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CNN Live Today
Concerns Arise About Philadelphia School System
Aired March 22, 2002 - 12:28 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: From Philadelphia now, concerns about schools have become so acute that experts say the city is failing its children. They have a last-gasp effort to turn things around. Could it be possibly the wave of the future? Kathy Slobogin is in Philly.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENTS: To obey and respect what teachers must say. To work ...
KATHY SLOBOGIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This could be the future of Philadelphia schools.
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENTS: To make our great school one of the best.
SLOBOGIN: Wetherill Elementary is one of 10 schools in Chester, just outside Philadelphia, run by Edison Schools, the nation's largest for-profit school company.
UNIDENTIFIED TEACHER: Raise your hand if you know the country.
SLOBOGIN: Edison is one of several private companies in the bidding to run up to 100 schools in Philadelphia, in the largest private takeover of public schools in history. It's all part of a state plan to rescue Philadelphia schools, schools that have failed so badly that Pennsylvania's governor charged they're hemorrhaging children's futures.
(on camera): The state believes the system is in too much trouble to right itself. More than half of Philadelphia school children score below the most basic level on state tests. Eighty- three percent of 11th graders don't read well enough to understand the local newspaper.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a district in cardiac arrest. It's a patient that is on life support.
SLOBOGIN: Jim Nevels (ph), the businessman appointed to direct the reform effort, says district resources were badly mismanaged.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Checks were written without and a balance was kept without regard to how much money was in the till.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Paul (ph), where are you? SLOBOGIN: Edison, with 136 schools around the country, says it can turn around failing schools and make money in the process, although it has yet to turn a profit.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What else can we adjust to give you more time?
SLOBOGIN: Collaboration between teachers and principals is one Edison hallmark. Longer days and a longer year are another. There are laptops for the teachers. By next year, kids will be sent home with desktops.
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT: They were very happy that spider family ...
SLOBOGIN: Central to Edison is a laser-like focus on reading, 90 minutes every day without interruption.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) start to snow, right?
SLOBOGIN: To keep reading groups small, everyone, even the gym teacher, is pressed into service.
JUAN BAUGHN, EDISON ADMINISTRATOR: If we don't do what we should be doing with these young folks, that 50 to 60 percent of them won't make it through 12th grade.
SLOBOGIN: After 30 years in public education, Dr. Juan Baughn quit as Chester's superintendent, frustrated by a lack of resources. Initially skeptical about Edison's profit motive, he returned to manage the schools for the company when he saw the money between seven and $9 million, it was willing to invest.
BAUGHN: The fact is, from a financial standpoint, Edison has done things for the young folks in this city that the city could not do. It's fact.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let's give ourselves (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
SLOBOGIN: But not everybody is cheering for Edison. Protests erupted last December when the state announced its takeover of the Philadelphia schools and a possible prominent role for Edison.
Critics mistrust the profit motive and charge the city schools have been shortchanged for years. In Philadelphia, high schools like this one, more than 30 students to a class is common. The schools get 25 percent less per pupil than the state average. Teachers say state tolerance is such inequities is what crippled the system in the first place.
TED KIRSCH, PHIL. TEACHERS UNION: We don't need Edison to come here to tell us what has to be done. We know what has to be done. What we need is for someone to come in and give us the money to do what we believe has to be done.
SLOBOGIN: Although Edison claims its schools out performs similar public schools, critics question the company's numbers saying Edison does no better than public schools.
Jim Nevels (ph) is so far non-committal on what role Edison will play, but he has no doubts about the need for change.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Drastic measures are necessary because a child only goes to first grade once, and we can not countenance (ph) four out of 10 reaching that fourth grade level and not being able to read.
SLOBOGIN: While the grownups argue, he says, the children fall further and further behind.
Kathy Slobogin, CNN, Philadelphia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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