Philly school board’s change to limit speakers did not break any laws, a judge has ruled

The Philadelphia school board broke no laws when it limited the number of speakers at public meetings and shortened the time each person has to talk, a judge has ruled.

Common Pleas Court Judge Jacqueline F. Allen handed down the brief order in July, ruling against UrbEd Inc. and the Alliance for Philadelphia Public Schools, two community groups that strongly objected to the limits.

In 2021, the board made the changes, moving from no cap on the number of public speakers to a limit of 10 students and 30 members of the public. It also cut from three minutes to two the amount of time each can address the board. (Students’ speaking time has since been changed back to three minutes.) When the change was initially made, leaders said they wanted to spend more of each meeting scrutinizing district academics.

UrbEd, which was founded by district students, and APPS, established by former district educators, said the rule changes ran afoul of Pennsylvania law by “foreclosing the public from meaningfully participating in government operations.” The groups were represented by the ACLU of Pennsylvania.

The community groups hope to appeal the decision, said Brandon Archer, UrbEd co-executive director, and Lisa Haver, an APPS co-founder, who frequently references the district’s “speaker suppression” policy in board testimony. Stephen Loney, the ACLU of Pennsylvania’s senior supervising attorney, said no decisions have yet been made about whether an appeal will be filed.

School board president Reginald Streater said that the decision represents a vindication, and that the board “has attempted to create a process that both recognizes the voices that we would like to hear, but encourages new voices to be heard, as well.” (The policy prevents those who speak regularly from being heard every month.)

Members of the public can be heard not just by speaking during the public comment sessions, Streater said, but also by submitting written testimony, participating in community forums held on various topics, filling out surveys, and interfacing with the district’s Family and Community Engagement Office.

“The action meeting isn’t the end-all, be-all place for engagement,” Streater said. “We can’t do everything in action meetings.”

Streater said the board “is not in the business of censoring speech; it tries to balance the interests of doing the work of the people with actually hearing from the people.”

Loney, the ACLU lawyer, said that if an appeal were filed — the deadline is in two weeks — Allen would be asked to elaborate on her rationale for the decision. The order, filed July 21, is just one page and does not explain the reasoning underlying the decision.

“For practical purposes, we know that the Philadelphia school board, at least for now, got an endorsement to its approach to restricting public comment,” Loney said. But unlike elsewhere in the region and country, where school board meetings have sometimes devolved into shouting matches over issues like banning books and limiting students’ rights to gender expression, “it seemed like the school board just wanted to hear less from certain people who were frequent fliers at school board meetings.”

The judge’s order disappointed former board member Angela McIver, who testified on the community groups’ behalf in court.

The policy change never sat well with McIver, an educator who was on the board from 2018 to 2021.

“It felt to me like they were trying to shut down public voice,” said McIver, who testified on the community groups’ behalf in court. “I think that’s problematic. I really, truly believe if you have to sit for 10 hours listening to the public, then you sit for 10 hours listening to the public. That’s our job.”

McIver said her board decisions were shaped in part by the people who spoke at meetings, and the things they said.

“We don’t get a true understanding of public opinion when we start trying to manage the voices that get to speak,” McIver said.

Archer said although the ruling was disappointing, “I think that this is just a reminder that we need to push harder to make sure that the community is engaged in everything the district does. We need to be doing whatever we can to mobilize, to organize, to make sure that our voices are heard.”