November 14, 2001

Via Facsimile
The Honorable John Street
Mayor, City of Philadelphia
Room 215 City Hall
Philadelphia, PA 19107

Dear Mayor Street,

After carefully considering the position you have taken in recent days regarding the state takeover of the Philadelphia School District, we believe your refusal to negotiate with the governor is ill-advised. We urge you to begin substantive discussions with the Schweiker Administration about the future of our schools as soon as possible. Granted, that discussion will occur on the governor’s terms, but the city has no other responsible alternative at this time.

Although we voted on opposite sides of legislation that authorizes the private management of the School District of Philadelphia, for the sake of the city’s children and families we have joined together to urge you to come to the table and negotiate with the governor. The current situation has come about in no small part because you invited state intervention through your actions in the weeks and months leading up to the passage of the bill. You could have avoided this had you not engaged in a process with former Governor Ridge that virtually guaranteed a state takeover in some form. The fact is that you set off a chain of events that you no longer control, and we are all left to cope as best we can with the result.

Thus, your main objective as mayor must now be to protect the interests of Philadelphia’s public school children as we enter into a new era of educational governance. To that end, we believe you should do your best to ensure an orderly transition of school district management that will allow our students to receive the best possible education within the framework that the state has legally established. Petty theatrics do not serve that purpose, nor does referring to Mark Schweiker as the accidental governor. As the previous school superintendent will no doubt attest, making derogatory comments about the leaders of state government will do more harm than good, both to you and to the school district’s cause.

You and we agree that the state has failed in its obligation to fund adequately the school systems in Philadelphia and other poor areas. The three of us know that former Governor Robert P. Casey initiated a statewide education equity plan a decade ago, and that the Ridge Administration promptly abandoned that plan when it assumed power. All three of us know that the Ridge Administration, during an extended and unprecedented economic boom which left the state awash in surplus revenue, refused to lift a finger to address the plight of children in underfunded school districts.

We cannot, however, change history. The Republicans who now maintain control of state government have enacted legislation to address the problems of the Philadelphia School District in a certain way. Your dealings with former Governor Ridge increased the likelihood of this happening. No matter how much we may disagree with their chosen course of action, we must deal with it as reality. Enormously important decisions about the future of education in Philadelphia will be made over the next several weeks. We encourage you to represent the interests of the city and its children by actively participating in negotiations with the governor during that time.

Sincerely,

(signed)

VINCENT J. FUMO, State Senator

(signed)

DWIGHT EVANS, State Representative

cc: The Honorable Mark Schweiker