Closing schools is always politically toxic. So is imposing new taxes. Doing both at the same time — one year away from a municipal election — was never going to be easy.
Philadelphia City Council members have been fuming for weeks about being asked by Mayor Cherelle L. Parker to create a new $1-per-ride tax on services like Uber and Lyft to plug a Philadelphia School District budget deficit, while the district simultaneously is moving to close 17 school buildings and renovate 169 more as part of its facilities plan.
That frustration boiled over Tuesday at a fiery Council budget hearing that was ostensibly about the mayor’s proposed tax policies but quickly became a far-ranging and heated debate over education.
“On the one hand, we are going to tax people — and then take away from people educational opportunities,” Councilmember Curtis Jones Jr. said. “I can’t knock on the door and say, ‘I’m taxing you, and I’m closing your school because of some nebulous number that we don’t know.’”
During the hearing, Council President Kenyatta Johnson admonished Parker’s chief education officer for not having the answer to a factual inquiry on hand. Councilmember Isaiah Thomas subjected the city finance director to a “Who knew what when?”-style interrogation on when the district’s budget shortfall became apparent. And Council Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore Richardson took the rare step of summoning school district officials to City Hall even though they were not scheduled to testify.
Shortly after, Superintendent Tony Watlington Sr. and school board president Reginald Streater dutifully appeared in Council chambers. Streater repeatedly apologized for not wearing a suit after being summoned on short notice.
What prompted Tuesday’s eruption?
The school board announced Monday that it planned to vote on the facilities proposal at a meeting on Thursday. That meant Council members needed to act quickly if they wanted to secure changes to the plan by using their primary piece of leverage: Parker’s rideshare tax proposal.
“How do you rush this plan to a Thursday vote when you haven’t even taken the time to fully engage our communities — and then come in here and ask us to do something hard for you?” said Councilmember Jamie Gauthier, who has been fighting to save schools in her West Philadelphia-based 3rd District from closure.
Parker’s proposed $1-per-ride tax would send about $50 million per year to the district, according to the administration. Watlington said last week that would be enough to allow the district to forgo the planned elimination of 340 school-based jobs.
» READ MORE: Philly School District officials say they won’t need to cut 340 classroom jobs if Mayor Parker’s Uber tax passes
On paper, the facilities plan — a long-term infrastructure issue requiring billions in capital investment — is separate from the district’s roughly $300 million structural budget deficit, which is the result of year-to-year costs exceeding revenue and which Parker has proposed addressing with the rideshare tax.
“One issue is 70, 80 years of deferred maintenance [to school facilities], and the other is reoccurring things that we have to do to support student learning,” Streater told lawmakers. “They are different topics. They are different situations.”
But Gauthier and other members made clear they are linking those issues whether the district likes it or not.
“You believe that these are two different conversations — that we are having a conversation about the Uber tax, and that the facilities plan is somewhere over here,” Gauthier said. “The tenor of this room has been what it’s been all morning because neither Council nor our communities view it that way.”
In other words, Council stressed: If you want our help closing your budget deficit, you’d better work with us on amending the list of schools slated for closure.
Read more about the proposed facilities plan
Wholesale changes are coming to the Philadelphia School District, with Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. proposing a $2.8 billion facilities plan that includes closing schools.
Watlington presented the plan to the school board Feb. 26 and it has already faced strong opposition. It’s not yet final. Here’s what we do and don’t know.
And to see the proposed list school closures and check how your school could be impacted, use our interactive charts.
Each of the schools proposed for closure has its own story. Find them all here.