Jonathan Shazar: A win-win situation for universities and Philly public schools

The early grades are in and they're, well, rather mixed.

Almost a full year into that largest and most ambitious experiment in private operation of public schools known as the Philadelphia School District, the future of such attempts at education reform is decidedly uncertain. In the meantime, most of these outside managers will continue to try to bring Philadelphia's public schools up to par.

One will not.

Last week, District CEO Paul Vallas gave Chancellor Beacon Academies, a for-profit education company based in Miami, the heave-ho, saying it was barely visible and had done next to nothing to improve its five schools.

In firing Chancellor Beacon, Vallas was not passing judgment on the privatization experiment itself. The other two for-profit companies involved are being given at least another year, including the controversial and nearly bankrupt Edison Schools, Inc., which runs 20 schools. He even had kind words and two more schools to offer Victory Schools, bringing that for-profit manager to seven total.

As The Philadelphia Inquirer's Tom Ferrick put it recently, the district and its CEO will go with "anything that works. If it is charter schools, fine. If it is university-run schools, fine. If for-profits can cut it, fine."

Still, Vallas' pragmatism could not conceal his delight with one of the outside managers, a little nonprofit firm known as Temple University. Next year, Temple will take the helm at a sixth North Philadelphia public school, and there may be more to come.

Though Chancellor Beacon's five will revert to district control, six other schools are slated for privatization next year. Among the managers vying for them are St. Joseph's University and Eastern University in St. David's, Pa. What's more, when asked about his controversial proposal to cut the per pupil subsidies the district pays each manager -- a policy likely to have devastating effects on such cash-strapped companies as Edison -- Vallas calmly noted, "There's plenty of universities and dynamic institutions here ready to step right in."

That just may be the way to go. With the private education companies failing to make the grade either in the classroom or in the boardroom, partnerships such as Temple's might be the answer to Philadelphia's intractable problem with failing schools.

Universities would seem to be an almost ideal solution. For the most part, the prospect of having an institution of higher learning -- and a public one like Temple, at that -- operate a public school is unlikely to draw the same sort of vehement public criticism that the Edison contract met. It enables fresh blood and new ideas to pour into the district without plunging the future of the schools into among the most contentious political issues of the day.

Better yet, having schools taken over by local universities eliminates nearly all of the financial concerns always present when considering for-profit public education. Regardless of their success in the classroom, it remains to be seen whether firms like Edison -- which needed an emergency $40 million loan and a huge cash infusion from the district simply to open its schools in September, while having yet to show a profit -- can remain financially viable. The company's Wall Street performance would be laughable if the fate of 20 Philadelphia schools and dozens of others nationwide did not depend on its success.

Penn, too, is a participant in the privatization experiment, having been awarded three West Philadelphia schools in addition to the Penn-assisted public school at 42nd and Locust streets, though it is not as active in operating its schools as Temple is. Still, it is not difficult to understand why Graduate School of Education Dean Susan Fuhrman was enthusiastic about the opportunity. "We will work on professionalism, curriculum and guidance," she said at the time.

In other words, schools of education like Penn get the chance to actually mold curricula and test their theories, and the children of Philadelphia are the beneficiaries, their schools getting a helping hand from one of the nation's most respected schools.

And with Philadelphia hoping to promote itself as the biggest college town around, it might be in everyone's best interest to expand this type of partnership. Continued success will help to improve the schools, better town-gown relations and more firmly ground this city's centers of higher education in Philadelphia's future.

By incorporating student volunteers, the programs could engender greater civic pride in its students, encouraging them to invest of themselves in the city and eventually to put down roots here.

The possibilities of expanded university-school district ventures are tantalizing. Done right, such an undertaking could transform this city for the better in ways that reach far beyond the public school classroom.

Jonathan Shazar is a senior History and Political Science major from Valley Stream, N.Y.

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