5 takeaways from the education-focused Philly mayoral forum

Eight people vying to be Philadelphia’s next mayor promised much Tuesday night, from tearing down dozens of schools and building new ones to establishing an independent charter authorizer. They vowed to be tough on crime, to value teachers, to win millions more from Harrisburg.

The candidates’ declarations came at an education-focused forum, held at the Central branch of the Free Library and sponsored by Philadelphia’s school board.

Here are some key takeaways from the event, attended by candidates Warren Bloom Sr., Amen Brown, Jimmy DeLeon, Derek Green, Helen Gym, Cherelle Parker, Rebecca Rhynhart, and Maria Quiñones Sánchez.

Several candidates said they would give the schools more money, not by raising taxes but by shifting the district’s share of the city’s property tax revenue, so it receives more than its current 55%.

Helen Gym, the former City Council member and longtime education advocate, first floated the idea Tuesday night. Cherelle Parker, another former councilmember and state legislator, agreed, saying she wants to increase the district’s piece of the pie to 58%, which would amount to an increase of about $50 million annually, she said.

Parker also seemed to bristle at Gym’s claiming the issue. (Gym publicly advocated increasing the district’s share of property tax revenue to 59% in 2018; her call is not new.)

“I’m an English teacher. Plagiarism doesn’t sit well with my spirit,” said Parker.

“It’s not plagiarism, it’s good ideas,” said Quiñones Sánchez, who pushed moving the district’s share to 60% as a councilmember but said she couldn’t get the votes to support the increase at the time.

(Bloom, who earned the most laughs of the evening by frequently repeating rhyming campaign slogans, was frank: “Everybody up here has great ideas, and I’m not ashamed to say I’m going to adopt a lot of these ideas.”)

The school board has asked for an additional $318 million in recurring city funding over the next four years.

» READ MORE: The Philly school board wants the next mayor to prioritize these four things

Quiñones Sánchez said the district needs more teachers of color, and more bilingual and multilingual teachers.

To recruit more Black and brown teachers, “I would pay them differently, and I would challenge systems that do not allow me to do so,” Quiñones Sánchez said.

Parker said she’s for year-round school, and more emphasis on trades in the curriculum.

“People are not working the farms in the summer,” said Parker, who also called for incentivizing city residency for district teachers.

Green mentioned the elephant in the room — that relations between the city and district are not exactly warm and fuzzy since the district sued the city over a law that Green sponsored in City Council. The law established an oversight panel for environmental issues in city schools and gave Philadelphia’s managing director ultimate authority over whether schools are fit to open.

“We should not be seeing our tax dollars being used in a fight between two parts of city government,” Green said.

Most candidates said there needed to be better collaboration between the district and school system.

Gym, another former teacher, suggested Philadelphia’s superintendent would be a part of her cabinet if elected.

And, she said, “we’re going to present a unified budget. The city and the school district should not have separate budgets.”

For Philadelphia to move forward equitably, the next mayor needs to understand the neighborhoods and life situations of most Philadelphians, said Quiñones Sánchez, who grew up in North Philadelphia, attended public schools, and transferred to Mastbaum High School, a vocational school, after a counselor at Girls’ High told her she was not college material.

“Are we building this city for us, or are we building it for someone who’s going to come save us?” she said. “The person who manages this cannot do it from a place of privilege. They have to have lived it.”

Nearly every candidate promised things that Philadelphia’s mayor does not actually have the power to control, or suggested they would fix problems that would take millions to solve or have plagued Philadelphia for years.

Brown said that if he is elected, the city would “evaluate each and every school within the first 100 days, to see what it needs to be done,” whether it be renovation or knocking down buildings. The district has estimated it has $5 billion in unmet capital needs.

DeLeon, a retired municipal court judge, said that if he is elected, teachers’ pay would be raised and there would be stipends for their continuing education, more money for non-teaching assistants, and more services for students.

“You’re going to have teachers that feel like they want to teach you,” said DeLeon. “You’re going to have green spaces. You’re going to have social-emotional learning.”

Gym said extra pay was nice but more pressing were the issues of fixing staff vacancies and investing directly in classroom supports.

“I don’t think there’s any amount of pay that’s going to make a teacher walk into a school without a nurse,” she said. “Teachers will go to an education system they believe in. That’s the bottom line.”

Bloom said he would ask teachers whom they want appointed to the school board. Under city law, the mayor currently appoints school board members, who are confirmed by Council.

Green said an independent authorizer ought to be established for charter schools, which are currently approved by the school board.

“Charter-school parents do not believe there’s not bias in the approval process for charter schools,” Green said.

Under state law, local school boards govern charter-school authorization.