The plan for the new Penn-assisted public school approved Monday by the Philadelphia Board of Education seems to be the best way to address the concerns of the majority of those involved and allows the school to proceed on track for an opening in the Fall of 2001.
The Board's approval of a catchment system -- rather than a lottery -- to determine who attends the school, which will receive $1,00 per student from the University for 10 years, allows the school to become a "neighborhood school," as originally envisioned.
The catchment area allows a student body to be a healthy mix of races and classes to benefit from the education to be provided by the new school.
The plan approved by the board also provides for additional funding from Penn and other area universities to go to some of the other woefully underfunded University City public schools without disturbing Penn's original plans for the new school. This move compliments the new school's goal of providing a high-quality education for all West Philadelphia students, and strikes a good balance for those not in the catchment area.
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