Edison to lead firms managing schools

The School Reform Commission announced Tuesday that it will hire Edison Schools, Inc. as the lead consulting firm to help reform Philadelphia's troubled public schools.

It has been widely believed that Edison would have some role in remedying the ailing district since former Governor Tom Ridge hired the firm last summer to develop solutions for the system. For the past several months, tensions in Philadelphia have been high over bringing private firms in to oversee portions of the district.

The commission also selected several other consulting firms and nonprofit groups to work with Edison to provide a wide variety of consulting and managerial services, including food service, professional development and school safety.

While other private, for-profit companies have been considered and selected, Edison Schools, Inc. has drawn the most criticism over recent months. However, commission officials contend that Edison will be successful in bringing about a positive change in Philadelphia's schools.

"As all of the members of the commission stated [Tuesday], there are some things where it is universally viewed that Edison does very, very well, so it seemed like a natural for the School Reform Commission to ask Edison to perform those functions," commission spokeswoman Carey Dearnley said.

Other organizations the commission hired include Penn's own Jerry Lee Center of Criminology, KPMG Consulting, Deloitte and Touche and PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

Specific details of the consultants' responsibilities have not yet been worked out. The staff and legal counsel of the commission are expected to begin contract negotiations with the selected organizations next week.

All of the contracts will include a clause making them void should the commission be unable to pay for the consultants' services. City Council is currently considering Mayor John Street's request for a $300 million bond that would alleviate the district's deficit for the next two years.

Additionally, when the groups are hired, the contracts will be limited to two years.

No contracts can be signed, though, until a judge has ruled on a lawsuit filed against Street and Schweiker by City Council. The lawsuit attempts to prevent the commission from further action, claiming that the agreement between Street and Schweiker which formed the commission is unconstitutional.

Groups opposed to privatization were pleased by these stipulations, but representatives still voiced concerns.

"We're concerned that there was no announcement about any price tags attached," said Aldustus Jordan, spokesman for Philadelphians United to Keep Our Public Schools Public. "Our position is that any additional resources should be put into classrooms, not consultant contracts."

And the commissions announcement was met with opposition from some in city government.

"I think it's a very bad decision -- the kind that's made in the interest of the company of Edison rather than children," Councilman David Cohen said. "Edison does not have anything that really works financially, and the same educationally. They have a few schools to brag about, but quite a few that they want to be quiet about.... They had the right connections with [former] Governor [Tom] Ridge and now with Schweiker."

Edison continues to maintain that such criticisms are unfounded, instead referring to instances of their success.

"Edison is incredibly proud of our record, and we feel that our ability to run our own system of schools well is something that could be leveraged in a lot of ways in Philadelphia," Edison spokesman Adam Tucker said. "I would doubt that any one of [the people who opposes Edison] has been inside an Edison school. We have 136 schools, and by far the vast majority are doing significantly better now that they are working with Edison."

Some groups, though still opposed to Edison, claim that under the current plans, the company will not play as big a role as previously feared.

"It is important to note that although it was said... that Edison got the lead consulting role in the district, it appears that that was only a public relations stunt on the part of the School Reform Commission to appease the governor and many elected officials," Jordan said.

For example, Jordan points out, Edison will not be responsible for overseeing and contracting with the other organizations. Instead, the commission will be the sole group overseeing and hiring all firms.

The commission also plans to hire Victory Schools to aid the district's lowest performing high schools.Victory is another for-profit school management company, begun in 1999 to manage New York City charter schools. The company hopes to assist as many as 10 schools.

"We have laid out a process, and we hope to work with the school district and set out which schools we need to be a partner with," Victory Schools spokeswoman Margaret Harrington said. "We want to look at a given school and build on what we need to keep and eliminate what we need to."

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.