Philly schools’ chronic absence crisis | Morning Newsletter
And a political boss’ old property is now a hiking gem
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The Morning Newsletter
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Welcome back. Like a lot of you, I spent the long Memorial Day weekend and the unofficial start of the summer staring at the ocean with my toes in the sand. What’s your favorite sign that summer is here? Email us and it may end up in the newsletter. 📧
You might see patchy fog on your commute this morning, but that should clear up quickly. We should gradually get more sun through the morning with temps reaching the high 80s.
Philly schools have struggled for years with poor attendance, but it’s now at a different level. Our lead story unpacks why nearly half of students in the Philadelphia School District aren’t showing up to school.
If you see this 🔑 in today’s newsletter, that means we’re highlighting our exclusive journalism. You need to be a subscriber to read these stories.
— Taylor Allen (@TayImanAllen, morningnewsletter@inquirer.com)
Missing school is the norm for an alarming amount of students in Philly schools.
A huge portion of district students — 46% — are “chronically absent.” That means they missed more than 10% of their school days, which puts them at risk of falling behind in reading and math, or eventually not graduating at all.
What’s going on: Poverty, safety fears, mental health issues, and lingering effects of the pandemic play a role in a deepening absenteeism crisis. Many students who struggle with attendance also say they don’t believe that their school provides engaging instruction with reliable teachers.
The Inquirer’s analysis and conclusions comes from detailed Philadelphia school attendance data obtained after a three-year legal battle with the district. This data was not previously public.
Keep reading to get the data breakdown of chronic absenteeism in city elementary, middle, and high schools.
J. Garfield DeMarco, Burlington County’s longtime GOP multimillionaire party boss, once owned 9,400 acres of a cranberry farm. It was once the third largest cranberry operation in the country.
DeMarco sold the farm 20 years ago to the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, and died penniless in 2019. At the time, the foundation’s $11.6 million purchase was the largest private conservation transaction in state history.
Over two decades, nature took over and created a Pinelands gem that plugged a hole connecting 250,000 acres of public conservation land.
Now known as the Franklin Parker Preserve, the 21 miles of trails are open to the public.
Continue reading to discover its expansive trails that pass through open meadows or dark pine and oak forests. 🔑
What you should know today
The Pennsylvania woman who threatened Nancy Pelosi with hanging during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot was sentenced to more than two years in prison.
Defenders of the Christopher Columbus statue in South Philly are suing Mayor Jim Kenney over the controversy surrounding its removal.
The vice chair and a commissioner of Philadelphia’s Citizens Police Oversight Commission resigned Tuesday over claims of infighting and turmoil. The oversight agency was created in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and in response to calls for police accountability.
The Philly region is one of only four metros where buying a home is cheaper than renting.
Pennsylvania’s Board of Nursing is taking steps to revoke the licenses of 18 people in connection with a nationwide scam in which an owner of four Florida-based schools sold fake college degrees and transcripts. Those students used the fake credentials to get nursing licenses from states nationwide. 🔑
Penny, a 522-pound great white shark, was tracked swimming in the shores of Ocean City, N.J. on Memorial Day.
We have a profile of Kelsey McKinney, the Philly-based host of the one of the most popular podcasts in the country, Normal Gossip. Get the full story on how she began sharing anonymized gossip from her Queen Village home.
Back in 1997, Billy Porter released his first R&B album. Like typical singers of the genre at the time, he sported a high-top fade and was romantic with women in his music videos. He presented as straight, but the industry still rejected him because he was gay.
He pivoted to theater, later winning a Grammy and a Tony for his role as Lola in Cyndi Lauper’s Kinky Boots The Musical and an Emmy for Pray Tell in Pose.
After a long hiatus, he’s back to making music.
Billy Porter will perform songs from his forthcoming album, Black Mona Lisa, tomorrow at The Met Philadelphia. He wrote 13 of the 14 songs on the album that is set to debut on Republic Records this summer. He’s unapologetically presenting as his authentic self.
In his own words: “I got a second chance at my mainstream music dream,” Porter told Inquirer columnist Elizabeth Wellington. “The music industry came back to me and I’m doing it now on my own terms.”
Continue reading to learn the story behind Porter choosing authenticity.
🧠 Trivia time 🧠
Which zoo will allow you to feed capybaras this summer?
A) Philadelphia Zoo
B) Cape May County Zoo
C) Cohanzick Zoo
D) Brandywine Zoo
Think you know? Check your answer.
What we’re...
💰Reviewing: The main takeaways from President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s agreement to raise the debt ceiling.
🏀 Explaining: The history of Nick Nurse and Joel Embiid. Despite their rivalry, Nurse knows the Sixers star’s game and recognizes he’s a high-caliber player. After all, he needed to understand his game to try to disrupt it.
🧩 Unscramble the anagram 🧩
Hint: This festival is back this weekend 🎤
CRISTIN COOP
Think you got it? Email us your best guess. We’ll select a reader at random to shout out here. Cheers to Charlene Wiltshire, who correctly guessed Sunday’s answer, Mirrorball Hat.
Photo of the day
And that’s your Wednesday morning news update. I’m off to look up Queen Charlotte reviews after finishing the season. Catch you tomorrow. 👋🏽