Edmunds (serving over 1,000 students in Grades K-8 in Frankford). String Theory Schools include Philadelphia Performing Arts: A String Theory Charter School (serving over 2,500 students in Grades K-12 on three campuses in South Philly and Center City) and Philadelphia Charter School for the Arts & Sciences at H.R. Using the arts as a catalyst, String Theory Schools harness the most innovative teaching and learning techniques, to serve as a model for education and to prepare students for success. Jonathan Cetel is the executive director of PennCAN, an education reform organization.At String Theory Schools, we are growing the next generation of creative leaders, developing our students’ innate potentials through our unique and rigorous curriculum blending academic and artistic excellence. We can’t legislate against bad decision-making in either the charter or traditional public school sector, but we can better remedy them through sound public policy. To prevent this, we should be able to collaborate on, in the words of Patrick Kerkstra, “something as basic as facilities financing for charter schools.” That, combined with better oversight and transparency, would make a big difference. But on financial accountability, I’m willing to admit we can do more.Ĭharter operators who misuse taxpayer funds to enrich themselves rather than their students deserve condemnation from charter friends and foes alike. At PennCAN, we have been vocally supporting SB6, legislation that would, among many things, make it easier to close low-performing charter schools. Just last week, Philadelphia Charters for Excellence and Philadelphia School Advocacy Partners put out a report calling for a better authorizing system that scales-up high-performing schools and closes low performing schools. On academic accountability, we are already doing that.
In conclusion, Patrick is right to urge the reform movement to regain its moral high-ground by calling out the bad actors in the charter movement. But if he goes down that route, it’s only fair that he looks at where families and taxpayers are seeing better results. It’s fair game for a reporter to do that. But Patrick is criticizing the entire charter movement by extrapolating from this one example. I have no interest in defending String Theory’s financial operation. Added up over the span from kindergarten to 12 th grade, that is the equivalent of nearly three years of additional learning. According to a recent study out of Stanford, in Philadelphia charters, students receive the equivalent of approximately 40 additional days of learning in both math and reading. We are on Team Quality Schools.Ĭharter schools in Philadelphia happen to better serve the student population that has been historically most underserved by traditional public schools: low-income and minority students. Public school advocates like PennCAN aren’t on Team Charter. To talk about education finance without talking about quality is like talking about the Phillies declining attendance without mentioning that they are on track to lose 100 games. In fairness, Patrick acknowledges this and is really just criticizing charters for, well, acting like districts in this regard. Who benefited from this deal that was so costly to taxpayers? Investment banks like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.
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