PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Reginald Streater understands hard times, because he’s lived them.
The new president of the Philadelphia Board of Education has a particular empathy for children in poverty because he was once homeless himself. Growing up in South Carolina, Streater’s family stayed in a shelter for a time.
“I understand what it’s like when you are living couch to couch because you are house insecure,” he said. “Or, when you are at home and the gas bill isn’t paid and the only source of warmth that you have is the school.”
Education, he said, shaped his life.
“What’s been the most important for me growing up impoverished is having that carrot at the end of the stick — that my mother, my father, mentors saying that education will make you be better at anything that you do.”
After his family moved to Philadelphia, Streater attended Leeds Middle School and Germantown High School. He received his undergraduate and law degrees from Temple University.
The 39-year-old was unanimously elected board president last month. He succeeds Joyce Wilkerson, who has led the board since Philadelphia regained local control of its school system in 2018.
He’s the only man on the nine-member board.
“I was raised to be in spaces where women had power and authority,” Streater said. “That gave me, I think, the temperament and the wherewithal to navigate spaces and do it in a way that’s not hyper-masculine.”
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Streater, an attorney at the firm Berger Montague, plans to continue the board’s student-centered approach, with a focus on gathering input from people who have a vested interest in board actions.
“Not stakeholder engagement just for the sake of ‘we check in that box,’” he explained. “When we’re making policies and huge decisions, for example, changing bell schedules, I think we have to include that on the front end.”
Streater said the board’s goals to improve student performance align with those of newly hired Superintendent Tony Watlington.
“We are in this together,” Streater said. “People ask me, what are my goals? My goals are his goals, and his goals are our goals. … That was one of our conditions, that if you’re going to lead the school district, we’re going to have a student-centered approach.”
The school board hasn’t authorized any new charter schools since regaining local control. Streater said that is a function of the board’s student-centered philosophy, not because of any bias by adults.
“We are not an anti-charter board,” Streater said. “We’re not a board that wants to close down a charter school because of the race, gender ideology, world view. … We also believe that we have to hold adults accountable for educating our children and keeping them safe.
“Honestly, some of the [charter] applications we’ve got — now, this is as an attorney — copying and pasting, not applying relevant Pennsylvania and Philadelphia law is actually insulting,” he continued. “I don’t see us never allowing another charter to open, but you have got to come correct.”
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The city’s next mayor will have the authority to reconstitute the school board, but Streater hopes the new mayor will value continuity and the fact that the board’s efforts are beginning to show academic progress.
“I hope that a mayor would build upon the work that we’ve done already. Embrace the goals and guardrails,” he added. “If a mayor wants to replace that, I would hope that he, she or they would have a platform that is better than that. Because I will tell you that we are starting to see shifts right now.
“You have to try to find a way to depoliticize education.”
Streater’s two children attend C.W. Henry Elementary School, and he said he’s “not afraid” to make tough choices and “stand in the breach and protect children.”
“You can trust and believe that if I’m making a decision, I am not only making my decision based off of the 200,000 other children. I am thinking about my babies.”
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