The Drama of the SRC
The Drama of the SRC
Governor Wolf wants Marjorie Neff to be the SRC'south last chair. But and then what?
The Drama of the SRC
Governor Wolf wants Marjorie Neff to exist the SRC's last chair. But then what?
Mar. 06, 2015
Last Sunday, Governor Wolf replaced Beak Light-green as the School Reform Commission Chair with longtime public school educator and fellow SRC member, Marjorie Neff.
What does this tell us about the Governor's SRC strategy, his broader perspective on public educational activity and overall governance? I interpret the move through iii lenses: politics, temperament, and policy.
Politically, the move has to practise with having won an election. To the victor goes the spoils! Neff is more than aligned with the Governor as shown by the contempo charter vote, while Green is clearly more than independent.
Beak Green was an independent voice on Philadelphia's City Council and there were those who wondered what kind of a commission chair he would make, given his wild bill of fare reputation. Who can forget Mayor Nutter's less than gracious reaction to Green's date? Nutter viewed Green as the critic he could never please, much every bit Mayor Street once viewed then Councilman Nutter.
The fact is, Bill Green has worked well with other commission members, built a strong sense of team, and has done what a good chair does for his CEO, Bill Hite: Worked behind the scenes to support his efforts and have the inevitable political hits. He has been anything but the lonely ranger some feared.
Governor Wolf is heavily aligned with the teacher'due south unions who provided votes and financial support for him in the general election. They were furious at the Green-led SRC for attempting to impose new terms exterior of the collective bargaining process; something the SRC believes it can practise based on the law that formed it. The removal of Green can be interpreted equally a down payment in the Governor's political payback plan to the instructor'south matrimony.
The official word from the SRC is that all is well. They will continue to work together as a team. They support each other and the move from Green to Neff does not actually change very much. Unofficially I am non and so certain.
A second interpretation has to do with temperament. This move is consistent with other recent actions by the Governor, who has taken bold moves to reverse appointments fabricated by his predecessor. He wants to go far articulate that he knows how to wield the power of an executive.
This kind of decisiveness can be a useful negotiating strategy. When people think you will deed and exercise the unexpected, you gain some advantage, at to the lowest degree early in political relationships. As for the Green motility, nobody saw it coming, specially two days before the Governor'south inaugural budget address.
If you want the SRC to be dissolved, the last affair you lot want is a politically-contained Chair with his own political relationships at the State Capitol. The Governor told us he favors abolishing the SRC during the campaign, in a primary that ofttimes sounded more like a school board election.
Only like other sudden moves from the new Governor, information technology was politically awkward.
Showtime, the communication. Governor Wolf convinced Marjorie Neff who then told Bill Green that he was well-nigh to lose his chairmanship. The other commissioners were similarly given the news by Marjorie Neff, merely just after it had already dribbled out from Harrisburg.
The Governor's people later said that Bill Greenish was hard to work with. Why they felt it necessary to say that is anybody's estimate. After all, Bill Green is from the aforementioned political party. A year ago he was viewed every bit a serious candidate for mayor. Who wants political enemies from the same party at this stage in the new administration?
It was also awkward because Green has washed a very good chore building relationships across the political alley in Harrisburg. Why exercise this now when you demand to forge coalition around the upkeep and school finance? (Besides, the Governor may not take the authority to do what he did. By statute, the Governor has the authority to engage the Chair but it does non say explicitly if the governor has the dominance to remove the chair, unless in that location is crusade. The courts volition decide.)
Which brings u.s.a. to the policy interpretation. Governor Wolf did this because it is a pace in the direction he wants to take: The replacement of the SRC with a locally controlled (and he hopes elected) schoolhouse board. If Governor Wolf has his way, Chairwoman Neff will be the concluding SRC chair.
And if you want the SRC to be dissolved, the last affair you want is a politically-independent Chair with his ain political relationships at the State Capitol.
We know the Governor favors abolishing the SRC considering he told united states of america so during the campaign, equally did all the other Democratic Party main candidates. In a primary that often sounded more than like a school board election, the SRC, charter schools, and testing were all denounced repeatedly.
Of grade, the School Reform Committee has e'er been controversial. Established in Dec 2001 based on 1998 legislation, it took away local control and replaced the existing School Commune board with a five-member commission, with three appointments from the Governor and two from the Mayor.
The SRC was always viewed as a temporary solution, a transitional body. When it would end and what comes adjacent are at issue today.
The governance structure of the SRC has always been untenable. 5 appointed volunteers who spend endless hours without compensation, have limited staff support, and have governance responsibility for a budget close to $3 billion.
The Philadelphia School District budget is the third largest public sector budget in Pennsylvania after the land budget itself and the budget for the city of Philadelphia. The budget is twice that of the entire city of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County combined.
At the root of the problem is a mismatch betwixt governance capacity and governance responsibility. And that is not a knock on the SRC members, particularly over the past four years from Pedro Ramos' chairmanship to that of Neb Light-green.
They have worked tirelessly for no pay and in face up of an barrage of financial crises and public opprobrium. A bigger question might exist why any of them stick around in such a no win position.
At that place are 2 routes to ending the SRC if that is indeed where we are going. The first is legislative. The legislature that created the SRC tin abolish information technology. The problem is that the Republicans, who support the SRC, control the legislature. Any motion to end the SRC through legislation would have to exist part of a larger education compromise.
The second route is self-termination. If the SRC members vote to cancel the Commission and the Secretary of Pedagogy agrees, so the SRC would end. While it would be hard to count those votes today, persuasion and fatigue may eventually come into play.
So what if the SRC does dissolve? There would likely be a transition plan every bit office of the dissolution and and so we would return to a Mayoral-appointed school lath, which is what preceded the SRC. To do otherwise would require a charter modify. That too is possible just it will accept some time.
Just it is non clear what this solves, if annihilation. The SRC is an easy target because of its visibility, only prior to 2001 the schools were as well in bad shape. And do we really want to say goodbye to a structural partnership with the state, which is responsible for close to half the budget?
You can make the case that having the state on the line for performance is a skillful thing. Others counter that by saying that the country constitution makes the state accountable for schoolhouse funding anyhow.
Even if we do go back to local command, a good number of anti-SRC voices are not and then certain about an elected board. That tells you something about our conviction in Philadelphia'south City Council and in the abysmal voter turnouts in local elections.
The SRC is an like shooting fish in a barrel target because of its visibility, but prior to 2001 the schools were also in bad shape. Practice we actually desire to say bye to a structural partnership with the state, which is responsible for close to half the upkeep?
Philadelphia has not had a locally-elected school board since 1905, when early on reformers centralized control in reaction to a system of ward leader cronyism that hobbled the urban center's public schools.
How this all plays out will ultimately exist linked to the ability of the Governor to sell his upkeep and priorities. If he is successful and then he will have that much more than leverage. Politics works that way; success builds momentum and the pieces begin to fall in place.
But we are still at the early phase. Governor Wolf's upkeep presentation was dramatic in its breadth. He wants increased spending on pedagogy and he knows that is a popular sentiment.
Only to accomplish that he is seeking a significant change in our tax construction in virtually every acquirement category: sales tax, property taxes, capital letter and franchise taxes, corporate cyberspace profits tax, personal income, and the newly proposed gas extraction tax. He volition not have an easy time with several of these proposals. They will non all be popular.
Meanwhile, he is not addressing in a substantive manner two of the Republican legislature's favored issues: pension fund reform and liquor store privatization. Instead, the Governor wants to infringe $iii billion in alimony obligation bonds and service the debt with revenue that will come from what he calls liquor store modernization — a policy connexion that can only be cooked up in Harrisburg.
Nor does there seem to be much to his didactics proposals exterior of funding. Perhaps that will alter as we get further into the assistants. Whether Chairwoman Neff is the terminal SRC chair is now linked to the Governor'south ability to sell his overall vision and rack upwardly some political victories. Because momentum matters in politics.
Photograph: Austinxc04 
Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/the-drama-of-the-src/
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