STAFF EDITORIAL: Biting the hand that feeds

Friends of the Lea School are asking Penn for too much by demanding that money for a new school be given to them. But, as writer and former Congresswoman Clare Boothe Luce once noted, "No good deed goes unpunished" -- and this commitment has proved no exception. The Walnut Hill Community Association has become the latest group to look Penn's gift horse in the mouth. It is circulating a petition demanding that Penn give $700,000 annually to the Lea School, located at 47th and Locust streets, instead of to the new school. The petition also demands that Penn and the state each raise $5 million for renovations to several area schools. We can certainly understand the anger of the parents of children who attend the Lea School. The dilapidated facility has no playground or library, and -- like virtually every public school in an underfunded school system -- needs to hire more teachers and reduce class sizes. But in this case, the community's outrage is misdirected. And to call the University's decision "an injustice and an insult," as the petition does, is inappropriate. The University is not the villain in the tragedy that is the Philadelphia public school system. Rather, limited state funds and a declining city tax base have conspired to keep Philadelphia schools perpetually underfunded -- a pattern seen in inner cities across the country. Penn has been -- and by all appearances, will continue to be -- a positive force for change in this regard. Over the past several years, the University has lent both financial and curricular support to many schools in West Philadelphia -- Lea included. And Penn has promised that the level of aid will not subside when the new school opens. Indeed, Penn intends to use the new school as a demonstration site for educational innovations that can be applied in schools around the city. Ultimately, only a small fraction of the children in West Philadelphia will be able to attend the demonstration school. Others will be forced to look for other means of support. With its limited resources, Penn is only one part of the solution -- and we do encourage the community and the University to work cooperatively to better Philadelphia's schools. But the demands made in the community's petition are simply impractical, and the state and city are the only sources for the kind of money Lea and other public schools really need to improve.