Philadelphia is home to an interesting newspaper on public education matters, the Philadelphia Public School Notebook. It has been a print publication in Philly for more than ten years, but now it has an Internet edition.
Philadelphia has been the target of some major privatization schemes, and the Notebook does an excellent job of covering these developments with powerful investigative reporting. Take a look at two articles in the last issue written by an old political friend of mine and Notebook editor, Paul Socolar. Gap widens between privately managed and District schools tells the story of the growing gap in test scores between the public schools that are still managed by the Philadelphia school district and the schools being managed by private EMOs, which more and more lag behind. Quest for contract documents became summer-long ordeal describes how the Philadelphia school district is attempting to hide the details of its outsourcing to private companies. Why does that sound familiar?
