Noble Brigham ‘20:
In 1848, Horace Mann said that “Education…is a great equalizer of the conditions of men– the balance wheel of the social machinery.” In Philadelphia, however, this is not true. Helen Tamrat ‘19, having attended public, charter, and private schools in the Greater Philadelphia area, is a testament to the existing school system disparities. She said, “Each school that I have attended has proved to possess differing environments, resources and perspectives. I was able to see the deficiency in opportunity for many while seeing the abundance for others.” The Main Line has long been noted for excellent private schools such as the Episcopal Academy, Haverford, Baldwin and Agnes Irwin. These schools all have beautiful campuses, rich athletic fields, and demanding curriculum, but just a few miles away, across City Avenue, Philadelphia schools are extremely different. Most school buildings in Philadelphia are not state-of-the-art like Episcopal. The Philadelphia School District commissioned architect Irwin T. Catherine to design most of the current buildings in the 1920’s and 1930’s, many replacing earlier buildings. Since then, few updates have been made. Last year, it was announced that the buildings collectively need 4.5 billion dollars in repairs. Many have failing roofs and poor heat, causing mold-related problems. Episcopal Academy English teacher and Form Dean Sam Willis, who taught in Philadelphia city schools for three years, said that “At Strawberry Mansion the boiler broke….ice would form on the windows in my classroom which was on the third floor. Students would wear full jackets and hats throughout the winter, if they came to school, because quite frankly it was often too cold in school to actually go.” Former Laboratory Charter School student Tamrat said, “I recall having an empty, concrete parking lot as a playground, after returning from eating lunch in the vile cafeteria where the entirety of the student body received free or reduced lunch. In fact, the status of the building itself proved to be in such a dreadful state that the ceiling collapsed on one of my peers, and a window tumbled along with fan onto me on just another school day.” At the opposite end of the spectrum, we have Episcopal’s 200 million dollar campus with a university style campus green. Most Philadelphia buildings have a beautiful construction, but are hopelessly outdated. Most do not have any green spaces; some do not even have playgrounds.
Willis explained that “The biggest difference between schools is resources. For instance, the School District of Philadelphia can’t afford full-time art or music teachers, so students only got to take music or art a couple days a week, if they were fortunate enough to get that on their schedule. There were few course electives for students to take, only a couple of clubs, and even fewer athletic offerings. The cafeteria was in the basement, staffed by only three workers, and offered a meager variety of food.” Willis continued that, “When I came to EA, back on the Merion campus, I was blown away by the spaces, classrooms, and every other aspect of the campus. Students were able to focus on academics and athletics, and they were fully supported. I wish that had been the case in the city schools as well.” Teachers in Philadelphia also face hurdles that Episcopal teachers do not have to worry about. For example, at Episcopal, teachers are all using the same books and materials for their classes, but are given the freedom of how to teach it. In less funded public schools, for common core classes, Willis was told exactly how to teach the curriculum down to minute allotments. He said, “I was not able to keep up with the curriculum. I was told by school administrators that if I was observed by the School District I was to jump to whatever day I was supposed to be on. So we could be in the middle of teaching The Crucible but if school administrators came, I was supposed to jump into day 30 of Julius Caesar, which I refused to do.” At Strawberry Mansion, discipline was a problem. A teacher near Willis put a student in a headlock because he insulted his wife. Additionally, there is much less funding per student at Philadelphia public schools than at Episcopal. EA spends an average of approximately $37,000 per student, with tuition starting at $22,950 for Pre-K and moving up to $35,400 dollars for Upper School. Philadelphia’s spending per student has dropped in the past several years. For the 2015-2016 year, it had dropped to a little less than $14,000 per student. Teachers are forced to spend a great amount of time preparing students for PSSA tests, which determine funding and can improve school ratings. Students with higher scores can get into the magnet schools such as the Masterman School and Central High School. Dr. T.J. Locke, Head of School, who formerly taught and administered in many public schools, explained, “A publicly elected school board sometimes runs on issues like cutting the budget, so their only goal, their platform, their political platform, may be, ‘I’m going to cut expenses,’ not to better education. So I was answering questions like…, ‘Are we making sure we are getting toilet paper at a good cost?’”
Philadelphia has charter schools, which tend to be better than the regular public schools, but are difficult to get into. If there are too many applications, students enter a lottery to decide who will get into a school. Charter schools have proved to be an alternate option to neighborhood public schools. Tamrat noted, “I was in the Upper Darby School District for most of elementary school, which proved to lack academic challenges. Although the district proved to have an increased amount of resources, the low standardized state test scores (PSSA) were enough for my parents to take initiative in finding other options.” Tamrat was able to get into Laboratory Charter without the lottery because her parents, in her words, “kissed up” to the founder, Dorothy June Brown, who was later accused of stealing millions from the school. She explains, “Considering the conditions, the Laboratory Charter School continuously suffered scandal after scandal, in which millions was continuously stolen by corrupt individuals within the school administration. These issues forced the district to shut down the school.”
But that is not to say that all Philadelphia School District schools are terrible. Julia Masterman School is an extremely competitive school, requiring A and B grades and a minimum of an 88 on the PSSA. There are performing arts high schools for students interested in visual art, music, and theater. Central High School has the same requirements as Masterman and was just given a donation of ten million dollars for the performing arts. Willis experienced frustration with the system but said that, “Teaching at Northeast High was the most diverse experience I have ever had (at the time, students at Northeast High School spoke 54 different languages).” Willis concluded with how students at all schools had one important thing in common: “The students were eager to learn and yearned to improve.”