PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia City Council blocked one of Mayor Cherelle Parker’s school board nominees Friday after a campaign by charter schools to kill the nomination.
It’s the first major disagreement between council and the new mayor.
Council took current board member and former board president Joyce Wilkerson’s name off the table before the six-and-a-half-hour hearing on nominations began.
Council President Kenyatta Johnson said they want to work with Parker but don’t “see a level of support for Joyce Wilkerson to move forward with her nomination.”
Wilkerson was the target of a lobbying campaign mounted by charter school advocates, angry that she’s voted not to renew some of them.
Charter schools operate with school district money, but without board oversight until it’s time to renew. Board members have cited financial mismanagement and poor performance for not renewing schools, but council members charged racism even though Wilkerson is Black.
Current Board President Ronald Streater, who was reappointed despite charter advocates trying to scuttle his nomination, pushed back.
“As a Black man, I get it. I get when there’s a feeling of something, but it would be governmental malpractice if we did not find out whether somebody did something because they’re racist, or was there a legitimate non-discriminatory reason why it happened such as breaking the law, financial mismanagement, academic achievement that’s been sliding for 15 years? These are the things we have to consider,” he said.
Two other returning members were reappointed along with five new members.
Streater thanked council for approving the eight nominees but said they had “unfinished business,” indicating the mayor will continue to push for Wilkerson.
Parker said she wants to end the “us versus them” division between charters and traditional public schools and that the nine nominees reflected her vision of a united city.