Here We Go Again!

The December 31st issue of the New York Times carried an extensive article on, guess what, another inner city school district closing a huge number of schools.  This time it's Philadelphia's turn for the neighborhood schools, in the poorer sections of the city, to get hammered with the closings.

There is a plan in the works to close 37 of Philly's 237 schools.  Yes, the district has financial difficulties and yes a good number of schools are underutilized.  That being said, here's is a question for you to ponder.

How would you like it if your son and/or daughter, in a poor section of the city, was faced with this situation.  Not someone else...YOU!

Let's say the school your child attends is making progress and that your children enjoy that school.  Let's also suppose that you and your children are faced with traveling great distances to another school in another part of the city.  It just may be that the new school and the classrooms, with the downsizing, are a bit overpopulated.  How are you feeling about that?

This is but another example of the poorest areas of urban landscapes being the first to feel the axe of more cuts.  By the way, speaking of cutting, perhaps these 37 schools wouldn't have closed if the state hadn't cut $419 million in educational financing this year.

Like I said, here we go again!

Dick