PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The state board overseeing Philadelphia schools has refused to approve a new budget, saying the proposed spending plan doesn’t contain enough money to avoid disastrous cuts.
Superintendent William Hite Jr. said Thursday night he could not recommend the $2.4 billion budget “as educationally sound or economically prudent for the city or state,” The Philadelphia Inquirer (https://bit.ly/1jAijlI ) reported.
Hite said the district needed $216 million more just to maintain current levels of service he called inadequate, and $440 million more from the city, state, and labor unions to open schools in acceptable shape.
Bill Green, chairman of the School Reform Commission, said the “devastating and unacceptable” cuts that would result from the proposed budget would include at least 800 teacher layoffs, class sizes of 41 students and cuts to special and alternative education services. He vowed to focus on securing more funding rather than adopting the budget and giving “the impression that the cuts it contains are feasible or acceptable.”
Mayor Michael Nutter issued a statement calling the commission’s action “the only responsible action they could take given the uncertainty surrounding their revenues.”
Jerry Jordan, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, called the commission’s move “the only moral option.”
The city charter requires the school district to adopt a budget by May 31, and Green said he did not know what the ramifications of the action would be. He said the panel must reconvene on or before June 30 to pass a budget. City Council is governed by the same requirement and has missed its deadline for several years without penalties, the paper said.
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Information from: The Philadelphia Inquirer, https://www.inquirer.com
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