My Comments at the Rally Against Tax Abatements today

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My name is Kristin Luebbert, and I am a teacher in Philadelphia. When we talk about these huge numbers it all seems very ephemeral—what does it really mean to say that twenty buildings keep almost $15 million in revenue away from the Philadelphia schools that desperately need it?  Or that the 20 buildings with the largest 10-year tax abatements are cumulatively valued at more than $2.2 billion? Or that 10 Rittenhouse Square gets an abatement for most of its value, which costs the schools over $1 million annually? What does it mean to say that these losses in revenue could fund 446 Counselors for our schools?

I can tell you what it would mean to two of my students, right now, this week!

The first student I worry about (one of the many actually) is a middle school boy who is new to our school this year. Because of that, I do not know his family or his circumstances. He is a quiet boy, a boy who does his work and mostly stays out of trouble. A boy who eagerly asks to borrow books from the class library.  But, I worry because I notice that he is just a little too sleepy, a little too hungry, a little too skinny, and not very healthy looking.  What is wrong? I don’t know. In past years—when I got done with my day of teaching 80 plus students—I could email the counselor and let her know my concerns. She would have investigated, set up a meeting, and let us know what was up with this child. Now….our school has an itinerant counselor who is doing her best to keep up, but she has a caseload of over 3000 students, and I have to wonder why the owner/developer of this building is considered more deserving of a break than a 12 year old boy who clearly needs help?

My second concern is a young man who is literally screaming for help—in that loud, obnoxious way that 8^th grade boys are so good at when they are in distress.  He is living in circumstances that no one his age (or anyone for that matter) should have to—despite this, he manages to get himself up and come to school every day.  BUT, he is flailing and failing—we are desperately afraid that we are going to lose him in one way or another.  Everyone at our school is working hard to get him help, but without a full-time counselor it is a slow, piecemeal effort that is taking longer than it should.  I have to wonder why a young man who lives in dire conditions is less important or less deserving than people who just want a tax break on their expensive properties?

These are just two stories from one floor, of one school, in one neighborhood of Philadelphia—the extraordinary thing is that these stories are not extraordinary—there are dozens of them in my building and thousands of them in the schools of this city.

Our students need and deserve for the people who can afford it to pay their fair share of taxes.

Why "Helping" Doesn't Really Help

    As the Philadelphia Public school year limps forward with a severe lack of funding, many principals are trying to figure out ways they can get their schools and students the resources that they desperately need. As a parent and teacher, I truly understand this impulse--but I have to argue that trying to hold schools together with volunteers is the equivalent of trying fix a complex machine with duct tape and baling wire. It may work just enough to barely get us through a tough time, but will work neither optimally nor for the long term.
     Principals at many schools, including magnets like Masterman and neighborhood schools like Houston, are practically begging parents to volunteer to help staff schools.  While parent volunteers certainly have a place in schools, and have often provided valuable auxiliary help to principals and teachers, these requests are different: this year principals want parents to provide basic, needed services to schools that should be provided by the district. There are several problems with this kind of "help":

• Principals are asking parents to help with services that involve students' confidentiality. Even if you are simply answering the phone in a school office (and many principals have asked for parents to do this), you may be privy to confidential information. DHS might call to check on a students or leave a message for a teacher, a doctor's office might call to verify an absence, or a lawyer's office might call to relay changed custody arrangements. NONE of this is the business of anyone who is not official school staff.  Frankly, any principal who is allowing this is a fool because they are opening themselves up for complaints from parents whose confidential info finds its way in to the wrong hands. Parents manning late desks or helping with high school or college applications for students present the same problem.
• Parents or community volunteers who are "helping" with essential school tasks are taking away a paying job from someone who probably needs it. This hurts the economy long-term, and it hurts the school district long-term.  If we make it seem doable to make due without essential personnel, they will never be replaced. It is not sustainable because eventually parents will get tired of or need to stop volunteering, and then we will be right back where we started from--with schools chronically underfunded.
• This also sets up an inequitable system within schools.  The parents who have the economic and social capital to volunteer most often will be a known presence in schools and will have more opportunities to gain the principal's or teachers' ears. This gives the volunteers' child or children an advantage or the kids whose parents' work schedule or family obligations to not allow them to volunteer.
• The volunteers, no matter how well-intentioned or skilled in their own job areas, are not educational professionals (usually) and cannot truly replace the school staff whose role they are trying to fill. Parents or community members volunteering in school libraries are not an adequate replacement for certified School Librarians/Media Specialists.  They probably do not know how to level books for students, or teach internet safety, or address the varying reliability of internet sources for research. Volunteers in a library are poor replacement for true professionals who can really help students. Even in a recess yard or playground, parents cannot adequately replace Noon-time Aides who have worked in a school community for years and understand the varying relationships that come in to play in such spaces.

    Helping out in these circumstances is probably doing more harm than good. What volunteers are doing (even though their motives are probably pure) is making this unsupportable lack of resources seem okay.  It is NOT okay, and we need to stop pretending that it is! Parents need to tell principals:
 "I want my child's school to have the resources it needs! I will NOT replace a person who was laid off!  You--as a principal--need to communicate the legitimate needs of your school to your superiors at the School District! Please stop begging for free help from parents, and truly advocate for your students!"

Here's what parents and community members can do in these awful circumstances:

• Advocate with both the city and state for Full Fair Funding for ALL schools in Pennsylvania. Find a list of city and state politicians here.
• Join Parent and Community advocacy organizations that advocate for full fair funding: Parents United for Public Education, PCAPS, ActionUnited, Fight For Philly, POWER, and others.