Committee Hearing, February 6, 2007

COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Tuesday, February 6, 2007 10:15 a.m. - - - PRESENT: COUNCILWOMAN JANNIE BLACKWELL, CHAIR COUNCIL PRESIDENT ANNA C. VERNA COUNCILMAN W. WILSON GOODE, JR. COUNCILMAN WILLIAM GREENLEE COUNCILWOMAN DONNA REED MILLER COUNCILWOMAN BLONDELL REYNOLDS BROWN COUNCILMAN FRANK RIZZO COUNCILMAN DANIEL SAVAGE RESOLUTION 060807 - Resolution authorizing the Committee on Education to investigate and conduct hearings related to the reported crisis faced by the City of Philadelphia regarding the high dropout rate among public school students prior to high school graduation, for the purpose of examining the reported data and exploring corrective measures that can be taken to encourage high school graduation. - - - V A R A L L O Incorporated Litigation Support Services Eleven Penn Center 1835 Market Street, Suite 600 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103 215.561.2220 215.567.2670 2

Good morning. Let me thank you all for coming with regard to this important issue of the dropout rate in public schools and how it affects our city and what corrective measures in our schools can be taken. We thank you all for being here. I see Ted Kirsch. Thank you, Mr. Kirsch, always. And we will begin this hearing with the Clerk reading the title of Resolution 060807. Before he does, let me note that to my left is Councilman Frank Rizzo. To my right, Councilman Greenlee. To his right, Councilman W. Wilson Goode. The Clerk will now read the title of the resolution.

Resolution 060807, authorizing the Committee on Education to investigate and conduct hearings related to the reported crisis faced by the City of Philadelphia regarding the high dropout rate among public school students 3 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 prior to high school graduation, for the purpose of examining the reported data and exploring corrective measures that can be taken to encourage high school graduation.

Thank you very much. We will begin our testimony today -- we have a list that was prepared in the order it's requested, but we're going to ask our friend, Ted Kirsch, President of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, to lead us off. Thank you very much, Mr. Kirsch. Thank you very much, always a pleasure.

Thank you for allowing me to speak at this time because of my schedule. I appreciate it very much. Good morning, Chairwoman Blackwell and members of City Council. I'm Ted Kirsch, President of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers and AFT Pennsylvania representing 40,000 4 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 elementary and secondary school teachers, college professors and school support employees. Last year, in a study funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, researchers spoke to 16- to 24-year-old high school dropouts, including some from Philadelphia, to find out why they dropped out of school and what might have been done to encourage them to graduate. The study confirmed findings by John Hopkins University, the University of Michigan, the Philadelphia Education Fund and other respected institutions. They found that one-third dropped out because they were failing schools; one-third left to get a job; 19 percent left school and became parents; 20 43 percent had missed so much school they 21 felt they would never catch up; and 45 22 percent said their elementary and middle 23 schools had not given them the background 24 and skills they needed to succeed in high 25 school. 5 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 Other studies show whether a student graduates high school on time or not at all is strongly affected by poverty and race. Nearly half of African-American students and 40 percent of Latino students attend high schools where graduation is not the norm. By contrast, only percent of white 10 students attend high schools with low 11 graduation rates, according to the 2004 John Hopkins study. In the John Hopkins study, Pennsylvania was among the states that 15 produce 80 percent of the high schools with the highest number of dropouts. The study found that more than half of African-American students in Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania attend high school in which the majority of students do not graduate on time, if at all. This is a sad commentary on our schools. Dropping out is a complex, multi-faceted problem whose solutions 6 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 must begin in early childhood and continue with a broad range of policies and programs across all institutions and organizations, because research shows that a wide variety of factors are involved in dropping out. Among them, poverty, poor academic performance, substance abuse, pregnancy, legal problems, family stress, poor command of the English language, the education level of parents and older siblings. No single institution or agency can reduce the number of dropouts. However, there are various points through childhood and young adulthood at which we can intervene to improve students' chances of graduating from high school. I would like to outline some specific educational initiatives that would help to reduce the dropout rate. I think we must begin by providing universal early childhood education in Philadelphia. Nowhere is it 7 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 more evident than an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The correlation between high school graduation and enrollment in early childhood education programs is extremely well documented. In Philadelphia, 28 percent of kindergartners did not participate in any formal pre-kindergarten program. As a community, we must strive to enroll every at-risk child in a high-quality early education program by the age of four. We must reduce class sizes in grades K through three. Besides poverty, a history of academic failure is the most significant predictor of who will drop out of school. Small class sizes -- and we're talking about 15 to 17 pupils per classroom -- in kindergarten through grade three has been shown to help disadvantaged and minority children master basic skills. In Philadelphia, K to 3 classrooms still have 30 children per classroom, twice the size recommended 8 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 for effective instruction.

Despite this, there is no commitment by the city, state or School District to reduce class sizes in the early years or beyond. I urge you to make funding available to lower class sizes to help students succeed academically. Another important aspect or program, we should transform high schools by offering a variety of programs. Students need to see the connection between school and work. " Unable to see the relevance of what they are learning, at-risk students gradually lose interest, they start cutting classes, they fall behind and eventually they drop out. One way in which we can help them maintain an interest in school is by offering more work-study opportunities, alternative programs, more relevant vocational 9 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 programs, better career and technical training, and adult mentoring that helps put the classroom learning to use. Our vocational and technical programs are in shambles today, poorly equipped, badly marketed and so out of date that many still resemble the programs that were offered 30 or 40 years ago. Not every student will attend college, but every student will join the labor force, and our schools must be equipped to prepare them for work, qualify them for advanced career and technical training programs and, if they choose, attend college. To be successful, we must promote coordination between employers and schools to ensure that our programs prepare students for jobs that exist in the region. We must also improve the access to high-level coursework. Most students do better in schools where there are high expectations and high-level courses. In the Gates Foundation survey, a 10 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 Philadelphia student told researchers, "The work wasn't even hard. " High schools must expand access to honors, advanced placement and international baccalaureate courses, and Philadelphia has already taken steps in this area. Research shows that high expectations, coupled with access to advanced courses, will motivate students to succeed. One high school graduate said that she finished school not because she was more talented than the other students but because she was in the honors program. " Her small learning community included classes that challenged her and exposed her as early as middle school to adults who helped her map out a four-year educational plan that led to college. We must also offer more 11 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 programmatic choices for students. Students should be able to choose a high school based on course offerings, thematic orientation and extracurricular activities that meet their particular needs and interests. The era of large, impersonal comprehensive high schools is over. Research once again shows that students perform better when large schools are reorganized into smaller academic communities where individual student progress can be monitored for the warning signs that a youngster is at risk of dropping out. Sending a child to a school just because it is the one closest to his or her home doesn't make sense. Students should be allowed to choose among non-selective and selective high schools that meet their individual needs. We must also improve safety and order and enforce rules with real consequences. Not surprising, high school dropouts complained that they had too much freedom and not enough rules. 12 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 "In middle school, you have to go to your next class or they're going to get you. " And this is what a Philadelphia dropout told researchers. In the Gates study, students said there were too many distractions and many admitted they didn't have the maturity to make good choices. They said there were no consequences for roaming hallways, cutting classes or performing poorly. Two-thirds said that schools need to do more to keep students from cutting classes and said there should be better discipline. More than half said more is needed to be done to help students feel safe.

The issue of discipline cannot be stressed enough, particularly in large high schools. With staffing cuts and large classes, our schools need more adult supervision, effective discipline policies, consistent enforcement and fair consequences. 13 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 We must also create a system of middle grades testing and supports. We can tell many years in advance which students are likely to drop out. The Philadelphia Education Fund, in conjunction with John Hopkins University, determined that by sixth grade a student who has a poor attendance record, poor behavior or is failing either math or English has only a ten percent chance of graduating from high school on time. Armed with this information, we can identify potential dropouts early and provide them with intensive interventions. Among the components that are identified as successful are involving families and parents as much as possible; providing individual attention and instruction, including tutoring and outside mentoring; offering conflict resolution, anger management and other forms of counseling. Middle schools should consider implementing gateway testing at the end 14 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 of seventh grade, and students who test below basic should be given special support, tutoring and mentoring to improve their study skills and achievement levels prior to entering high school. The middle grades play a crucial role in preparing students for high school and college. The best way to lower dropout rates is to raise academic skills at all levels. We must also support teen parents and struggling families. No 14 teenager should have to drop out of school because of family responsibilities. We need a social service safety net that keeps students from dropping out because they need a job, must care for a family member or because they become parents. In the case of teen parents, Philadelphia's Comprehensive Early Learning Center program was once a model for cradle through elementary school childcare, providing nurturing, educational settings 15 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 for infants, children of teen parents and after-school programs for children of working parents. The program has all but been dismantled, although it offered a crucial link to keeping young parents on track for graduation. A quarter of all dropouts might stay in school if they had access to in-school childcare, teen parenting counseling and other social services. I think we must also raise the level age at which students may drop out. Students should not be allowed by state law to drop out of school prior to age 16 in any circumstance. Currently, 17 Pennsylvania law includes exceptions that allow students to leave school as early as age 14. Prior to dropping out, a student's parents or guardian should be required to sign the children out of school after both student and family receives counseling, information about educational alternatives, such as 16 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 alternative schools or earning a GED, and information on how to return to school later if the student chooses. Seventy percent of dropouts surveyed regret their decision and had planned to return to school. Sadly, only percent in the 8 Gates study actually did so. 9 We must improve supervision and 10 access to counseling, mentoring and 11 tutoring. " Students not only want more engaging, relevant curriculum but they also expressed a need for more adult contact. In the Educational Testing Service's groundbreaking study called "One Third of a Nation," it found that school counseling services nationwide are thoroughly inadequate and that counselors have so many other duties -- in Philadelphia, we have them covering classes -- that they can't advise too 17 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 many students. They have little time to work with students at risk or dropping out.

Counselors and additional adult supervision, including classroom assistants, mentors from outside schools and tutors, are crucial if we are to spot warning signs and to offer support mechanisms to stop students from dropping out. We must eliminate programs that have not proven effective at reducing dropout rates. Research has provided information on what programs work, as well as those that do not work. Among those identified by researchers as ineffective are government-mandated promotion policies and requirements without funding to implement them; making students repeat grades, such as overage middle and high school students are most at risk for dropping out; early interventions without follow-up; just teaching basic skills alone; work experience and on-the-job training 18 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 without adult mentoring and supervision; increasing the number of attendance officers without providing supports for students who are returned to schools. We should be wary of these quick fixes, because they usually are neither quick nor fix the problem. School is where children grow into young adults ready to contribute to their communities. If schools are to succeed, we must look for opportunities at every age and grade level to identify children who are at risk of dropping out and provide them with the support and programs that help them succeed and graduate. I appreciate the Council's interest in this important subject and the opportunity to speak with you today. All of the initiatives I've mentioned are backed up with research, and all of them cost money. I urge the Council to take the lead in coordinating the community's resources and providing new funds 19 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 dedicated to creating the programs, policies and supports necessary to keep children in school. Thank you. If there are any questions.

Mr. Kirsch, thank you for your excellent testimony. I wanted to ask you, you know, I remember when Hornbeck was a new superintendent, and there's so many things that we just talk about over and over again. We had in 10 or 11 schools, we had health agencies that went in schools and served as counselors, and their kids were telling them about abuse situations, about parents fighting, about all kinds of things they were going through, and it was private because it was a health agency. And at that point, Mr. Hornbeck said he would have them in all at least high schools, and we know that obviously that didn't happen. I note it because you mentioned counseling. And, also, I'm going to pass 20 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 out to Committee -- I was looking through a letter -- I was talking to Judge Doris Smith and told her that we had quoted her in a letter, a newsletter, January 1996. I'm going to pass these out to members of the Committee. In this letter on we talk about violence and here we talk about the same thing you just mentioned, which is expanding conflict resolution, peer mediation classes. And I dare say that this was the January 1996 newsletter. So those of us who have been around a while realize that the problems have gotten worse, but the solutions that we've talked about for many years are the same. But let me ask you your opinion and then I'm going to ask you a Board question really since Mr. Vallas is caught up in these issues with buses this morning. People always tell us we need cooking class and vocational ed, and I thought we needed meaningful job training 21 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 vocational ed, but now given the fact that we have so many children in our system who come from dysfunctional families in places where they haven't learned basic skills, maybe the old cooking classes at least get them trained. We who grew up in homes where it was taught took it for granted. And I wanted your opinion. So maybe even some of the old basic stuff may be helpful. What's your opinion?

As a product of the Philadelphia public school system and a proud graduate, I might add, I remember going through junior high school and one of the programs that we were required to do, we were given opportunities for various shops, and there were skills that we were exposed to. And I still remember, because I tell my wife how handy I am today, it's because I had these shops, and she said, It's a shame they didn't have a plumbing shop because you can't do very much along with 22 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 plumbing. But I did learn some skills that I still enjoy today, and I did take cooking that you mentioned. And I make reference to this because we were exposed to a variety of other opportunities. How many youngsters if they were exposed to some of these other opportunities would see that as a career path? And so just because it was junior high school and we were exposed, we had vocational schools where students could go to follow through. You mentioned previously a former administrator of the school system who didn't have that philosophy, and so our vocational schools de-emphasized vocations, which were jobs for kids. They were tracks that they could follow. And I remember one particular high school in South Philadelphia at 8th and Mifflin that I won't mention the name of the school, but that particular school eliminated one of its most popular programs, and that was hairdressing, that 23 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 young women who did not want to go on a college track would have an opportunity not only to learn a skill but they could have their own business, and it was eliminated. We went through a period where everything was computers. Well, there are jobs available and skills that are necessary. There's a skill and I remember when they eliminated shoe repair. Now, it may sound strange, but there was a need and is a need for people to have the skill, and we had programs in some of our schools. It was eliminated. So I think that the exposure to vocational education and revamping some of our programs is crucial, because students have to see -- if they're in school, they need to see a need to continue. The programs have to be relevant to what they believe is important to them. Not everyone is going to go to college.

Thank 24 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 you very much. I remember one of the courses we studied, those of us who became school teachers, was Cardinal Newman talking about a liberal education. I always think about that course, so I guess it worked all these years later. When they talk about cutting out so many, whether it be sports or art or music, I always think about that course we learned that we had. I guess I had that at St. Joseph's University where we learned about a liberal education and how youngsters should be exposed to many things. Let me just ask you one more question. This is really a Board question, but I was --

I'd be glad to answer for them.

Thank you. In their Report Card 2006, they list -- in fact, I have an extra -- I'm sure you have your book. They talk about truancy incidents and it's a big thing 25 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 about kids who drop out in four years, juvenile victims of crime, who is dependent, children receiving medical assistance, youth in and out of home and placement, all kinds of information here. My question for you is, when they mention truancy incidents, I understand the number is 80,000, but I don't know what that means. Is it 80,000 incidents in a year? Is it children? I don't know what it means in terms of truancy, because truancy certainly and dropout rate are linked. And I'm not even sure if truancy means you're not in school three days or -- I'm not really quite sure after talking about it often, I realize that I'm not quite sure how we define "truancy" and to whom it applies.

Well, that's one question I can't answer for them, because they compiled the statistics, but I can recall during my career as a public school teacher that after the third day of absence, we were required to fill in a 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 form, which was then called the SEH-14. Do you remember?

Yes.

And we had employees who were called Home and School Visitors that had to go and deal with the home immediately to find out why that youngster is not in school, and there was direct contact. The presence of those positions have all been eliminated, and at this point, we don't really have people with the direct connection to the school to report. But a link with the teacher -- now, I know there are some programs and people are talking about hiring people to get the students and bring them back, but if you're going to get the students and bring them back, we have to change the very reasons that they dropped out, that they're not there. So to pick them up off the street, bring them back in and if we're not going to change those conditions, this problem is going to 27 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 continue.

Yeah. I hear many things today about how children are notified. In one of our school violence hearings in the past -- we've had three -- we talked about how students are notified. And now I understand they even have recordings where they try to call the home. But as is obvious, due to all our problems, we have a serious disconnect between the home, the school and the community. So maybe Ms. Frattone, who is going to speak for Paul Vallas, can answer the questions when she comes forward. We just want a real definition of "truancy" while we're talking about dropout rates. And let me note that Councilman Savage is here, as is Councilwoman Reynolds Brown. I'm taking enough time. Councilman Rizzo, you wanted to ask Mr. Kirsch a question? 28 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807

Thank you. Mr. Kirsch, there's two points that I want to discuss with you. One is the fact that learning how to do the shop stuff I think is very important. And I'm not sure where the automatic program was, but I know, I know personally, young men and women that went through that that are working very successfully in car dealerships today making very, very good livings. Many of those young people were sought out by those dealerships because they went to that automotive program. And the reason I'm asking the question, I ran into a young man that works today for Chrysler Corporation and he enters this rodeo every year where they troubleshoot, they booby trap a car and they find it within minutes, the problem, a product of the Philadelphia School District automotive program. So I think it still exists, but I don't know to what degree it exists. And I agree with you, not everybody goes to college, and to be able 29 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 to come out of high school and have the ability to work with your hands and your mind is very, very important. The other issue, I've always talked about the fact that I think it isn't a good thing that we allow young people to voluntarily leave school at the age of 17. Today you said something that I didn't know, that there are exceptions, that they can leave even at an earlier age. Do you believe that the young men and women that leave at the age of 17, if the age was 18, that that one year could turn them around or keep them in school because they can't leave? I've always asked the question why. Mr. Vallas even indicated that he would look at the possibility of working with the Legislature to see if changing it to 18, but it's troubling today to hear -- can you explain the exceptions that allow them to leave at 14?

Well, I think 30 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 they're done on an individual basis, but I think your point is well taken. If we can keep them in an extra year -- but we know who they are. We can identify them. So that if we know that they're going to be on this track of dropping out, we should be changing the program. We should be giving them what they're going to need when they do leave. But to keep them in the same roster, same classes, that's what's driving them out. Because we have the information that identifies who they will be, we have to change the programs to help them. That was your second question. I want to go back to your first question, because it's interesting. We have in one of our high schools, Edison High School, a program where the auto shop program works with the City of Philadelphia. The City automotive agency is close by. And some of the students, as part of their program, do go on and work in the City garage part time, and most of them, I 31 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 believe, are hired by the City. So they have this training in high school, they have this career link to get the on-the-job experience, and then when they prove to be successful, they're hired by the City. And I think we need more of those types of programs, the connection between our vocational programs and the real jobs that are out there.

Well, it's interesting you say that. I was just approached by an airline that is having difficulty finding technicians, not to work necessarily on the aircraft, because that's a different level, but they have an immediate need to hire people that know how to work on the ground support equipment. So I'm working right now with trying to have the School District work with -- it's U.S. Airways that would love to be able to train the technicians on the type of equipment that they have so there would be part-time and then eventually full-time jobs from the School 32 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 District right to U.S. Airways. So these creative things like you mentioned, you have to have the young people, especially that don't like school, get a hot button that's something that they like, and if maybe supporting an international airline carrier on their ground equipment to learn how to fix that equipment in school and that gives them an opportunity to go to work and they make a good living is a success story. So I'm just hoping that we can turn some of the things that you discussed today around and get back to basics. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Let me also note, you can't mention automotive without us talking about West Philadelphia High School and their national awards. We've even honored them here.

Our champions.

Yes, 33 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 our champs. Thank you very much. Councilwoman -- excuse me. Council President Verna.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Good morning. So nice seeing you.

Good morning.

We all know that truancy leads to dropouts, and I think at our last hearing I spoke about and I heard that children are bored and consequently they drop out of school, and I asked why wouldn't we have more vocational schools. Can you tell me exactly how many vocational schools we have throughout the City today?

Well, we basically have the traditional what we refer to as "the big three" historically, Bok, Dobbins and Mastbaum, and there was the addition of the Swenson Skills Center and the Randolph Skills Center. And they 34 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 basically are the main focus of the programs that exist. Many of the programs were also in our comprehensive high schools. So you didn't have to necessarily go to a vocational school; we had these programs in our comprehensive high schools. And many of them are dropping the programs, and I think that is a major shortcoming of the School District. And they will probably say it's really due to funding, that we just can't afford to have all of these programs, but I think if we're going to address the real issue of what some of our youngsters need and would like to have, we have to have the programs for them.

Do you have any indication as to how many students we have in the three vocational schools?

I do not, but I am sure that the School District has those figures. 35 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807

I guess I went through the Internet as you did and I see that for the mandatory starting age, it is absolutely incredible, in just --

I think it's eight.

-- about every state youngsters start at six or seven. It's only in Pennsylvania and in Washington that they have to start at eight years old. Now, is that a state law?

I believe so.

And would you recommend that we -- I think you did -- recommend that we try to change that?

We have always advocated changing and lowering the age. In fact, I would like it to go perhaps down to five. I mean, people generally think of six and first grade, but I think that five is much more effective in what 36 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 eventually would help youngsters.

Well, I know that the high school dropout rates have really become a national crisis and it's something that has been existing, and I think if we don't take some action, it's going to continue to exist. And I really appreciated your testimony. I did go through the Internet and it's really alarming to read much of the studies that have been done. And I think if something is not done and done soon, we're just going to lose generations of youngsters going to school. But I want to thank you for coming in to testify.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam President. Councilman Greenlee and then Councilwoman Reynolds Brown.

Good morning, Mr. Kirsch.

Good morning. 37 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807

Thank you for your testimony also. I have kind of a general question, but there's obviously a lot of things in here that seem to be kind of common-sense recommendations. Have there been any ongoing discussions between the PFT and the School District administration to deal with these kind of issues? Because obviously you guys are right there in the inside, if you will. Have there been any kind of ongoing discussions, and if so, what kind of reactions have you been getting?

Well, we have -- as advocates for our youngsters as well as our members, people would be surprised that much of the negotiations that take place every several years really focuses on improving education. You know, the traditional salaries and health benefits, that usually comes at the end of the process, but we have for many years been advocating all kinds of programs to 38 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 improve our schools, additional supports for teachers, particularly because the high schools are the biggest focal point of dropouts. We have been advocating for years to bringing back the department heads that give greater supervision for the teachers to enable them to do a better job with their students. And so these topics, the vocational education, all of these topics are something that we have been advocating for many, many years. And the response is basically from the School District, Yes, you're right, we agree with you, but we have no money.

And has that been pretty consistent both with this administration and previous? I mean, is the answer pretty much that kind?

In previous administrations I think when they eliminated programs, there was a shifting that had taken place. Well, we're going 39 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 to take this money because we don't think this is important. And clearly, we were told there was a time when vocational education wasn't important, and they just took that money, shifted it somewhere else. Well, over a period of years, the money gets used for other reasons and it doesn't even exist. You can't even put it back, because it's not there anymore.

And has this administration been -- has this differed at all?

I think the difference with this administration is the lip service that we receive, and I say that advisedly, because, yes, we're right, yes, they agree with us, but there has not been any action to take place. And I'll give you a perfect example. I have heard the superintendent -- I'm sorry he's not here to hear me say this, because I don't want it being delivered to him in the wrong way. But from the time he came here, he has talked about 40 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 class size reduction. I don't believe that there is a public meeting or a hearing that he has gone to that he doesn't talk about the importance of reducing class size. We have a situation today where under the present school administration we have the highest number of oversized classes that we have ever had in my memory. And some of you know, I have -- so far, my memory is pretty good. I've been around a long time. We have the worst situation today with oversized classes that we've ever had, in my recollection. And I should point out that I first went to work for the union in 1970. Number two, we have the highest number of split grades today than we've ever had. It is impossible for a teacher to stand in front of a classroom with youngsters in two different grades and give them the programs that they need. And the worst part of the split grades, 41 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 most of them occur in the lower grades when the most important part of the youngsters' education is taking place. Those grades one to three we have split grades. We as a union have been complaining about this. It hasn't worked, and I would hope that perhaps some pressure from City Council can address these two problems, because they are connected. They are connected. When you look at the research, we have oversized classes, when research says they should be smaller. We talk about individualized attention, and we have more youngsters than the teacher has the time to deal with individually. So I think even the present problems that we're having, even with the finances, that this problem, as President Verna pointed out, it's going to get worse. It's just going to continue unless we begin to deal with these problems now. 42 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807

I certainly agree with you. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Councilman. Councilwoman Reynolds Brown.

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Good morning. Just a couple of follow-ups first before I get to the centerpiece of my discussion. With regards to class size, in more recent years has the practice or procedure or agreement been that principals make a determination on how they want to spend their budget dollars within their school and, therefore, make a determination on how many teachers will have X number of students? Is that correct or not?

Well, partly, partly in that principals have been given more say over the money spending. However, we have contractual agreements 43 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 in terms of the limitation of class size and they cannot use discretion to violate the agreement.

Principals cannot?

No, they cannot. And that's where we go to administration and we say, In X school, class size is limited to 30, say, in a first grade and you have 33, that's wrong. There should be given additional help. Additional teachers should be hired to lower the class size.

Okay. Let's go back to a couple of other observations that you made. You indicate that there was a time when or a time came when there was a shift of dollars from vocational programs to other programs. Approximately when was that?

I believe it took place in the middle '90s or latter part of the '90s. Just to give you a more 44 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 specific concrete example, the pot of dollars is limited. We, most of us who went through the public school system, remember when there were eight school regions -- or districts they were called. Well, under that administration they increased the number from eight to 9 administrative districts. So it means 10 the additional administrators that were 11 hired, the new offices that had to take 12 place. So the funding was shifted -- 13

I see. 14

-- from one place. 15 That's just one example. There were 16 other examples of where -- 17

So that's 18 when the major shift -- well, there was 19 clear evidence of the decrease in the 20 amount of dollars for vocational 21 programs? 22

Yes. And at the time, the person who was in charge of vocational education, the philosophy was that vocational education is not 45 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 important. Everything was computers, was the only answer, and this is what they publicly would say, We have to move to computers, at that point. I tried at that time to work with the building trades unions and the School District to create programs that would give more opportunities. Now, fortunately, in the past year those relationships between the building trades and the School District did come to fruition, but they started back in the latter part of the '90s and nothing happened all those years.

Okay. The existing contract took place when? The start of the existing contract, the start date for that was when?

Which contract?

The current contract.

With the Federation and School District?

Yes. 46 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807

I believe it was 2004, and it expires August 31, 2008.

During negotiations, was it proper, was there consideration, did you negotiate the need for what you just described, the need for stylists, hairdressing types of options, carpentry and related programs? Were they a part of the 2004 negotiations?

We talked about all kinds of educational programs and made offers, but the School District does not -- and, again, I don't want to be speaking and advocating for them, but they do not want to have in writing these kinds of programs, because they feel that they don't necessarily have the flexibility. They want to be able to make these decisions. So they don't want to agree. They may verbally say that they agree with us, but they don't want to put anything in writing that ties their hands.

But the 47 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 PFT did put those types of considerations, program options, on the table for review?

I'm not -- I don't want to -- I'm going back a few years and I can't recollect that necessarily they were specific, but I know we talked about vocational education, we talked about opportunities. And I can't offhand say that we talked about specific these particular programs, because I remember -- and the person that was the spokesperson for the School District at that time is no longer an employee. He moved on to, I believe, St. Louis, and I don't know where he is at this time. But he did not agree.

So what agreements were reached in the area of vocational education?

There were none specifically.

Were Home and School Visitors negotiated in the 48 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 last contract or the need for Home and School Visitors?

They were eliminated a number of years ago, several other contracts. Just keeping along talking about negotiations, but we did advocate for more NTAs, non-teaching assistants. There's been a -- we talk about violence in school, lack of adult supervision. The School District has eliminated more than half, practically all, of the non-teaching assistants that supervised students in the schools. In some of the testimony where students said they can walk around and nothing would happen, it's true.

So has that particular role or duty been replaced with a professional who is no 22 longer identified as a non-teaching assistant but performs the same duties and responsibilities of an NTA?

Well, the School 49 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 District tries to tell us -- and we don't accept everything that they say -- that they have gone out into the communities and they're bringing people in. But you used the word "professional." If you bring somebody in from the community to take the job, they haven't been trained, they don't have the relationship with the student. So to say, Well, we're getting rid of this one person and we're bringing someone else in doesn't really add up, because there are many shortcomings in this particular program that is replacing the non-teaching assistants.

And so you believe, then, that training would make a difference for those individuals typically who are community-entrenched parents?

In fact, in the negotiations, that was one of the issues that we did -- not only did we discuss, but they agreed that training was important, that non-teaching assistants 50 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 should be trained. They haven't necessarily fulfilled that obligation, but they agreed and it is in writing.

So they have not fulfilled the obligation of training?

Of the training.

To use Chairman of this Committee, Councilwoman Blackwell's, expression, which I completely agree with, some folks see the glass as half empty and others see the glass as half full. What would you say does have value, does have merit currently in what the School District is doing around the issue of youth opportunities and that link or not to truancy and high school dropout?

I will give an opinion, and I want to emphasize opinion, because I know the School District is going to disagree with me. But at this point in time, I don't see that there are any programs at all that are dealing with 51 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 the issue of dropping out. I don't see where research tells us what should be done that the School District is necessarily doing what has to be done in terms of the dropout issue.

And so given the reality as you've just portrayed it, what would you offer or recommend or suggest good practice programs that need to be looked at and considered to address the issue this Committee is dealing with?

I believe that we cannot escape the fact that the School District needs more money, and there have been calls for the City to provide some additional money. I think that if this Committee and the Council believes and agrees with me that money is needed, I think that you don't give a blank check. I don't think you just say, Here's 10, 20, 30 million dollars. If we look at the research and we know that something works, then the 52 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 additional money should be given and saying, You know what, class size, grades one to three, that's where we want this money being spent. You presently have oversized classes, split grades. That should be the first priority, rather than say, Oh, we're just going to give you money and then it just disappears and we don't know -- we can't track, we can't track where the money is today.

Sure. Okay. You stated again in your testimony that there needs to be, and I quote, "a connection between curriculum and the real jobs." Offer up an example that speaks to that that would reflect that opinion.

There are many programs in the technology that's taking place today, sometimes your head spins when you realize the things that are being worked on. I think we need to have a closer link with the business community and small businesses and high-tech 53 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 businesses. And just as Councilman Rizzo said, there are jobs out there, but we are not training our people for these jobs. And I think we have to set up a program where we talk to the business. What is it you need, what type of employee? What skills should they have? And then we go to the schools and we train youngsters to meet the needs of the jobs that are out there, because the marketplace is changing. And we also -- and I have to point out, some of our teachers need the upgrading and the skills and the training, and we have to have programs that enable them that -- particularly in the summer, and some companies have it -- where they take on teachers, even on a part-time basis, so the teacher has a much more realistic view of what the workplace is like to help the students with the skills they need.

To your point, link with the business community, 54 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 talk that through. Do you believe that the business community should step up and put dollars on the table for training for young people in Philadelphia public schools if there can be an assurance that those young people are then going to land in real jobs once the business community makes the investment? Do you believe the business community should step up and put dollars on the table?

I think they have to do more, because I think you will find there are programs -- and I can cite a program called the Academy Program, where in some of our comprehensive high schools what I have described, it does exist, where businesses are linked with the schools and they do have their employees come in to the schools, the youngsters come out into the businesses and they do help to fund. I think it's a program that has to be expanded. It exists, it works, and we have to use it more.

And in 55 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 that particular program, the business community does indeed put dollars on the table?

Yes, but the dollars are more specific to the programs in the schools, which makes sense.

Absolutely.

Helping to fund equipment and training programs. Some of them have part-time jobs for the youngsters to work.

Okay. Can you see that we can get some background information on the program you just described, get that to the Chair of the Committee?

I will have the Director of the program get directly in touch with you.

That is not to say I am unfamiliar with the Academies Program. I'm very familiar with it. 56 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807

Yeah, but you want more information.

Yes, please.

In fact, I will make a note of it so I don't forget.

Mr. Kirsch, you're getting all this because Paul Vallas isn't here. We hope you don't mind.

No. I welcome the opportunity. So often I give testimony and the response is "thank you very much" and I'm on my way. This is something that -- I remember going back to when Councilman Augusta Clark was Chairperson of the Education Committee at the time and when I gave my testimony, I knew I was going to be here for a very long time, and the other members of Council. I do not in any way -- in fact, I do appreciate the opportunity, because the questions that you're raising moves into other areas that was limited by the 57 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 formal testimony.

Sure. Then, finally, are you familiar with the teen centers that are operating in a number of the rec centers in the City?

Not really, other than I know of their existence, but I really don't know too much about the operation.

I mention them only because the thinking of the Recreation Commissioner, which I applaud, was that there were inadequate, the new buzz word is, youth opportunities for young people between the ages of 13 and 17, meaning that the way you program for 7- to 12-year-olds, if you want to capture the attention of 13- to 17-year-olds, it required different programming, and to that end, they found dollars and opened up a number of teen centers. In fact, the first of which was in Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell's community. And they were tied directly 58 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 to the juvenile delinquency numbers in that part of the City.

I think the difference is that with the schools, youngsters are mandated to be there. When you have programs in the various recreation centers, it's more on a voluntary basis, so it's almost a natural selection. The people who are interested tend to go, and very often it's the people who don't go are the people that we're referring to in terms of high school dropouts.

I see. So my final question is, we have to wait until 2008 with the next round of negotiations where the PFT can have substantial input around vocational education and why there needs to be a greater number of vocational programs because they become viable options for young people on the brink or at risk of dropping out?

I don't think we 59 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 have to wait until 2008. The School District and the Federation does have open dialogue on a regular basis. We do meet with the various departments. In fact, I see -- or he was here. He might be behind me. But Mr. Al Bichner, who is in charge of the high schools, and if he's given an opportunity to speak, I'm sure he can be much more specific about the operation. But it's an ongoing dialogue. It's not, Okay, let's wait for 2008. I think many of you know that myself and my colleagues, Mr. Jordan and other members of the staff, that we're not bashful. We don't wait. We don't hesitate to speak out when we believe things are wrong and need to be corrected. So we're not setting a timetable to say, We'll wait to talk about it. We're talking about it now. We believe now we should be making the changes before it's too late.

Thank you 60 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 very much for your testimony.

Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Before Councilman Goode speaks, let me note the presence of Councilwoman Donna Miller. And let me note that all these past years when we tried not to be too hard on you and question you, I didn't realize you missed it. But give Jerry Jordan our best as well. He's always excellent. Let me say, this Committee, we will gift you with a pen. Every year we get pens made that say "study hard and stay in school," and rulers. Every year we do this. And for the Committee, just in case you don't know, we've been doing a few newsletters a year in color, living color, since about 1992. In addition to that, we've done a Council book. So that this Committee should be proud. The last 61 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 one was '04 to '07. So now that we're running, we'll end up doing another one for the '08 -- after '08 election. We've also done newsletters for Dr. Charles Blockson, who just retired December 31st from Temple. We've also done newsletters for the Mayor's Commission on African and Caribbean Affairs. So you should be proud. We're trying to do our part where we see a need. Nobody said you need to do newsletters or you need to do City Council books. After 9/11 we did a real beautiful red, white and blue color. But we try to fill in the void where we think there is one. We believe in it. So we're trying to do great things. It's not easy, and all these things cost money. So we're happy to contribute our part to trying to make life better, and we use it. It all comes from our educational background, Mr. Kirsch, that we continue to use in everything we do. 62 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 Councilman Goode.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Good morning, Mr. Kirsch.

Good morning.

Actually, I have only one question. Do you have a specific funding recommendation for class size reduction?

You mean in terms of dollars or the numbers of --

Both. In terms of dollars and what is your goal in terms of class size reduction?

Well, I couldn't, off the top of my head, couldn't give you the number, because it depends on the number of students what the dollar -- although we could get that to you, what the total dollar would be. But I think the research shows that we're talking somewhere between 15, 17 in terms of an ideal number, particularly in the lower grades, because I know that the cost, if 63 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 you projected this throughout the schools, the cost would be unreal, and I don't -- we have to be realistic, but I think the emphasis is the younger grades.

My question was not so much what is the ideal class size but whether you have a specific funding recommendation in terms of what our next move should be. The Mayor's Educational Task Force is about to come out with funding recommendations and other recommendations. My question is in terms of all the things you've mentioned, if we were to focus squarely on class size, would you have a specific funding recommendation related to that?

After class size?

If we were to focus squarely on class size, would you have a specific funding recommendation related to that?

Well, my recommendation would be whatever dollars the Council felt would be appropriate to 64 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 recommend for the School District, that it be given with strings attached, that if you believe that it's important and we give additional money, that the direction is that the money should be used specifically for the reduction in class size, rather than just say School District has a $70 million crisis, just we need money. I think --

But you have no specific recommendation in terms of dollar amount?

No, I don't. I don't know the dollar numbers, so it would be hard for me to do that. Although we have people that could -- I could get back to you and say this is what it would cost.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I neglected to note before I call on Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller that we've also printed 65 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 newsletters on an open classroom that have been taken to five countries in Africa, and they show that we can do basic skills. We printed newsletters for daycare providers who have daycare in their homes, and this gives them an academic basis so that children are able to compete in regular school. And we've taken these all over the world and found out that this system works. And so we have news -- we have really been committed to doing our part to enhance education, to get the word out and to try to represent this Council well. Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller.

Thank you. Good morning, Mr. Kirsch.

Good morning.

I just wanted to talk just a little bit about early childhood ed, because I really believe that's where it starts. I 66 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 remember years ago there was a special project up in Cheltenham at the mall actually for preschoolers and the theme and the mission was to teach children to learn to love to learn. And I just remember that because I used to take my daughter there every Saturday, and I just thought it was a good concept. Do you think those are the kinds of things we can do when we have children in early ed or some type of message that we can send? And when I say "we," I mean everybody, because this is a partnership between government and parents and the community and religious institutions. I'm on the Mayor's Scholarship Committee and I review the scholarship applications for University of Penn, and over the years it's changed in terms of who the top students are from various schools, and many of our students whose parents were immigrants, particularly the Asian population, are really outdoing a 67 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 lot of the American children, and I think that's because at home they are taught like education is it. I mean, it is the key. And I think that may be missing. When I think about when my own children were in kindergarten and some of the children that were acting out then are the dropouts now, it seems like something is missing. We got to figure out what to do. And I have friends who teach in public school and when we talk about prevention even for youth violence, they said it has to start in kindergarten, but I really believe it needs to start in pre-school. So what do you think about that?

I agree that pre-school -- it's too late, kindergarten. I mean, you can talk to kindergarten teachers, and I remember talking to some, saying that when some of their youngsters came in kindergarten, they had never used crayons before. I 68 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 mean, we just take it for granted because some of us who have grandchildren and just kind of they play with it at an early age. But the skills are not and opportunities aren't there. I think that another suggestion that we could make, and it's a non-cost item, we should be encouraging parents to read to their children. There's a readiness. I mean, the stories, the reading that has to take place. And I believe that those that get to pre-school, because we show that that works, but not everyone has that opportunity. We should be talking to parents, young parents, teen parents that haven't had an opportunity to get the skills and the training, read, read, read to these youngsters. And it really is part of readiness for a school, and it can't just start at kindergarten. It starts at a very, very young age. In fact, I remember reading at one time about a suggestion -- and I don't know if 69 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 it's valid or not, but I did read about it -- that when women are pregnant, that people should begin to read to the woman so that the baby will begin to be exposed. I don't know whether that's an old wives' tale or not.

We've all heard that.

But I've read about things like that. But reading is important and it has to start even before the youngsters really understand what's being read to them, but it's that whole concept that's the beginning that's important to get them ready for school.

That's true. And I see down here that you have by high school, students need to see the connection between school and work and just school and life, period, education and life, and I think that that's missing a lot. When you think about children that start kindergarten, their first day of school or just their anticipation of 70 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 going to school, they are so excited. I don't personally know any young child that actually did not want to go to school. They are really, really, really excited. And if we could keep that excitement level up and nurture them and educate them and teach them that school is not a punishment, it's someplace you really have to go because there's an end result somewhere, if we could teach it at age appropriate levels and whatnot, I just think that that's so important. Because at some point, some children do get peer pressure about being successful. I don't want to sit here and talk about stories, but I've heard too many things, not just from my children but my family's children, about being ridiculed because they made the honor roll or something like that. Something is missing. We got to figure this out, and I think we can be a little bit more successful. Thank you.

Any other 71 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 questions for this witness? (No response.)

Well, then we thank you, Mr. Ted Kirsch, President of PFT for your time and your testimony.

Thank you, and I will get back to you, Councilman Brown, with the information about the Academy Program. And to Councilman Goode, I made a note to try to get some dollar figures for you what it would cost to implement the suggestion that I made.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for your testimony. (Applause.)

They're trying to freeze us out of here, but we're trying to prevail. That's one way to get the hearing over with.

It's colder in the schools. 72 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807

Oh, boy. I can't joke anymore. Mr. Kirsch says it's colder in school, so that ends my -- I was going to continue to joke, but that's serious business. All right. Thank you very much, Mr. Kirsch. Give Jerry Jordan our regards. Laura Shubilla, Philadelphia Youth Network. Did I pronounce your name correctly?

Yes.

Good morning. Welcome. If there's anyone here who is not on the list, if you see John Christmas, he'll make sure if you didn't ask in advance to testify so that we can introduce you. I thought so, Mr. Johnson. Good morning.

Good morning.

Please identify yourself for our record and 73 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 begin your testimony.

Good morning. My name is Laura Shubilla and I'm the President of the Philadelphia Youth Network, and we have Tracee Hunt and Pamela Crawley, who were on our list to testify a little bit later, who are going to come up and testify with me since their time is limited today.

And we owe Ms. Crawley certainly an apology. Last time she stayed here a very long time, and we really appreciate your time. We understand the kind of schedule that you have and how important you are to our City.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you again for coming.

So it is my privilege to appear before you this morning to discuss Philadelphia's work to enhance educational opportunities for struggling students and out-of-school 74 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 youth. I am speaking this morning first on behalf and as a member of the Youth Transitions Collaborative and second for my organization, the Philadelphia Youth Network. Let me begin by recognizing and thanking you, Madam Chair and Councilmembers, for your leadership in holding this hearing on such an important issue. Your interest is both timely and extremely important. Rarely have social, economic and moral imperatives aligned so clearly to urge our consideration and action. I hope that this hearing will be the first of many actions that will bring attention and much-needed support to some of our most vulnerable youth and that will also shed light on the great potential of our young people to become active and productive citizens. Just to give you a brief background of the Philadelphia Youth Network and of the Youth Transitions Collaborative, the Philadelphia Youth 75 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 Network is a seven-year-old non-profit dedicated to ensuring that Philadelphia's young people take their rightful place in the City's high-growth economy. To that end, we manage over million annually 7 from government, foundation and private 8 investments that support 9 employment-related programs and services 10 for almost 10,000 young people through 11 WorkReady Philadelphia and other related 12 programs. The Philadelphia Youth Network 13 also serves as the convening partner of 14 the Philadelphia Youth Transitions 15 Collaborative, a group of leaders from 16 the City's major public systems and youth 17 advocacy and support organizations, 18 including the School District of 19 Philadelphia and various City 20 departments. This Collaborative has been in existence for the past 18 months. Philadelphia was one of five cities that was selected nationally to look at the strategies to better serve out-of-school youth. 76 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 The Collaborative was formed in 2004 to oversee significant foundation grants, including major support from the William Penn Foundation, all designed to expand the availability of high-quality learning options for struggling students and out-of-school youth. This morning you're going to hear from a number of members of the Collaborative who will speak about the important work that has been going on and will discuss recommendations for citywide action. Last October, the Collaborative launched Project U-Turn, a citywide campaign to bring attention to and resolve Philadelphia's dropout crisis. The statements on the poster to the right express the vision and belief that have guided the Collaborative's work to date. More importantly, they start to talk about a roadmap for our collective action moving forward. At some point in today's hearings, I hope that Councilmembers will sign these 77 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 turn-around principles and commitments, joining other distinguished Philadelphians who have already expressed their support. At the Project U-Turn launch, the Collaborative released two important reports, both of which have been provided to Councilmembers and staff. One of these reports, "Unfulfilled Promise: The Dimensions and Characteristic of Philadelphia's Dropout Crisis, 2000 to 2005," analyzes the status and condition of Philadelphia's dropout population. Dr. Ruth Curran Nield of Johns Hopkins University, one of the report's authors, will appear later this morning to give you an overview of these findings. A companion report, "Turning It Around: A Collective Effort to Understand and Resolve Philadelphia's Dropout Crisis," serves as a call to action for the City and includes a series of broad-based recommendations for actions to resolve the dropout crisis. 78 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 Taken together, these two reports convey two very important messages.

The first is, at the time we need every one of our students to master sophisticated academic and occupational skills for economic and social well-being of our City and its citizens, we have many young people who aren't making that. We also learned that this is not something that the School District can handle alone. It will take a concerted effort on the part of all partners, including communities and parents and business leaders, to ensure that all youth can successfully graduate from high school and move on to success. Second, based on the work of the Collaborative and the citywide commitment it represents, there is every reason to believe that we can in fact formulate and put into place realistic and practical solutions that will go a long way toward addressing Philadelphia's dropout crisis. We know a great deal 79 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 about the young people who drop out and we've learned a great deal more over the last months. Armed with this 5 information and the leadership and 6 commitment of institutions and 7 organizations throughout the City, we 8 know we can create the right 9 interventions and we know we can bring 10 those interventions to scale, because I 11 think one of the things that we've 12 struggled with is that in many cases, 13 there are programs that get put into 14 place and those programs do begin to 15 work, but we never have the will, 16 capacity or resources to take those 17 interventions to scale. 18 We have learned many things, and one of the things we've learned since launching this campaign in October is how desperately our young people want to return to school. When we launched the campaign, we also put a hotline number into place. And since the hotline has been up and since our work with the 80 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 School District has begun on bringing kids back to school, we've had hundreds of calls from young people and their families who are looking for educational options and ways to get back into school. We look forward to working with Council in the months and years to come on systemwide strategies to resolve the dropout crisis, but while we are working on these broad-based, longer-term solutions, there are several steps that we can begin to take right now. The issue brief provided to Council identifies four straightforward steps that the City can take that will produce significant benefits for our youth. First, take every opportunity through hearings, meetings with constituents and your public comments to increase the visibility of the dropout crisis and to underscore the importance of taking continued and sustained action to resolve it. Second, support efforts by the 81 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 City's public care systems, such as foster care, juvenile probation, abuse and neglect and others, to help young people stay in school and graduate. One of the things you'll hear later from Dr. Curran Nield is about the outcomes for young people who have been involved in the foster care system and in the court system or who have been pregnant or parenting themselves, and their graduation rates are significantly less than young people who aren't involved in those systems, and she'll be able to talk more about that data. We've talked some this morning about improving the career prospects for young people by supporting high-quality workplace internships, career and technical education opportunities that have the potential to improve academic achievement and career success. And, lastly, pay particular attention to the needs of students with children who are at grave risk of 82 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 dropping out. My colleagues from the Collaborative will have much more to say on these different areas. The particular focus of my organization is on the third step, which is on the power of work and work experiences to prepare young people for academic and productive citizenship. I would be happy to answer any questions you have about this.

Through the work of the Philadelphia Youth Network, we have been involved in activities, since there was so much discussion earlier about career and technical education, from everything from shadowing day, where a couple weeks ago we had 1,500 ninth graders in 336 companies across the City getting their first taste of exposure to what the world of work is like. The young woman who shadowed with me that day walked into my office and the first thing she said is, I've never been in an office building before and I've never really had the 83 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 opportunity to see an office in action. She was so excited just by the chance to come and see how the day was for us there. We also are very involved in efforts that are underway with the Chamber of Commerce and the United Way to increase business participation in both internships and vocational programming with the School District of Philadelphia, and we're hoping to dramatically increase the number of job opportunities available to youth. And, third, we've had programs with -- we talked some about the different career and technical education models. We work very closely with Philadelphia Academies. We also work with programs like the one at Lockheed Martin, which was the first registered IT apprenticeship program in the country, works with four schools in the Philadelphia School District, at this point is on its fifth cohort, and has 84 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 employed about 60 percent of the young people who have come out of that program in full-time jobs with Lockheed Martin. There are models with St. Christopher's Hospital. There are models with Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The business community has worked with us diligently to try to build real models that actually result in real jobs and real career and technical education for young people, and we're looking for their leadership to replicate the models where they've worked and to bring more business into the fold. And Pamela and Tracee are going to talk a little bit more about that. We are also -- I'd like to invite all of you -- on February 21st, we are taking a group of leaders across the City to go visit Lehigh Valley Career and Technical Institute, which is about an hour from here. We took about 20 people there last Friday. It's one of the best career and technical education systems in 85 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 the state definitely, probably in the country. And not only is it valuable to come and see the way they've set up their offerings with 48 certification programs, but it's really valuable to see the very creative strategies they've used to resource those programs. In fact, for a state-of-the-art program and incredible certification opportunities, it costs only about $5,600 for a full-time student and about $4,000 for a part-time student. So there's a lot to learn from models that are very close to us, and we'd love for you all to join us on that trip on February 21st if you're interested. So I'd like to thank you again, Madam Chair and Councilmembers, for dedicating time and attention to our City's struggling students and out-of-school youth. Working together I believe we can make real progress in reducing the numbers of young people who leave high school without a diploma for their sake and for ours. 86 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 Thank you.

Thank you very much. Questions? Councilman Goode.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Certainly.

Good morning, Ms. Shubilla. Thank you for your work and thank you for your testimony and thank you for bringing needed attention to this issue. And while we are bringing attention to this issue and looking at a systemwide approach, in our previous hearing I think you may be aware that I brought to the forefront what I believe to be an even bigger epidemic in terms of young black males and how that may be committing to crime and violence. I'd like to share some statistics for the record, information we've received since the last hearing. 87 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 We know that there were 406 murders last year in Philadelphia. Three hundred thirty-five of them, over 80 percent, were blacks. Two hundred ninety-six, over 70 percent, were black males. Two hundred fifty-nine were black males under the age of 40, over 60 percent. One hundred and sixty-three of the 406 were black males under the age of 25, which means over 40 percent of those murdered last year were black males under the age of 25, which means that last year four out of every ten people murdered were black males under the age of 25. We also know that where 1,000 black men have been shot in each of the last three years, over 75 percent of those shot in the City are black men every year. Homicides is also, as we found out within a study just released last week, is the leading cause of death for young black men, and Pennsylvania leads the nation. Of course, Philadelphia has contributed to about 65 percent of those 88 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 homicides in Pennsylvania. Since the last hearing, we received graduation data for those murdered. For those that we have data on, the graduation rate was less than 7 percent. 8 We also have graduation data on 9 the perpetrators, and for those 127 10 perpetrators that we know about, only 23 11 graduated from high school. It was about 12 18 percent. 13 Can you please address the 14 correlation between the dropout rate and 15 getting shot? 16

Well, I think 17 there's a number of negative consequences 18 to not graduating from high school, one 19 of them being feeling disconnected from 20 society and economic opportunities, and 21 once those opportunities for advancement 22 seem to be cut off to you, I think young 23 people tend to turn to all kinds of 24 different activities. As a result of 25 that, we have two young men who are going 89 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 to testify in a little while about their experiences and why they dropped out of school and what it took to get them back on track. But certainly there are many negative consequences to not finishing high school and not having the economic opportunities that a high school diploma offers you, and I think our programming needs to take into account the demographics of the young people who are most impacted by the crisis that's at hand and being able to look at what is different about serving a young black male versus serving a young woman with a baby and what are the services that those young people need and how do we not lump everybody into one category, because there are differences in what young people need in order to be successful, and we need to look at that and we need to respond to that aggressively and individually. One of the things we've 90 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 learned, Philadelphia Youth Network works with the City of Philadelphia on the reintegration initiative, and we hold the contracts for the three E3 centers, soon to be five E3 centers. And those E3 centers that are run by community-based organizations across the City serve predominantly young men who are returning from delinquent placement at the highest risk of recidivism. And I think what the community organizations have learned is the kind of personal transformation that needs to take place both from a self-confidence perspective of valuing yourself and what you can be in the world and also being able to increase educational skills so that young men in particular feel that they can actually support their families and get the kinds of jobs that they need to support their families. We had one young man who testified -- I'm sorry he's not here today -- who became very successful in YouthBuild and he talked about his life 91 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 on the streets and the kinds of -- what he did to make money for his family, and he really felt like that was the most important thing to him. And then he was robbed in a very violent way one day by his best friend, and it made him realize that this wasn't the way for him and he was able to get into YouthBuild Charter School and now has graduated and is moving on into employment. So I think it's this combination of having adults in people's lives. You're going to hear from Men United, I know, later on today and the mentoring work that they're trying to do and the connections they're trying to make. And it's a combination of adult connections, real opportunities and programming that really does enhance educational skills and helps young people see themselves in a different place and space in our society.

So you do agree that in addition to having a 92 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 systemwide approach toward a 56 percent graduation rate, that when we can look at statistics from last year and there are segments of the population those killing or being killed that have percent, 7 percent graduation rates, that there 8 needs to also be targeted programming? 9

Absolutely. I 10 mean, I think part of what we learned 11 from doing the integration of data with 12 the School District data, child welfare 13 data, foster care data, court data is 14 that for young people who are coming out 15 of delinquent placements, the dropout 16 rate for those youth was 90 percent. 17 Clearly, there needs to be different 18 kinds of interventions. 19 I think the work that the Youth 20 Violence Reduction Partnership has been 21 doing, I think the work of the 22 reintegration initiative in the City, I 23 think there has been incredible outcomes 24 in some of these programs that warrant 25 our attention and learning, because we 93 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 certainly haven't figured it out yet. If we had, we wouldn't be having this discussion. But I do believe we've learned things along the way that can help us as we continue to expand our efforts.

Just one last question. Clearly, we need to make a bigger investment within our schools for dropout prevention, but as we look toward some of these other particular epidemics that exist within Philadelphia, do you believe that some of that investment also needs to be directed toward community-based organizations and strategies that exist outside of schools?

Yes. I think part of our work, the Philadelphia Youth Network, through our federal and foundation funding partners with about 100 community organizations that we fund across the City to do partnerships with schools and with different efforts to stem the dropout crisis, what we've 94 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 learned from doing that is, it takes partnerships with communities, employers, parents. Young people themselves are very important partners in this, the School District and the City systems, and everyone needs to have very clear roles. I agree with what Mr. Kirsch said earlier, is as we expand services that are provided by our community partners, by our City partners, we need to try to make sure that we're doing what works and that we're replicating what gets good outcomes. And we've been really lucky to have pretty amazing community partners who have been willing to sit at the table, think and rethink the efforts that they're undertaking, make changes along the way as we learn more and continue to try to shoot towards the same -- shoot is a bad word; to aim towards the same outcomes, which are really to graduate -- I'll be in the paper tomorrow, Philadelphia Network President -- to take aim at outcomes that 95 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 are high. Our standards have to be high. One of the things that we've talked increasingly about is, young people will achieve the standard you set for them. And if our stand is here, kids will rise to here. If our standard is here, kids will rise to here, with the necessary supports. And I think what we believe is all youth can achieve at high levels, with the necessary supports in place. And a lot of times we forget that necessary supports piece and our expectations are either low or our expectations are high and the supports needed to get there aren't in place. So I think we know a lot and I think it takes leadership and it takes commitment and sustained perseverance to make the kinds of changes that we need to see happen in the City.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Councilman, for 96 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 those excellent statistics. Are there any further questions?

Yes, Madam Chair.

Yes. Councilwoman Reynolds Brown.

Good morning, ladies. At what juncture does the work you do -- at what juncture do you capture young people, meaning grade level, typically?

Most of our programs -- and a lot of this is directed by requirements related to the resources we receive -- start with young people when they're 14.

So that would be middle school?

They are often eighth graders, sometimes they're sixth graders, depending on where they are in their educational career. But the 97 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 majority of them are in eighth grade, eighth grade up to 24.

Okay. How do they come to your attention?

They come to us in any number of ways. They may come to us through our hotline. They may come to us through just a citywide referral system that young people find out about and their parents call into the organization. They come to us through our network of community agencies. So the organizations that we fund are all over the City and provide geographically targeted services, as well as services targeted to special populations of kids. We also have programming in schools, and so they come to us through the School District and are connected with our programs in that way as well. One of the things that I feel like we've been able to do is to try to create as broad of a pipeline as possible for young people to come into the 98 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 programs. What happens on the other side, however, is, there are always more young people who are interested -- and I think Tracee and Pamela are going to talk about this -- than we have opportunities available for them. And so we have waiting lists for almost every program we run. And I think the School District is going to talk in a little while about the waiting lists they have for the alternative schools that have been open in the last several years. I always feel like kids vote with their feet, and when programs have waiting lists, it means we're doing something right, and we need to figure out how to capitalize on what we've learned from programs that are able to create that kind of demand among our customer, which is the young person.

Surely. Then you've answered my question with regards to -- if you have waiting lists, then it means that you simply don't have 99 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 the room to start younger, because one thing I believe the institutions of higher learning get right and do well is that they capture young people as 12-year-olds and hold on to them and get them in the pipeline so that they start thinking about college as an option not at and but at 12, and if they're 10 real smart in their recruiting, then they 11 get them to thinking about that 12 particular institution as their college 13 choice. 14 So to hear that you are 15 attempting to capture young people as early as 14 is a good thing. I would be curious to know at what time -- and only the public schools could provide us this kind of data. But when do you begin to see a spike, if you will, in young people who are truant, because there the signals exist, and is there a link between when you see those beginning signals and linking that young person with programs like the one you're talking about so that 100 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 we can hold on to them and keep them in the school system? Any kind of connect that way with the public school system?

Yes. Absolutely. I mean, we've -- Ruth is going to talk a little bit in a minute about the data, and what she's going to talk to you about is what we learned about truancy and the ages that it starts and what we learned about the relationship between truancy and dropping out. So she has some really interesting data for that. With regard to how truancy connects to some of the programs, I think Mr. Kirsch expressed it well before, which is that for many young people, they want to see how their education connects to what real-world experiences, the kinds of things they want to do in their lives. And what these programs provide an opportunity for is to understand why an education is going to be important to you in the long term. I can't tell you the 101 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 number of young people who have been in our office and we've had them working on projects and all the sudden it clicks why what they were learning in math class the other day actually matters, because this is a project that they're interested in that they can't complete if they don't know percentages, and they really are excited about being able to complete that project. The other very interesting thing that workplace opportunities do is, they provide a different kind of mentoring for young people. The way we set the programs up is that the adults who are at the workplace are mentors in addition to being supervisors. And the power of an employment opportunity and the connections that youth have made with their mentors in the work sites have lasted well through their college experiences. For many of those youth who have had summer jobs with employers, they've been able to come back and work 102 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 at those jobs when they've had breaks during their college breaks and things. And so we've seen relationships that have lasted quite a while. And as our employers -- and they'll speak to this -- get their toe in the water, we always say, Once you get connected with us, you'll never leave. We will never let you out of our grips. And there is no 11 obstacle you can present to us that we can't tell you how we can overcome it. And they'll tell you they believe that. So often we'll start with employers with shadowing day and they'll say, Wow, this was great, we were surprised how much -- we got as much out of it as the young people did, and we're interested in doing something else. And we've also then been able to talk with -- and Tracee is going to talk about a model they've put in place at Philly Coke where when we start with internships and then we say, You know, we have some young people who aren't at the skill level 103 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 maybe that some of their high school interns were, but they need opportunities, so can we think about other ways to involve those young people. And after they work for a while with the programs and with the youth, people are more willing to take risks. They understand more that they are part of the educational process for that youth, and it takes on a much, I think, deeper relationship with the business partner and the schools.

Yes. Thank you for your testimony. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you very much. Next witness, Tracee or Ms. Crawley.

Thank you. Good morning, Madam Chair and members of City Council.

Good morning. 104 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807

My name is Pamela Crawley. I am Senior Vice-President and Director of Public Affairs for Citizens Bank. I'm also the outgoing Chair of the Philadelphia Workforce Investment Board, a business-oriented committee appointed by the Mayor to oversee workforce policy and to approve federal workforce funding for the City of Philadelphia. And from 2002 to 2005, I served as Chair of the Philadelphia Youth Council, a committee of the Workforce Board that develops youth policy and recommends funding for youth employment programs in the City. I have several points that I want to make this morning, but my take-away message for you is very straightforward. The young people of this City can be its greatest asset, and we must do everything we can do to ensure that we nurture and grow those assets for the future. This fact is indisputable and must be considered beyond politics and trends of the moment. For 105 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 Philadelphia employers, this is a matter of economic stability and long-term growth and productivity. It also is a matter of the future of the City. As we go after the Olympic games and we go after other national programs that lift the profile of the City of Philadelphia, we need not to have poverty levels of 10 percent. We need not to have 60 percent 11 functioning illiterate when we look at 12 the adults in the Philadelphia County. 13 And we need not to have the violent 14 statistics that are showing up on our 15 books right now. 16 So this is big for us, not just 17 in terms of what training and what 18 employers can get in terms of hiring 19 individuals, but for the City as a whole 20 and, ergo, for the future, it is 21 absolutely germane to our success that we 22 pay attention to these issues. 23 For the citizens of this City, 24 it is an issue that will affect their quality and life, their safety and 106 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 security and the well-being of their communities. And for many of our young people, it is quite simply a matter of life and death. The Philadelphia Workforce Investment Board and its Youth Council have worked hard over the last six years to build a system of youth workforce preparation in the City that features academically enriched workplace experiences and career exploration activities for youth and young adults who are in school, as well as those who have left high school without a diploma. We took this broad-based approach to workforce preparation for several reasons. First, there is no question that our economy and the businesses that fuel it need a continued flow of highly skilled, well-educated employees. When I was here last time, I saw several -- I mean, there was a hundred kids up here, and what I wanted to scream to them was, 107 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 Guess what, there are jobs here. If you prepare yourself, if you are trained and educated, you can have a future right here in your neighborhood, in your community. Second, while we must continue our efforts to attract the best and brightest young professionals to relocate to Philadelphia, we must also focus on building and nurturing our own home-grown high-skilled 21st century workforce. You saw a couple of weeks ago in the Inquirer -- and I hope you don't mind me mentioning this, but in Washington, DC, they're actually claiming that their crime rate has dropped, but if you take a very close look at that picture, it's dropped because people who are disadvantaged are being pushed out of the city limits and so the crime rates have dropped, because there's a direct correlation between poverty and violence. So we need to do it in an organic way, in a real way that matters for the City of 108 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 Philadelphia.

Next, we believe that providing our young people with high-quality workplace experiences is an extremely effective way to help them understand the value of academic preparation and skills development, which in turn will help them stay in school, graduate and go on to be successful in college and careers. Finally, we must be providing opportunities for young people who have dropped out of high school to reconnect to educational programming where they can prepare themselves to become active and productive citizens. When the Mayor appointed me to Chair the Youth Council in 2002, my first priority was to create a citywide system of youth workforce preparation that would not only coordinate and strengthen existing youth employment programs but also to encourage the business community to develop employer-supported student internships. It's their future, too, and 109 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 they have -- this is an investment. This is not charity. This effort culminated in the creation of WorkReady Philadelphia, and now provides workplace-related programs and opportunities for almost 10,000 young people each year. Importantly, young WorkReady participants not only earn money and gain valuable work experience, almost three-quarters of them also earn academic credit for projects and related work they perform while in the WorkReady program. I am proud that Citizens Bank has hired dozens of young WorkReady interns, and I am particularly pleased that Joe Frick, President and CEO of Independence Blue Cross and Chair of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, has made employer support for internships one of his top priorities for his tenure as Chamber Chair. I am also proud of the Youth Council's role in establishing the Youth 110 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 Transition Collaborative and Project U-Turn. These efforts emerged from the Council's increased attention and support for out-of-school and other disconnected youth. It is heartening to witness how these efforts are now gaining traction throughout the City and helping to inform the thoughtful strategies and recommendations to resolve the City's dropout crisis that you are hearing about today. With all of that in mind and based on my experiences as a private employer and Chair of public workforce bodies, let me offer a couple of recommendations on these issues. As you consider how to balance the needs of young people and the fiscal realities that confront us, please keep in mind the importance of providing high-quality workplace exposure and career preparation as strategies that both promote graduation and prevent dropouts by helping students understand 111 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 the relevance of their academic studies. Also, please appreciate that many youth who have dropped out of school now understand their mistakes and desperately want to return to get the education and skills that they need for career success. Our support for their efforts will not only benefit those young people but the City as a whole. Understand that the problems of struggling students and out-of-school youth are often too big for any single institution to handle, even the School District to tackle alone. Therefore, your support for cross-system approaches that bring together the resources and strengths of public care systems can be a key success for these young people. And, finally, realize that you are not alone in addressing these challenges. My experiences as Chair of the Youth Council and Workforce Board convince me that the business community is at the ready. Foundations and 112 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 community organizations are also paying very close attention when they see what's going on in our streets in terms of violence. What we all know -- you talked earlier about African-American males.

What we all know and the history of Philadelphia, that immigrants coming into this country who had the least had the highest level of poverty and had the highest level of violence. So it's not an African-American issue; it is an economic inclusion issue. I'd like to thank you again so much for allowing me to be here today and thank you, Madam Chair, for the opportunity to address these important issues. I applaud your leadership and commitment, and look forward to working with you in the future on behalf of the City of Philadelphia and our young people. Thank you.

Thank you very much. And that was an important 113 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 statement. Your testimony was important. Very important statement about inclusion. Very important. Councilwoman Reynolds Brown. Does anybody else have questions for Ms. Crawley? (No response.)

Councilwoman Reynolds Brown.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just a few questions. Good afternoon. Let me first begin by underscoring Recommendation No. 15 2, speaking to young people who dropped out and really are searching and screaming for a way back in. Last week Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller had young people in here speaking about guns and the like. It was our first time where we heard from young people. And the not surprising but saddening observation was many of those young people were dropouts, and when we approached them in the hallway, they were looking for a way back 114 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 into the system. So it behooves us to be inclusive to get our arms around all young people and not just those who are already on the right track, but those who are at risk of being on the wrong track if they're not captured in a big way. Secondly, all of you have spoken to the huge waiting lists. So how possible is it that -- and let me say this for the record: The leadership of Joe Frick in making it clear that what he wants his tenure to represent is commendable. The letter that appeared in the paper I thought was terrific and unprecedented, that a business leader has made it plain that they're going to do better with regards to opportunities for young people. So given his leadership on the issue and given the huge waiting lists that exist, how real is it that the business community will redouble its efforts? Because that's what needs to 115 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 happen. We have a few leaders in the companies represented at the table, but when we hear of the huge waiting lists and we hear of the stats facing African-American men, how realistic is it that the business community will double up on its efforts?

First of all, to your earlier point when you talk about out-of-school youth, I just want to mention that when you talked to them in the hallways and when you get a chance to interact with them, I was absolutely struck at how bright these kids are.

Yes.

These are not children who are incapable of achieving. These are young people who are very bright, and we really owe them an opportunity. She spoke of a young woman who was in her office and had never been in an office before. The stories I've heard of kids who have never been on an 116 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 elevator is absolutely striking to me, and it strikes me that as adults we owe them so much more. With regards to redoubling our effort, when we first started WorkReady, I thought we could put a thousand kids in jobs with corporations, and we really struggled and, quite frankly, we had -- we found ourselves begging organization by organization. Well, will you take one? Will you take two? Well, if you can't take anyone, can you give us money so that somebody else can have them? But I think that what we have learned through this process in the last three years is that we have learned to speak the language of business, and speaking the language of business means letting them know, because business -- I come from a corporate background -- is quarter by quarter, but we have to let them know what's in it for them. So now that Joe Frick has -- and we were all thrilled, all of us involved in 117 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 Workforce. We were cheering at Joe Frick's speech. We believe that when businesses, CEOs start talking to each other, that it's a different level of communications, and we really do believe that we will redouble our efforts and that we will have other corporations come to the table. And I have not seen anything like this in the years that I've been with the Workforce group; that is, businesses are eager, they are realizing how important it is for the future of their businesses to get involved in this effort. So I do think we're going to see success and improvement in our work programs.

What would you offer up as a better or bigger role for government in what you're talking about? How would you advise those of us on this said of the table with regards to the needed goal to redouble the efforts in the business community?

You know, I think 118 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 one of the issues facing children -- and, Laura, you can please feel free to jump in, but this is my view -- that we need to give children hope. And I think that when you read in the newspapers the lack of opportunities for people who live in the City, economic job opportunities, that these are these children's parents. And so when they go home and they see issues that have to deal with hopelessness of what am I in this for -- do you know what I'm saying -- if I get my high school education? Well, my dad has his high school education, he's unemployed. I think that we need to make the issue, given our populations, I think we need to -- I think economic inclusion is absolutely imperative, because it sends a message of hope throughout our community. And none of us like getting up at 6 o'clock in the morning to show up for school, but we all had hope that there was a future, that we were making 119 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 an investment in our lives, and I think that is the important role that government can play in this. And, Laura?

And I would also add, I think there is a financial role that government can play in this, which is -- and Tracee is going to talk some to this in her testimony -- we're facing a couple things coming up this summer. There's been an increase in minimum wage requirements. The second phase of that increase in minimum wage is going to hit on July 1st. The outcome of that increase in minimum wage is going to mean that at a time when we need these opportunities more than ever, when we haven't gotten rid of the waiting lists yet, we're on target to lose about 1,200 summer youth employment opportunities because of needing to increase the minimum wage for kids in these programs. We're looking into whether or not there's an option to provide a training wage to 120 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 younger youth, but even if we're able to do that, we're still looking at about a 1,200 job loss. So one of the specific "asks" that's in your briefing paper is around asking the City to contribute $3.5 million, which would do two things. It would offset the loss that would cost us about $1.3 million in summer jobs this year and it would also allow us to build some capacity to get kids off the waiting lists. But as we bring up these new alternative educational offerings, we know that we need to include workforce opportunities connected to those offerings in order for them to be successful. So it would allow us to build out the workforce and social service support to some of our new educational programming as well.

Point of information.

We have a point of information. Councilman 121 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 Goode.

Thank you. There is a need for more economic inclusion, but there's economic inclusion and then there's economic inclusion. And economic inclusion does impact young African-American males more than anyone else in a way separate and distinct. So I don't want that message to be lost. And the reason why I raise it in the context of your statements now is, as there were crime summits convened in the City and as we begin to discuss solutions and people begin to look at employment opportunities as one of the major focuses that need to take place, two distinct ideas came out. One was my employer tax credit for ex-offenders, which reaches anyone who qualifies as an ex-offender. The other was a tax credit at the state level for workplace interns, which I believe probably is still moving and will be moved and will address some of those issues. 122 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 The two things I don't want to be lost here is, one, that we have to continue to look at this problem in both ways, that we're dealing with a very general problem and we're dealing with a very specific problem. And as much as I support what Mr. Frisk has done, I think it's true leadership, I think that it helps focus on the general problem and hopefully leads toward a greater focus on the more acute problem. I'm just to say for the record in my normal style, no one believes that those young people in danger of being shot are going to be those placed in those workplace internships. And in terms of the City contributing in terms of more resources, I can definitely support that, but it's my understanding that the first thing that the Chamber of Commerce and other people lobbied for was in fact to make sure that there was a tax credit in place for those businesses to deal with those costs. 123 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807

And the Chamber, I know, is lobbying for the tax credit to go through. I think there's two things that play here. The 40 percent increase in minimum wage, even if the Chamber is successful in the tax credit and at increasing the number of internships, it's the state and federal resources and foundation resources that are in the program aren't growing to absorb the 40 percent increase in the minimum wage. So as --

I guess my question as the point of information was, how much of the new cost for workplace internships will be covered by the new state tax credit and the existing federal tax credits that exist?

There's no way to know for sure how many companies will take advantage of the tax credit once it's passed. Our experience with tax credits in the past has been that larger 124 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 companies who hire more youth tend to be the ones to take advantage of the tax credit, that smaller businesses who don't always have the capacity to file for the tax credit as quickly, they don't tend to take advantage of them as much as some of our larger companies do here in the City. So I think every strategy helps. No 10 strategy in isolation solves the whole problem. So I think there is -- the tax credit strategy is certainly going to bring new internships to the table. The Chamber's leadership is going to bring new internships to the table. And even with that, I still anticipate that because of the increase overall in minimum wage, even if those efforts are successful, we're still going to see an overall decline in the number of opportunities that are going to be available this summer. That may not be true over the long term. We also don't know at what point the tax credit is going to go through and whether it will 125 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 be ready and available for this summer's program or if it's going to not come into play yet.

My only suggestion, not to be cynical about it, but as the Chamber of Commerce continues to pat itself on the back and its new Chairman for creating workplace internships, maybe they should do a more heavy lobbying in Harrisburg to make sure the tax credits go through, and if there's a problem in terms of the need for wage subsidies in addition to tax credits, particularly for this year, they just show that leadership and make sure that they're actually addressing that problem, but we also at the same time keep in mind that those workplace internships, while they were highlighted as being related to our crime and violence problem, are not necessarily directly related to our crime and violence problem and still calling the Chamber of Commerce to do what I just 126 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 suggested and more.

We have also a point of information. Councilwoman Donna Reed Miller.

I just want to talk -- thank you. And I just want to talk and I say agree with Councilman Goode on the workplace and the Chamber. You know, our office, we work with WorkReady and we've been doing it for years to help find placements for the summer students, and those students are always eager to learn. I was talking to about four kids last week, all females that are on probation, and one of them said, You know, I want to work for you. But she's only 14. So I said, Well, you know what, you can come to work for me this summer, and every one of them jumped up and said, We want to work, too. If we could find some way to have a year-round work program, after-school program for these children, 127 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 I think we'd go a long, long way. And one of the things government can do is to open up the offices, even though we've been very successful in calling, we've had judges, we've had Councilmembers willing to take on these summer interns, because it's a valuable experience for them. And, you know, sometimes people don't want to put in the supervision hours or whatnot. It's a little taxing at times, but it can be fun and very rewarding, and I wanted to say that. But the other point I wanted to bring up, it's important that young children have good role models right in their home, and I do believe that Bilal Qayyum has asked the Chamber of Commerce to help give people a second chance by encouraging employers to hire ex-offenders. If you have a father at home working, it goes a long way. So I just want to make sure we put that on the record. I know that Men United, they're pretty big with one of 128 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 the answers to violence -- and we all know this -- is to help people get employed. So I just want to put that on the record that it's something that I strongly support also. If we have these fathers out here working, you'd be surprised how, I believe, we can decrease the violence in our communities and the crime. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Those were points of information. Councilwoman Reynolds Brown, you're still on, and after you're finished, we will have Councilman Rizzo.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I have one final question. And it is interesting, Councilman Goode and I came here at the same time, and I always find it quite amusing when his question goes right to the last question I wanted to raise, which was he's addressed and 129 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 revealed a very acute problem that we're all very, very aware of, and so when we hear the new leadership at the Chamber, is there an opportunity in your organizations for a policy shift to happen where there are tangible, aggressive recruitment efforts towards, for African-American males? I have interns in my office 365 days out of the year, several interns on any one day. And the saddening part of that for me is, those who come to me for internship opportunities are seldom speaking for African-American males. So it suggests to me given what we know with the stats that Councilman Goode has presented, that organizations like yours and others, there's an opportunity for us to do more and better when it comes to African-American boys.

I think the demographics of most of our programs, interestingly enough, are pretty evenly split between young men and young women, 130 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 which I actually -- we looked at those numbers last year, because I expected to see a much higher percentage of females who were enrolled in the programs than males, and I was surprised. Now they tend to be younger. So the boys who tend to participate in the program tend to be the 14- and 15-year-olds, and as the young men get older, we tend to see more young women participating who are 16, 12 and 18 and the young men tend to drop off 13 the programs. 14 So I think the answer is yes. 15 I think we need to figure out strategies 16 that better engage and will provide the 17 right kinds of opportunities for young men, and do that in partnership with other groups who can also help to provide the whole set of services. Because I agree with you, a lot of the private sector internships aren't going to serve necessarily the population that we're talking about here.

But can. 131 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807

They can as part of -- yes, and I believe that part of that is working with businesses to set up the kinds of programs like the secondary merchandising program and other opportunities that are not just six-week internships but are longer-term training, support, employment programs working with groups who are also providing the mentoring and the street outreach and those kinds of opportunities. I don't think any one group can do this alone. Our organization has a very specific role to play in this, but we can't do it by ourselves. So we've got to work in partnership with other groups who are having more success reaching that particular group of young men and making sure we connect our opportunities better with what they're trying to do.