Good Evening
fellow citizens, my name is Kristin Luebbert, I am a parent, teacher, PFT
member and proud member of the Caucus of Working Educators. I have come here tonight to talk about the
deliberate disinvestment and forced destabilization that is being perpetrated
upon our struggling communities.
For
at least the last half-century, our urban communities (as well as our rural
areas and small towns) have been decimated by the deliberate disinvestment of
resources forced upon them by our city, our Commonwealth, and our federal
government. Factories have been closed,
jobs that pay a living wage have flown away—all to line the pockets of a very
few. When jobs and income flee certain areas, community spaces that serve the
public good vanish as well. There is
only one public institution that stays and serves its community no matter the
difficulties—that institution is the true public school.
Unfortunately,
the administration of the School District of Philadelphia—throughout several
regimes—has embarked upon a strategy of deliberate destabilization of the
public schools that remain in our stressed neighborhoods. There have been many iterations of this
destabilization: Renaissance, privatization, “turn-arounds”…. The things they
have in common: first the SDP—claiming poverty—understaffs and underfunds its
neediest schools, then they over-test with developmentally inappropriate
assessments, then they blame the stressed and traumatized communities for
alleged failure, and then they conspire to take away more neighborhood
stability by closing or churning the neighborhood public schools.
One
example of this forced destabilization is the inexplicable yet stubborn
insistence of the district’s leadership team in continuing the failed relationship
with Source 4 Teachers. This ineffectual agency has proven to be “below basic”
at every turn, has utterly failed every “data-driven assessment”, yet still
mysteriously retains the contract to NOT supply substitute teachers to the SDP.
The only logical explanation is the planned destabilization of schools in
preparation to turn them over to private operators.
The isolated
administrators at 440 may not truly understand the place our public schools
hold in the heart and fabric of their communities, but those of us who work in
them every day do. I was privileged enough to attend the community meeting at Muñoz-Marín
last week, and I saw a welcoming, beautiful school with great work displayed in
front of each classroom, and engaged and enthusiastic parents, students,
teachers, and staff. This was clearly a community that had bonded together in
their mutual work and interest. I also witnessed a community that felt
completely disrespected and disregarded by the power brokers in the SDP. It is a shame that members of the SRC could
not find it in their hearts or schedules to attend THAT meeting.
SO, the problem
remains, how can we best serve our students and school communities? Common
sense tells us that a scientific experiment should only change ONE variable at
a time—when one changes multiple variables it is impossible to know which one
caused improvement. So, by all means, help the Muñoz-Marín, Mitchell, Rhodes,
and Roosevelt school communities by endowing them with needed financial resources;
by advocating at the city, state, and federal levels to bring jobs and
stability back into the neighborhoods; and perhaps by leaving the confines of
Center City to personally witness the good work happening in these schools.
What is not needed, and will not help, is the churn and burn tactics of forced
destabilization that rip trusted teachers and staff away from the communities
that have already lost too much.
