Keeping the District Above Water

Why is there a lack of funds in the School District? Who is spending the money? Where does the money go? Where does the money come from? Why are Public Schools so behind in education?

These are the questions that teachers, parents, and students have for the Philadelphia School District and the finances. But not many people get the opportunity that I was given to be on the School Reform Commission (S.R.C.) to have those questions answered.

The S.R.C. is a group of students and Philadelphia School District employees that meet to talk about Philadelphia schools and the district budget. The founder of the S.R.C. is the Chief Financial Officer of the School District, Mr. Matthew Stanski. He made the S.R.C. to give the public some answers about questions at the beginning of the blog and other information. Also the S.R.C. have and will have meetings in the School District to talk about the finances and how they make decisions to the public. The people who attend these meeting are split into groups with 2 facilitators. At these meetings the Executives of the School District of Philadelphia answer questions that the public has.

For example, one of the questions that many people have asked is “Where has all the money gone?” and the answer to that question is in this pie chart below:

I will be updating this blog with more information from this meeting so stay tune!

-Jacob Simmons