PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia’s embattled school system took center stage Tuesday night at a forum for the city’s mayoral candidates.
The forum – organized by the School Board – gave candidates 60 seconds to present their views on a variety of topics, including keeping students safe from gun violence and asbestos in schools.
With city schools dealing with neighborhood gun violence and hazardous facilities, Mikayla Coleman, a student at George Washington Carver High School of Engineering and Science, pulled no punches with the opening question in the two-hour forum.
“It feels like we don’t matter,” Coleman said. “So my question to all of you is, what do you plan to do to improve overall conditions for students and teachers that look like me?”
In response, former Councilmember Maria Quinones-Sanchez said she’d establish a school-building authority and push for more bilingual teachers.
“I will make sure that we work through the structures to pay people of – teachers of – color more money.”
Former Councilmember Helen Gym noted that simply raising teacher pay isn’t enough to attract new teachers.
“I don’t think there’s any amount of pay that’s going to enable a teacher to walk into a school without a school nurse,” she said. “I don’t think that there’s any amount of pay that’s going to make up for when you walk into a classroom with 38 kids in a classroom, and there’s no support staff available for them.”
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Former Councilmember Derek Green pointed out that the school board is suing the city over a law giving the city the power to determine whether a school building is environmentally safe to open.
“We should not be seeing our tax dollars being used in a fight between two parts of our city government that’s supposed to be focused on education,” Green said.
While the candidates outlined their plan for district schools, most, including former controller Rebecca Rhynhart, said charter schools should remain part of the mix.
“We can’t wait for the neighborhood schools to get up to the place where every parent feels comfortable with that, and there needs to be the option of charter.”
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And former Councilmember Cherelle Parker said she’d push for no more summer vacation.
“Investing in corresponding behavioral health models, support for grass-roots community-based organizations and, quite frankly, year-round public school,” she said. “People are not working the farms in the summer.”
Allan Domb and Jeff Brown were the only two Democrats who did not participate in the forum.
The next mayor will have the authority to appoint an entirely new school board.