percent) of the nation’s 10 most populous cities. Roughly 200,000 residents have incomes below half of the poverty line.

There’s not enough money for the schools or affordable housing. Even with the new soda tax, Mayor Jim Kenney’s goal of universal pre-K remains elusive.

So my antennae went up when I read in Hidden City Philadelphia the City was on the hook to pay the $10,000 annual dues for Global Philadelphia Association’s membership in the Organization of World Heritage Cities (OWHC):

There are no application forms for membership into the OWHC and no official guidelines, which perhaps has added to critics’ claims that Philadelphia was merely joining a private club.

[…]

“You need to get voted into the World Heritage City Club,” says brand strategist Alan Jacobson. “It’s kind of like getting into the baseball Hall of Fame. You don’t need a certain number of runs to get in. You just need to be accepted by the group.” Plus pay the annual membership dues–$10,000, a sum guaranteed by the City of Philadelphia (the U.S. government pays substantial annual dues to UNESCO, on account of U.S. World Heritage Sites, including Independence Hall).

Global Philadelphia Association (GPA) self-servingly conflates UNESCO’s designation of Independence Hall as a World Heritage Site and OWHC’s designation of Philadelphia as a World Heritage City. Fact is, OWHC and Global Philadelphia Association are private organizations. GPA’s board of directors includes the politically-connected one percent and a stunning lack of diversity.

Last year, the City got stuck with an $8 million bill for an event organized by a private organization, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Looking ahead, I’m concerned that taxpayers’ money will be used to pay for political insiders’ annual membership fee in a private club and junkets to the OWHC General Assembly.

World Heritage Philadelphia, the “brand,” has maintained a deafening silence as historic buildings, including the church where the legendary contralto Marian Anderson learned to sing, are demolished.

I want to know how much the City has shelled out for the World Heritage City “brand.” I also want to know what it will cost the poorest big city in the U.S. to remain a “member in good standing” in a private organization. Under OWHC bylaws, the City of Philadelphia may be obligated to pay the pro-rated expenses of a Canadian organization.

To get some answers, I filed a Right to Know request. Stay tuned.

Data Privacy Day 2016

Thursday is Data Privacy Day, “an international effort held annually on January 28 to create awareness about the importance of privacy and protecting personal information.”

I’m an open data advocate who’s equally concerned about privacy. So on Saturday, I nearly spilled my coffee when I read that Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt disclosed that two critics of his office missed voting in some elections. Schmidt shared the data in retaliation to their calls to abolish the elections commission which is “led” by a chairman who doesn’t vote and seldom shows up at the office.

As a longtime voting rights activist, I want people to vote. I also want them to stay engaged beyond Election Day because that’s how you bring about change. That said, I believe one’s voting habit is no one’s business unless that person is receiving a taxpayer-funded six-figure salary to oversee elections.

Indeed, at last year’s Code for Philly Apps for Democracy Hackathon, I expressed my dismay that a team had developed an app, Social Voting, which would allow users to check to see whether their neighbors voted. Vote-shaming is of a piece with slut-shaming and fat-shaming.

Disclosing voting data sows distrust of government. If private citizens believe their voting record will be open to public scrutiny, they will be reluctant to register to vote.

It's Our Money

I’m a longtime advocate for transparency in government. Back in 2009, I attended the first-ever transparency camp. Earlier this month, I attended the Investigative Reporters & Editors annual conference. So my antennae went up when I read Philadelphia City Council had fast-tracked a bill to authorize the City to buy land on which to build a new prison.

I helped mobilize a coalition of journalists, advocacy groups and activists to stop what would have been a $7.26 million down payment on the school-to-prison pipeline. I was particularly concerned about the lack of transparency. The bill to authorize the City to purchase the land was introduced by Councilman Bobby Henon on April 30. Two months later, we still don’t know who owns the property at 7777 State Road.

On the same day that Henon tabled his bill, the Philadelphia Daily News reported the land is contaminated with nuclear waste.

The school-to-prison bill is dead, for now. City Council is on summer recess, but the battle for transparency and accountability continues. So on September 10, I will launch @PHLWatchdog, a citizen-led initiative to monitor and report on what the City is doing with our money.

Philly taxpayers have a right to know how their money is being spent. We will use social media to share information and calls to action. We will shine a light on government spending because sunlight is the best disinfectant.

Got tips? Send all tips to [email protected]. For updates, follow @PHLWatchdog on Twitter.

More Money, More Problems for Philly Schools

In the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection, there’s little love for the Philadelphia School District and the School Reform Commission.

When the school district and SRC are not rattling the cup, they’re rattling people’s nerves. The SRC got on my last nerve when it approved the sale of William Penn High School for pennies on the dollar. A school district that’s too broke to pay attention left $17 million on the table.

Within days of signing off on the sweetheart deal, school officials were in Harrisburg lobbying for a $2-per-pack cigarette tax. They said without more money, the schools would not open on time.

As they say, be careful what you ask for. The cigarette tax was passed. Tucked inside the bill was an amendment that required the school district to accept applications for new charter schools. No new charters have been authorized since 2007.

The school district received 40 39 applications for new charters.The SRC has scheduled a special meeting for Feb. 18 to vote on all 39 applications.

Meanwhile, a group of teachers, educators, parents and community activists is circulating an open letter to “stop the 40 charters” on the grounds that “opening more charters is not a sensible option for our already cash-starved district.” They added:

While there seems to be no panacea for the amalgamation of social issues that affect children’s school experiences, increasing the number of charter schools, and thus, competition, in education does not help to solve any of our city’s problems.

Out of the blue, Mark Gleason, executive director of the Philadelphia School Partnership, made an offer he hopes the “cash-starved” district could not refuse: $25 million to approve up to 15,000 new charter seats. PSP offered an additional $10 million to cover stranded costs. Gleason said in a statement:

We have been listening to the concerns of education stakeholders, parents and public officials about the potential financial impact of charter expansion on District schools and students. We agree that financial impact is an important consideration, and it has become clear that cost concerns are hindering the SRC from making decisions about the charter applications in the best interest of kids and families who are eager for a new opportunity to attend a great school.

The best way to ensure that the SRC can make decisions based solely on the merits of these applications – and give more students access to a high-quality education – is to help the District manage the stranded costs associated with charter expansion.

Critics accuse PSP of fuzzy math. They District spokesman Fernando Gallard said “half a billion dollars is not off the mark.”

The stranded costs issue was on the agenda at the Amplify School Choice conference. Prof. Benjamin Scafidi, a senior fellow with the Freidman Foundation for Educational Choice, said don’t believe the hype:

All costs are either fixed or variable. ... When they [school districts] say they can’t lose any more students, they’re saying all their costs are fixed.

The mayoral race is the backdrop to the charter expansion drama. Putative frontrunner Anthony Williams said in a statement:

The school district needs more funding, and Philadelphia public school students will benefit from those additional dollars, especially as they do not draw from additional school resources. We must ensure that the funding stream is revenue-neutral or net-positive, and three years may not be enough time. We must also couple these funds with reinstating the charter reimbursement and a fair funding formula to get the resources we need for every student and put the district in better fiscal shape going forward.

Mayoral candidate Jim Kenney says PSP’s money is tainted and taint enough:

Our school district should not accept PSP's $25 million. Not only does that offer cover a fraction of the nearly $500 million required to enroll just 15,000 more students in charters, but the donations come from unnamed millionaires who already have far too great an influence in our upcoming mayoral election.

For the school district and SRC, “it’s like the more money [they] come across, the more problems [they] see.”

#ReclaimMLK Coalition Call to Action

On Monday, January 19th, the nation will celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King. In Philadelphia, a broad-based coalition will remember the drum major for justice by reclaiming his legacy and marching for justice, jobs and education.

The #ReclaimMLK coalition is moving beyond the sanitized version of Dr. King (Full Disclosure: I’m a member of the planning committee). We are taking back the King Holiday and organizing MLK D.A.R.E. (MLK Day of Action, Resistance and Empowerment). At least 10,000 demonstrators are expected to take to the streets on the day of action and agitation.

The #ReclaimMLK coalition’s demands include an end to stop-and-frisk, an independent police review board, a $15-an-hour minimum wage, a fair funding formula for public schools and a democratically-elected school board.

The planning meetings are held at the historic Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church. Mother Bethel’s Pastor Rev. Mark Tyler said:

It’s only fitting that we open our doors in light of the role of the Black Church during the Civil Rights Movement. In fact, our founder Bishop Richard Allen opened these doors in 1817 for the first large scale, national demonstration of free African Americans.

To get involved with #ReclaimMLK, please complete a short volunteer form.

For more information, like us on Facebook.com/ReclaimMLKPHL  or follow us on Twitter.

Death of a School System

Two weeks from today, the Philadelphia School District will open the doors to buildings that are schools in name only. Traditional public schools increasingly are joyless places where children are warehoused and opportunities for learning are elusive.

Superintendent William R. Hite recently announced that schools will open on time with another $31 million in cuts:

Today, just three weeks from school opening, we once again find ourselves having to make unbelievably tough choices. As we announced more than a month ago, we have an $81 million shortfall in our current year budget, which must be closed through additional revenues or cost reductions.

For the sake of minimizing disruptions for families and for the sake of educating children, we have made the decision to make a series of additional difficult – and, hopefully, temporary – cuts in order to open schools on time.

The “temporary” cuts include:

• Fewer school police officers
• Less frequent cleaning of schools
• Fewer cleaning supplies
• Delayed repairs at schools

Hite said he hoped to “realize significant revenues from additional building sales.”

On Friday, the William Penn Development Coalition withdrew its legal action that had effectively blocked the sale of William Penn High School to Temple University. William Penn was temporarily closed in 2009. (Full disclosure: I am a member of the WPDC Executive Board.)

The decision to withdraw its lis pendens was in recognition that WPDC had exhausted that legal remedy. WPDC President Inez Henderson-Purnell said in a statement:

We fought the good fight. With this action, the sale of William Penn to Temple University will go forward. But the fight to save William Penn is broader than one school. William Penn has become a metaphor in the struggle to ensure our children have access to high quality traditional public schools.

Sadly, we are witnessing death by a thousand cuts.

In the late ‘90s, my mentor Milton Bins took me on a site visit to William Penn. Now deceased, Milton was a longtime advocate for public education with the Council of the Great City Schools.

Back in the day, William Penn was a highly successful school. Its death is an object lesson on what happens when a school is systematically and deliberately stripped of resources. The building becomes a shadow of its former glory. WPDC Treasurer Priscilla Woods observed:

William Penn is a cautionary tale about what happens when a school is deprived of resources. The School District of Philadelphia’s disinvestment led to the death of the 1st Governor’s School of Excellence at William Penn, which was the best equipped educational facility of its day with five academic academies.

We now see this happening districtwide. In September, schools will open with even fewer resources than “the inadequate and insufficient resources schools had last year.”

Woods’ concerns were underscored by state Sen. Vincent Hughes who last week released a report on conditions in Philadelphia public schools. In a statement, Hughes said:

While I am grateful that students and parents will not have to deal with the disruption of our public schools opening late, I am deeply concerned that the continued lack of adequate funding will further erode conditions in our classrooms. The cuts that were announced today, as well as the ongoing insecurity given the lack of additional funds from Harrisburg, are simply unacceptable. The lack of commitment to our public schools in Philadelphia and across the Commonwealth has become a national embarrassment.

We already know that current funding levels are not enough to create an environment to prepare our students for the challenges of the 21st Century. Conditions in our public schools were deplorable last year and now the system is gearing up for a repeat at best, with likely even less funding and more cuts to vital programs. We cannot expect our children to shine academically while providing them with such woefully inadequate resources.

Had enough? If you care about our children, bear witness to what’s happening in your school. Let your voices be heard.

For more info about the town hall meeting, go here.

March on Washington@50: Then and Now