by Karel Kilimnik
“I’m no longer accepting the things I cannot change… I’m changing the things I cannot accept.” Professor and Activist Angela Davis
Continuing its campaign of self-congratulation, the Board of Education has solicited and posted glowing blurbs for its new “Goals and Guardrails” (Item 1). They include the CEO of the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, President of the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC), a former SRC commissioner, and one member of the Board’s Parent and Community Council. Mayor Kenney, who through a secret process appointed all of the Board members, also cheers them on. Conspicuous by their absence are endorsements from individual parents, teachers or students, or from grass-roots advocacy organizations. The blurbs make clear for whom the Goals and Guardrails were written. The Board, instead of turning away from the corporate disruption of the public school system, furthers it through outsourcing, exorbitant contracts to outside companies, and looking the other way when charter schools fail to meet standards. Board members did nothing other than express faint disapproval after the release of the Inspector General’s damning report on Superintendent Hite’s botching of the Ben Franklin/SLA construction project.
