WISE WORDS FROM SRC MEMBER BILL GREEN?

November is generally a gloomy month. Not this year – at least in Philadelphia. We’ve elected a progressive DA into office, while the Delaware Valley continues to look bluer and bluer. This week we were handed another piece of good news when Philadelphia’s reviled School Reform Commission (SRC) voted itself out of existence. Of course, it will still have a caretaker role as we transition over to local control. Meanwhile, the commission’s staunchest supporter – Bill Green – will not go gentle into that good night, as has been evidenced by his latest commentary “Three lessons from the SRC,” which appeared in the Inquirer today. Although Green makes a series of unsubstantiated claims about the SRC placing the School District upon sound financial footing, there was one detail in his article that reminded me of the expression that “Even a broken clock is right twice each day.” He writes, “Today’s magical thinking has many believing that a lawsuit will force the General Assembly to fund school districts at a much higher level. But the courts have ruled that Harrisburg must pay for the state’s courts, and lawmakers have ignored this mandate.” There is some truth to this statement. What recourse do we have if the state legislature ignores the State Court’s ruling, if the ruling mandates full and fair funding for all of Pennsylvania’s schools? It seems that electing a State legislature that will treat all school districts fairly is our only option.