House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) was in Philadelphia on Monday to promote the expansion of charter schools, vouchers and alternatives to public education. Touring select cities to spread the mantra of school "choice," Cantor made a couple of callous decisions when visiting the City of Brotherly Love. Rather than draw attention to the funding crisis facing Philadelphia’s public schools, he chose to ignore the plight of its 134,000 students. Cantor applauded the rise of charter schools, which have played a direct role in creating the school district’s current crisis.
 

The Philadelphia School District’s troubles have been widely documented. Facing a $304 million budget shortfall, the city was forced to close 24 schools, eliminate after-school extracurricular activities including athletic, art, drama and music programs, cancel purchases of school supplies, and lay off more than 3,000 teachers and counselors. Nearly half of Philadelphia’s public high schools now lack a full-time guidance counselor. Instead of meeting the recommended ratio of 1 counselor for every 250 students, Philadelphia is currently providing 1 counselor for every 3,000 students.

The school district’s predicament has been partially driven by the proliferation of charter schools. If a Philadelphia student attends a charter school, the school district must pay the charter school the $10,000 it would have otherwise spent on that pupil. Because only some costs can be recovered (e.g., a teacher still teaches a class whether there are 15 or 16 students), the district loses a net average of $7,000 per departed student. This loss of funding affects the remaining students in the public school, diminishing the educational opportunities that can be provided and depriving the public schools of resources.

At the same time, not all of the city’s charter schools have produced encouraging results and provided their pupils with a quality education. Using the diverted funding, some of Philadelphia’s charters have engaged in union-busting, been subject to federal investigation for mismanagement and fraud, produced poor test results and exacerbated the educational crisis plaguing one of America’s most impoverished cities.

Further worsening the problem for the largest school district in the state is Gov. Tom Corbett (R), who has slashed education funding and is withholding $45 million of appropriated funding while the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers negotiates a new contract. Corbett is conditioning his support of students on teachers agreeing to the school district’s demand they take a 13% salary cut, pay increased health care costs and eliminate seniority.  

Quite simply, many of Philadelphia’s charter schools need greater oversight and accountability, not free-flowing, unchecked cash transfers. By applauding a flawed system and ignoring the crisis it has created, Eric Cantor did the Philadelphia region a great disservice.

As Alison McDowell, a parent of a Philadelphia seventh-grader who protested Cantor’s visit, told the Philadelphia Inquirer, charter schools in Philadelphia are “actually taking away choice from families to have access to schools that are in their neighborhoods, that don’t have barriers to access for admissions.” Surely, there must be some way of providing quality public education that doesn’t leave behind the children who need help the most.