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.

What percentage of those young men are African-American boys? 132 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807

Of the entire population that we serve?

If you had to wager an estimate, yes.

Eighty percent of all of our -- more than that, probably 85 percent of all of the kids in the programs are African-American. So my guess is that would be reflected in the demographics of males and females. I can get you all the numbers, but by and large, we serve a predominately African-American population of students.

So are we hearing that there is a willingness to reexamine or consideration for a policy shift to tackle that particular constituency given the realities we've heard around truancy, dropout and crime rate?

I think we should absolutely be targeting our resources where there's the greatest need. And I also believe we should be 133 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 building a continuum so that while at one side we're looking at where there's the greatest need and, as we said before, tailoring our interventions to really meet the needs of the specific demographics and populations of kids we're serving, we also need to not forget about the fact that if we're successful doing that, we need the Lockheed Martin programs and we need all of these other programs at the other end of the continuum, because you need kids to be able to move through into those opportunities. They may not start there, but our hope is they end up there.

Sure.

And so we have to build from across an entire continuum of programs and opportunities so that kids can move between and among them successfully.

And as an employer, it just seems, in our experience, that the girls, no offense to 134 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 the Councilmen here today, but the girls are interviewing better. And so when I talk to a member of my staff who is responsible for the interviews and she gives me four girls, I have to go back and say, I want to see some young men. Because I think it's a maturity issue. You know much better than I do. But the girls are interviewing better than the boys are, so we have to make a concerted effort to ask the question we need some balance here, some gender balance.

Yes. That's leadership.

That's right.

Thank you. Thank you all for your testimony.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. Councilman Rizzo.

Thank you. It reminded me that we 135 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 mentioned the reentry program and I see my colleague, Councilman Wilson Goode, that helped me with a significant hurdle. Now that the budget process is in front of us -- and this is to my colleagues -- I'm going to need some help, because I have an interest and Councilman Goode does on a program that I identified, the worker release -- the inmate program. We have men and women incarcerated that have been processed, have gone through a thorough background check and thorough look at them to allow them to leave the jail during the day or evening to go work. Unfortunately, there's no jobs. As you know, we have the tax credit for the reentry program, and Councilman Goode was able to communicate with the Administration -- Am I right, Councilman? -- (continued) and include the worker inmate program and qualify for the tax credit. So we have 85, 90 inmates that sit in the jail every day that have 136 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 no jobs. And we have convinced the Fairmount Park Commission. The Zoo is looking at an opportunity to employ the inmates. We're not talking about just sending people down there. I want to send these inmates -- when they leave incarceration, I want them to leave there with some money in their pockets so they possibly don't go back to what got them there. So we are going to need -- and we're not talking a lot of money. We're talking less than $200,000 in the next budget to get this program working and hopefully to get the inmates that are sitting there with no opportunities that could be there 17, 18, 19 months with a job. The professionals up there have told me that people that get a job after leaving incarceration rarely come back. It's the ones that come back that don't have a job. So if they can get 137 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 experience working in the Fairmount Park, the Zoo, working with some of the subcontractors, they will have job opportunities, especially when an employer can see their performance during the time that they're in the program. So my colleagues, I'm going to be asking the Administration to put money in the budget to make sure that this works. And we're not talking about a lot of money. The program initially was going to be funded by an individual or at least help get it started, and that individual is ill now and unfortunately not able to contribute that money that was going to get the program started. So the Administration keeps saying to me, Well, we need the money. Well, we're going to have to work to get that money for that program, because I think it will be so valuable to help a hundred inmates up there to be able to leave, go to work, come back at night and prepare them for when they do eventually reenter. 138 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807

Thank you, Councilman. Ms. Hunt.

Madam Chairman and members of the --

Please pull your microphone up. We can't hear you. Identify yourself again.

I'm sorry. Madam Chairman and members of the Philadelphia City Council, my name is Tracee Hunt. I am Vice-President of Human Resources at the Philadelphia Coca-Cola Bottling Company and I currently serve as the Chair of the Philadelphia Youth Council. I'll add in there at this point that we employ over 1,200 people in the Philadelphia region and we do have a predominately male workforce. So I'll just make sure that that is added there. The Youth Council is mandated by the federal Workforce Investment Act as a subgroup of the Philadelphia Workforce Investment Board and makes 139 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 recommendations on the allocation and expenditure of approximately million 4 in youth workforce development funding 5 each year. 6 The Youth Council has two 7 primary objectives: WorkReady 8 Philadelphia, the City's system to 9 coordinate existing youth workforce 10 programming and to expand the overall number of high-quality workplace experiences, and Project U-Turn, a citywide effort led by the Youth Transitions Collaborative to resolve Philadelphia's dropout crisis. Both of these initiatives focus squarely on preparing Philadelphia youth to become our City and region's highly skilled workforce of the future. Like my colleague, Pamela Crawley, whom I succeeded as Youth Council Chair, I strongly believe that our young people are the keys to our City's social and economic success. As Youth Council Chair and as an employer of 140 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 young people, again, as I said, predominately male, through WorkReady Philadelphia, I have had the opportunity to see the potential of our young people and to observe firsthand the absolute importance of providing high-quality opportunities that enable them to apply their academic learning to real-world workplace experience. I'm proud that the Philadelphia Workforce Investment Board and its Youth Council are recognized as national leaders in providing these types of high-quality workplace experiences. But despite these efforts, each year we are forced to turn away as many as 3,000 young people who seek high-quality workplace internships due to a lack of resources. This situation is likely to be exacerbated beginning this coming summer due to the recently enacted changes in the minimum wage law. The additional cost that it represents will cause a significant reduction in the 141 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 number of available internships, which will force us to turn away even more youth. In fact, we could lose between 1,200 and 1,700 employment opportunities, as Laura already expressed to you, this year. We know that these workplace experiences are extremely important for our youth. They offer them the potential to increase academic performance by demonstrating how learning is relevant to careers. Research tells us that low-income urban youth have less access to these valuable workplace experiences than their more affluent suburban peers. These youth are all around us, working hard to overcome barriers and striving to get the skills they need. Some are still in classrooms moving towards graduation, post-secondary education and careers. Others who left school without a diploma, however, in my opinion, have found the courage to reconnect to learning opportunities 142 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 because they have come to the realization that education is the key to economic self-sufficiency. As an employer, I can tell you firsthand that our City and its economy desperately need young people who are preparing themselves to become the greater Philadelphia region's highly skilled 21st century workforce. There's plenty of opportunity for such young people, but most will need a helping hand to turn their lives around and to become the active and productive citizens we want and need them to be. Workplace internships can provide the kind of transformational experience that makes education relevant, as well as providing them with mentoring opportunities.

So it's critical that while we are working to build high-quality learning opportunities for more of our young people, we must also provide workplace opportunities that give form and substance to their academic 143 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 work. It is for these reasons that I urge Council to support workplace internships for our young people. Our request would offset the loss of slots associated with minimum wage increases and also expand the number of available opportunities, enabling us both to reduce our waiting lists and also to dedicate internships to the vulnerable young people returning to school. Thank you again, Madam Chairman and Councilmembers, for the opportunity to present testimony this morning on such an important topic. I look forward to working with you to create new opportunities for our young people.

Thank you very much, and thank you, Madam Chair. Councilman Goode.

Thank you. Who currently covers the costs of the program? 144 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807

At Philadelphia Coca-Cola or for Philadelphia Youth Council?

Philadelphia Youth Council.

The Youth Council actually is mandated by the federal Workforce Investment Act as a subgroup and they allocate the expenditures of that $10 million that I spoke about earlier on.

So is this a fully government-funded program?

TANF also.

There's three partners to it. There's federal, U.S. Department of Labor Workforce Investment Act money, there's state TANF money and then there's about $2.8 million in private money from foundations and the corporate sector, and the School District for the last few years has put in an additional between 6 and 8 hundred thousand dollars. 145 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807

So do the employers themselves actually pay for any of the internships?

Yes.

And they are eligible for federal tax credits for that?

No. Actually, the way it works is, they are either subsidized or they're unsubsidized.

So the WorkReady program is unsubsidized. These are commitments from the corporate community to hire these children, young people, young adults.

So they're not eligible for federal tax credits?

No, not under this particular program.

Not under this program, no. 23

Why not?

That was not how it was designed, according to my 146 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 understanding, from the beginning.

Whether it's how it's designed or not, what makes it ineligible for federal tax credits?

I don't know that it is ineligible. When we put WorkReady together, it was really about looking for unsubsidized investments in our youth. So that's why we put it together that way. I think the Chamber is now addressing the tax credit issue and trying to get more people involved. So there is going to be --

I was starting with the federal tax credit. I was about to move to the state tax credit. But they're not ineligible for a federal tax credit?

If they meet the criteria, if the kids who are in the placements meet the various criterias; for instance, living in empowerment zones or there's various qualifications that the employee itself would have to -- him 147 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 or herself would have to meet.

But there's a work opportunity tax credit for youth.

Some of the companies take advantage of it and some of the companies -- the biggest tax credit we find that employers take advantage of is the state tax credit around the education improvement tax credit. That's the one that most companies who work with us have utilized.

The work opportunity tax credit for youth, do you know what that is?

I don't know all the details of it, no. 18

And the state credit that the Chamber is advocating for covers what percentage of the businesses' costs?

I believe they're looking for a 70 percent tax credit.

So the state 148 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 tax credit would cover 70 percent of their costs and then on top of that they may be eligible for a federal tax credit?

I'm not sure if they would be eligible for both or not.

I believe they would be eligible for both. And if they were hiring an ex-offender who happens to be a youth, they'd possibly be eligible for a City tax credit as well.

Yes.

That's a good point.

Thank you, Councilman. Any further questions for these witnesses? (No response.)

Thank you all very much. You're doing a fine job. We appreciate it.

We're going to ask that the next person to testify be our only youth who is left at this 149 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 point -- all the other youth left -- is Brad Johnson, and he has to leave at 12:45 for a job. So we want to let him go on. Thanks.

Thank you. Brad Johnson, we welcome you, and we're sorry everybody else had to leave. Time is always an issue at our hearings on these very important subjects. Brad, welcome. Please identify yourself for the record, and we're happy that you are present. We understand that Traci Money, Andrew Broggins and Dolores Shaw had to leave. So you represent everybody.

Yes.

Thank you. Welcome.

Good afternoon, members of Philadelphia City Council. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to testify at today's hearing. Let me 150 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 start by saying I'm an individual in the City that has been through many trials and hardships. I have done things and have seen things that most people my age can only dream of doing. I'm much different from anybody any of you have ever encountered and yet I have a trait of everybody in this room. Who am I? My story is different. I'm not a high school dropout. I'm a high school kickout. I didn't leave by choice. The only thing I chose to do was get away from my own pain. I was just trying to survive. I found school boring and easy, so I unfortunately chose to live my life by fighting. I fought students, teachers and security guards. You name them, I've punched them. Some of the things that I hear that the City is trying to do is build on the outer appearance of schools to make them look presentable to the outside world. What we need is more books and 151 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 qualified teachers to instruct us. We need better equipment. We need things that students will actually use. Without the school being challenging or interesting, we're only there to show that people have jobs, nothing more. Most of us drop out of school either from boredom, peer pressure, stress or parenting. My opportunity came when I applied to Job Corps where I was referred to the E3 center at Parkside branch. But how did I just out of the blue want to change? There's a moment in every person's life that inspires them to change. For me it happened when I found out I was going to be a parent. So now that I'm a father and I've been connected with many positive programs, I plan to go far with my life. I'm scheduled to take the GED test next week. I'm confident I'm going to pass. I'm currently ranked No. 2 on the Adolescent Career Employment Services 152 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 program, and my immediate goal is to take the No. 1 spot. My long-range goal is to own a technical engineering conglomerate where you can bring any mechanical appliance and get it fixed. For out-of-school youth like me programs like Job Corps and the E3 centers are very important. The E3 center helped get my life on track. I will no longer get kicked out of anything. And so I ask the Philadelphia City Council to consider supporting the provision of case management services to pregnant and parenting teens by expanding the Health Department's contracts with community-based programs. Thank you for listening to my story.

Thank you for coming to bring it. May we ask how old you are?

I'm 18 years old.

My goodness. All that and you're only 18. 153 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 Questions from members of the Committee? (No response.)

Let me say that we thank you. We look forward to working with you in any way we can. We're willing. You've heard Councilman Goode talk about his work with youth and at-risk youth. And certainly you can come to any of us in our offices and we're happy to support you and work with you in any way we can.

All right.

God bless you and good luck.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. Ruth Nield. Did I pronounce your name correctly?

Ruth Nield.

Ruth Nield, okay. Ruth Nield, John Hopkins University. Thank you. And after you, 154 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 we have Heather Frattone. Thank you. Thank you for your patience. Please identify yourself for the record and begin your testimony.

Yes. Good morning. My name is Ruth Curran Nield. I am a Research Scientist at Johns Hopkins University and an Assistant Professor on leave at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. I am one of the authors of "Unfulfilled Promises," which is the report --

Pull the mike closer.

Sure. I'm one of the authors of "Unfulfilled Promises," which is the report on dropout in Philadelphia that was issued by the Philadelphia Youth Network in October 2006. I've also asked Dr. Liza Herzog to join me. She was here for the hearings anyway, and some of the questions that were brought up earlier 155 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 about truancy, particularly when truancy begins to spike in children's educational careers, made me think that she might have something important to contribute to the discussion. She's done quite a bit of research on truancy, particularly in early adolescence. So what I would like to tell you about are some highlights of the research that has been reported in the report that was published by the Philadelphia Youth Network. And so far in the testimony we have been talking about solutions, what kinds of things could be done to reduce the dropout problem, and I'm going to be talking about some of the dimensions of the problem. I don't want us to feel like in some way we're kind of stepping back from the solutions, going back to sort of admiring the problem, and so the way I'd like to frame it is that some of the research that we'll be talking about really emphasizes the particular groups 156 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 that are at high risk of dropping out. And I think that the themes that have come out already about ways in which services and supports need to be targeted are themes that I would like to continue, and I hope you'll sort of pick up as I proceed with my testimony. We used data for this report from the Kids Data Infrastructure, which is at the University of Pennsylvania's Cartographic Modeling Lab. What's very unique about this dataset is that it merges data from a number of City agencies and it produces de-identified data so that individuals cannot be identified but that we can learn many new things about dropout. So, for example, we were able to get data from the School District of Philadelphia, from the Department of Human Services, from vital statistics, and we were able to learn a lot of new things that hadn't been known about dropouts before. Here are some of the things 157 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 that we found: We found that in a single school year, about ten percent of the students in grades six through twelve either become official dropouts or they attend so infrequently -- and, that is, less than 50 percent of the time -- that for all practical purposes, they really are dropouts. Some of these students return to school in a subsequent year, but most of them do not. We also examined some cohorts of students. These are students who begin ninth grade together, and you examine what percentage of those students complete high school within four or five or six years. And in none of the six cohorts that we examined did we find that more than 60 percent of the freshmen who started high school together had graduated six years later. Over six cohorts from 2000, the class of 2000, to the class of 2005, about 30,000 of Philadelphia's youth dropped out of high school and we have no record of them 158 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 earning a diploma. We found that while there are differences in the rate of dropout among Philadelphia's neighborhoods and among Council districts, high school dropout affects every neighborhood and every Council district. It affects every racial or ethnic group in the City. It affects males and females. In many cases, the similarities are more striking than the differences, although I don't mean to underplay the differences at all. Contrary to what many people might have thought, most high school dropouts were not in foster care during high school. They did not have a substantiated case of abuse or neglect during high school. They did not receive the juvenile justice system's most severe sanctions; that is, an out-of-home placement, and they did not give birth, for females, to a baby within four years of starting high school.

They may have had many struggles and difficulties in 159 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 their lives, but as a group, they would not rank as the City's most severely troubled or difficult to reach youth. So, for example, only three percent of the dropouts have a substantiated case of abuse or neglect in high school. Seven percent of the dropouts had a foster care placement during high school. Twenty-three percent of the male dropouts had an out-of-home juvenile justice placement during high school. And that's not to minimize that that's almost one quarter, but it is to say that it's not the majority of dropouts, which I think was a surprise to many people who didn't know much about the dropout situation in Philadelphia. And 33 percent of the female dropouts gave birth within four years of starting high school. While those who are agency involved are not the majority high school dropouts, there are some who are under the care or supervision of City agencies 160 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 like the Department of Human Services while they were in high school, and we found that dropout rates for these students were extremely high. And this is where we sort of get back to the idea that there are some students who really need targeted services, that these different subgroups are very important. Of those who had a substantiated case of abuse or neglect during high school, we found that 70 percent did not complete high school. Of those with a foster care placement, 75 percent did not complete. Of those with a juvenile justice placement, 90 percent dropped out. Of those who gave birth within four years of high school, 68 percent dropped out. So while those students who had those agency involvements or had that kind of characteristic were not the majority of dropouts, of those who did have those characteristics, the dropout rate was extremely high. 161 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 I want to be very clear -- and we tried to be clear in the report -- that we are not saying that being involved with an agency caused high school dropout. There is a correlation, obviously. There's an association, but we're not saying that that caused it. However, young people who become involved with City agencies often already have many characteristics that put them at risk of dropping out of high school. What the data do tell us, however, is that the current level of support being offered to these students is not sufficient to allow them to earn a basic academic credential that they will need for economic survival and participation in civic life. We also found that about half of the dropouts, agency involved or not, were giving strong signals of their path to dropping out prior to entering high school. More than half of the students who eventually dropped out had earned a 162 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 failing grade in either math or English during eighth grade and/or they attended school less than 80 percent of the time. An additional 30 percent of the eventual dropouts did not fail math, they did not fail English in eighth grade, they attended school more than 80 percent of the time, but they had a very difficult time in ninth grade, which is known as -- the transition to high school is known as a tough year, particularly for students in urban areas. And these students that earned very few credits and they attended less than 70 percent of the time. By using just these criteria, the criteria in eighth grade and the criteria in ninth grade, we can identify 80 percent of the dropouts, 80 percent of the students who would eventually drop out by the end of their first year in high school. These data tell us several things. First of all, the dropout problem in Philadelphia's public schools 163 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 is real and it's severe. It is not a new crisis. The dropout rate has been approximately stable over the past ten years.

And Philadelphia is not unique among large cities in its high dropout rate, but like other cities with these sorts of educational outcomes, Philadelphia cannot be an economically and civically vibrant city of the 21st century with continued educational outcomes like these. The data also tell us that there are some ways to tackle the problem. We can start by figuring out how to support the education of students who are under the care or under the supervision of City agencies. We can use data -- and, of course, as a researcher I like to talk about data and I think it's important. We can use data to discover baselines to set goals and benchmarks and to measure our progress over time against these benchmarks. And I think we could do this for particular groups of students 164 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 who are at risk, and there's a number of ways that those subgroups could be defined and their progress could be measured and followed over time. Second, we can work on identifying adolescents who are at risk of dropping out. Now, whenever we mention high-risk adolescents and identifying them, somebody always says, Well, wouldn't it really be better to invest in early childhood and elementary education? And, of course, we agree. That is very important to make those investments to get students on the right path, but I think even if we have those kinds of investments, adolescence is always going to do a number on some students. And not all students are going to get the skills that they need in elementary school. Therefore, we need to have interventions all along the way. We need to be able to tell students, It's not too late for you. It's not too late if you're an eighth grader who has failed 165 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 a major subject. It's not too late for you if you're a ninth grader who has failed every course. And it's not too late for you if you already dropped out of school. In fact, it's your time, and here are some options for you. Thank you.

Thank you. Very important testimony. My late husband used to say -- I've said this before -- that if you're and you drop 13 out of school, he used to say drop back 14 in at 17, because you could have been 16 15 five times. So we agree. Very 16 important. We have to have something for everybody at any age. Thank you. Important testimony. Ms. Herzog.

Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair, members. I'm Liza Herzog and I'm the Senior Researcher at the Philadelphia Education Fund. And a little bit about the Ed Fund: For the past 21 years, we've been providing 166 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 educational program and research on behalf of young people in Philadelphia, and we thank you for your continued attention to a critically important issue that touches the lives of all of us. We know the by-products of dropping out of school can make for a severely distressed city. So I'm going to talk about our research that we've done together with Johns Hopkins and to which Mr. " We were lucky in this research to have the uncommon advantage of having both local and longitudinal data. These are our kids, our Philadelphia kids, over time. So we were able to track sixth graders in Philadelphia public schools forward eight years, to a year beyond their expected graduation. We designed it in this way because reported annual dropout rates can be difficult to understand, as we know, and compare, 167 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 because, first, dropout status changes over time. We know that some students who initially drop out drop back in, reenter at some point, sometimes at multiple points to complete their degree requirements. And until we have a uniform definition of "dropout," different bodies, be it School District, state agencies, researchers, will continue to develop their own operational definitions. Our design allows us to look at what happens to the same group over time and gives us what we believe to be a very reliable picture of what's happening to our students. A little bit about the design: We surveyed more than variables, 19 outcome variables -- test scores, whether 20 the students were overage, course grades, their attendance patterns, suspensions, behavior marks, special ed designation -- to see which, if any, could identify who was at the highest risk for falling off track to graduation. We looked for those 168 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 with a high yield, meaning 75 percent or more of the kids with this particular characteristic did not make it to the twelfth grade with their class, and we found the most powerful predictors of the Philadelphia kids for falling off track to graduation to be attending school 80 percent or less of the time in the sixth grade, receiving a poor final behavior mark in the sixth grade, failing math in the sixth grade and failing English in the sixth grade. In other words, the odds of a sixth grader making it with his or her class if she has one of these risk factors, if you're a low attender, you have just a one-in-five chance; poorly behaved, a one-in-four chance; failed sixth grade math, one-in-five chance; failed sixth grade English, a one-in-eight chance. What we were able to do is identify 40 percent of eventual dropouts. Ruth talked about with the research that she's done with Bob Balfanz of Johns 169 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 Hopkins and the Project U-Turn report, they were able to identify 80 percent of eventual dropouts by the ninth grade. What we did, knowing that and knowing that we could identify up to 40 percent in the sixth grade, who of these at-risk sixth graders were also in the group of at-risk eighth and ninth graders, and we found that about two-thirds of them were the same youth. Ruth also talked about adolescence as being a particular troubling time for our children, and we found that the nexus of adolescence being 11 or 12 years old and living in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty has a very deep, negative impact on a student's relationship to school, which is why supports at that stage is so critical. The best thing about doing this work for me is applying it, and at the Ed Fund we have the opportunity to turn these findings into real supports for 170 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 real kids.

So we're currently in our design year in the north region and are working with schools to co-design interventions for sixth graders who are at risk of dropping out. Our work with schools there corroborates our finding that there are significant numbers of sixth graders who are really struggling. In fact, what we found in the research was that each year between 1,000 and 2,000 sixth graders in Philadelphia has each one of the big four risk factors, and it's become alarmingly clear that we really need to work -- "we" as the Ed Fund -- need to work together with principals and their teams on these tiered supports, whole school supports for the entire sixth grade, targeted supports for groups of 10 to 15 students who need more targeted attention, and intensive supports, which are very expensive but which are one-on-one, to increase the chances that these kids will make it to graduation with their 171 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 classmates. I'd like to say that these patterns, these at-risk patterns, are in place well before our kids show up at the high school door. And students who enter high school, we know from Ruth's research, two or more -- if they enter high school two or more years behind grade level in math and literacy, they only have a 50/50 chance of making it to the tenth grade on time. And repeating ninth grade is one of the strongest predictors for dropping out. So it just compounds as kids move up the pipeline. So what we think is what amounts to an early identification system that triggers appropriate supports as early as possible is vital to student success and will help us shrink this pool of children who are at extreme disadvantage the minute they walk through the door. So I think what we can do as a city is help schools and cross-sector 172 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 partners use this information effectively, take the lead in providing in- and out-of-school supports for the youth of Philadelphia beginning in the sixth grade or if they're out of school, at the age at which they would be in the sixth grade. And we would advocate for increased public awareness, continued public awareness about the dropout crisis by continuing to hold hearings and speak to your constituents, track progress of the children as they move through school so that our schools remain places where your youth can grow and learn and enjoy. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Have you done any work or be interested or know of someone who has on children who take Ritalin and behavior-altering drugs? It's been an issue I've been interested in for many years, and as you know, the students who go to charter schools and other schools, 173 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 this is a group that it's kind of on the parent or the grandparents or whomever to deal with it as an issue, and I really think it's part of a great question and I don't know how much research there is on it.

I'll answer first. I personally have not. I think it is -- it goes to why -- and this behavior mark has since been done away with, and there is a series of variables that are reported by Teachers Narrative that now supplants that behavior mark, but what really goes into that behavior mark, what is causing -- what is behind being at risk. And I think that is an interesting question that we can look more into, and whether or not a child is taking Ritalin could be a very significant part of that work. I have not had any experience doing any work. Have you, Ruth?

No. 25

We've 174 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 been interested in it for a long time because, as you know, when a child hits puberty, if their drugs don't change, they become suicidal and such. It just changes everything. And there are so many complications with this, and the pharmaceutical company, Chad, that gets it and children get a lot more money, their patients do, if they can get SSI if they're taking these drugs as opposed to just getting a welfare check. So there's so many complications, and I've not over the years -- oh, I don't know, 15 years or more -- been able to really get somebody other than the pharmaceuticals who benefit to deal with this as an issue and how it affects young people. So I'd appreciate it if you could just -- (Applause.)

-- consider it, if you would. Thank you very much. Councilman Goode. 175 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807

Thank you, Madam Chair. Ms. Nield, in your testimony you state "contrary to what many people might have thought, most high school dropouts were not in foster care during high school, did not have a substantial case of abuse or neglect, did not receive the juvenile justice system's most severe sanction; that is, an out-of-home placement, and did not give birth to a baby within four years of starting high school." How many have prior arrests?

We do not have access to juvenile justice data involving arrests, for example, that did not result in an out-of-home placement. The only information we were able to have was about individuals who had a placement. So I think what you're tapping into is that there's other individuals who had some sort of interaction with the law that are not being picked up here, and 176 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 that's right.

It's probably a huge number if the data you present says that percent of male 6 dropouts had an out-of-home juvenile 7 justice placement during high school when 8 that seems to be only one out of four, 9 but of those in juvenile justice 10 placement, 90 percent dropped out. The 11 appearance is definitely that there are 12 any number of people with prior arrests 13 that are already caught up in a system, 14 without blaming anyone of where they're 15 caught up in the system, that essentially 16 that continues to contribute to their 17 dropping out. 18

Right, and one 19 of -- that's exactly right, and one of 20 the things that we're trying to do going 21 forward is to look exactly at that issue 22 for the same reasons that you're 23 articulating. So the Kids Dataset at the time we were doing the research did not have an agreement so that we could access 177 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 arrest data or anything other than these out-of-home placements. But we recognize that this is a huge issue, and it's a huge issue for males in particular clearly, although females also have these out-of-home placements as well.

Because I did not cite arrest data for the murder victims and perpetrators because I didn't think it was totally germane to this hearing, but we do know that 80 percent, around 75, 80 percent, of those who were killed or did the killing last year had prior arrests.

Right. That makes sense. And I think that the word you used earlier in a related question was "correlation," and that's exactly the right word to be using, because you see this association between these two things. What's, I think, challenging is to find -- to estimate in some way what's the effect of legal involvement as opposed to some of the other kinds of 178 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 factors that propel students initially into being involved. In other words, there's a whole lot of factors that go into somebody ultimately becoming involved in the legal system. Some of those are related to what happened in high school, some of those things are related to what happened years and years and years and --

My ultimate goal is not to paint a picture of cause and effect but of correlation and the fact that there is a cycle, and the biggest reason to try to focus on that is to be able to identify people for intervention. And so essentially we need as much data as possible.

Yeah. That's exactly right. And what Liza was talking about is trying to find indicators where if you happen to have this characteristic, you have a very high risk of dropping out. And one of the reasons for trying to get that high threshold is 179 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 to be able to target resources appropriately. So that's another reason why looking at individuals who have an out-of-home placement -- and it may be true for kids who have arrests, too. We just don't know this, but you can look at those kids and say, If we don't do something with these kids, they've got a nine-out-of-ten chance of dropping out of high school. And so it's a good way of targeting -- you know you're using your resources, you're at least targeting in the right direction rather than maybe spreading them over individuals who might not have that same level of risk.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you both for your testimony. Heather Frattone. And I understand you're going to bring Paul Vallas' testimony. After Ms. Frattone, we'll have the Alternative Pathways panel, Courtney Collins-Shapiro, School 180 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 District; Meredith Malloy, YouthBuild; Marcus Delgado, Principal, Fairhill Community High School; Judi Taylor-Dunn, Center for Literacy. Are you all still here? (Yes.)

Thank you. Good morning. Thank you for your patience.

Good morning. My name is Heather Frattone. I'm the Executive Director for Policy and Planning at the School District of Philadelphia. First, I'd like to apologize for Mr. Vallas not being here today. As you may have heard, we had a District staff person killed in a bus accident this morning, so Mr. Vallas was attending to that. I am going to read his testimony for the record and then do the best I can to answer any questions that you might have. 181 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807

Thank you.

Good morning, Councilwoman Blackwell and members of the Committee on Education. I appreciate the opportunity to testify this morning on ways in which the District working with others can work to stem the dropout crisis. In my brief testimony, I will outline the importance of a systemic approach, necessary preventative and intervention methods, and recommendations for the Committee's consideration. The Youth Transitions Collaborative represents a citywide, cross-sector partnership focused on data collection and program development needed to make progress towards reconnecting struggling students and out-of-school youth to high-quality educational options. The District is a lead partner in the Collaborative and has been committed to the work of the Collaborative from the beginning. 182 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 You have heard from many members of the Collaborative today, but let me simply say that the Collaborative is precisely the kind of citywide, cross-sector partnership that is needed to make true progress towards reconnecting struggling students and out-of-school youth. The Collaborative is supporting our efforts by improving our capacity to analyze and act on data; identifying the state and local policies that contribute to the problem and recommending changes that would better support our young people; supporting our efforts to build new high-quality educational programming and bringing the public, including young people and their families, directly into the process of planning and shaping these efforts. Other members of the Collaborative are here to talk to you about the work of the partnership and the data collection and analysis. I will focus my remarks on the District's 183 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 current dropout prevention and recovery initiatives and the components necessary to take these initiatives to the next level. As you have heard this morning, early intervention and parental engagement are critical to a student's academic success. The District provides educational, social service support and parenting skills training to pregnant and parenting teens, as well as pre-kindergarten programs for students ages three and four. The District has standardized its curriculum for grades pre-K through twelve to increase instructional time on task and provide students with the skills necessary to maintain grade level achievement. In Philadelphia, experience has taught us that addressing the needs of struggling students and out-of-school youth must be an essential component of our overall secondary school reform 184 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 efforts. These efforts include a variety of approaches aimed at disconnected youth, such as multiple pathways, which you'll hear more about from Courtney Collins-Shapiro, that are intended to provide equivalently rigorous academic programs in a variety of settings and an array of pedagogies. Let me give you a few examples. Research tells us that some students do not fare well in large high schools that too often create a sense of isolation and alienation. To address this issue, we're in the midst of a major construction and renovation effort that will create dozens of new smaller high schools either by dividing our large comprehensive schools into two or more separate administrative units or by building entirely new schools. In the long run, we believe that these small schools will provide for more supportive environments and pave the way for rigorous and innovative teaching 185 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 approaches that will engage more of our young people and move them successfully towards graduation. As a part of our high school reform, the District is also working to provide more opportunities for seniors to graduate early, earn college credits while in high school, gain work experience through paid internships and receive more college scholarships.

As you also know, the District partners with the Department of Human Services, Philadelphia Police and SEPTA to combat chronic truancy. The truancy reduction initiatives include the use of parent truant officers, truancy courts and truancy pick-ups. One of the things that we've started to focus on is also prevention and recovery initiatives. So through funding from the Philadelphia delegation of the Pennsylvania Senate Democrats, the District launched the Middle Grades Accelerated Program in all regions of the 186 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 City to focus on creating special schools within a school for overage eighth grade students. The programs place an intense focus on reading and math, interactive instructional materials and intense wrap-around supports to address social needs. The District has been recognized as a national leader in developing alternative education programs. We have Twilight Schools, which are now called Educational Options. They were originally designed to provide credit recovery during non-school hours for overage undercredentialed youth who were behind in school or who had already dropped out. The Educational Option program currently has the capacity to serve about 2,000 students. The lessons learned from these efforts are now helping to shape the redesign of our next generation of high-quality educational options for young people who return seeking a diploma. And Courtney can 187 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 speak to you a little bit about some of the stuff that we're doing to redesign the Educational Options program to better meet the needs of our students. Another important issue for many out-of-school youth is their distance from graduation and their need to accumulate credits as quickly as they can. To address this issue, in 2004-2005 the District launched three accelerated high schools to enable hundreds of overage and undercredentialed youth, many of whom are former dropouts or are involved in social services or juvenile justice systems, to earn the credits they need to graduate. We added an additional program this year and we currently have the capacity to serve 775 students, and we have long waiting lists at each of the programs. Again, thanks to the support of the Philadelphia delegation of the Philadelphia Senate Democrats, the District is in the process of placing 188 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 Dropout and Recovery Specialists in seven high schools with the highest dropout rates in the City. These specialists will handle a caseload of students at risk of dropping out and will serve as a liaison for students returning to school from dropping out. New research is suggesting that it's possible for out-of-school youth to succeed in classrooms that actually blend secondary and post-secondary coursework. In late 2005, Community College of Philadelphia and the District received funding support from national foundations to replicate the nationally recognized Gateway to College program, pioneered at Portland Community College, that enables out-of-school youth to attend community college where they earn credits toward both a high school diploma and a post-secondary credential. The program eventually will serve 400 students over the next three years. The Collaborative has developed 189 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 policy and funding recommendations for consideration by the City, so I will leave the fuller discussion on these matters to other speakers. I would, however, like to offer two recommendations for the Committee's consideration as you deliberate on these important issues. I suggest expanding the City's commitment to alternative education funding in ways that would enable the District to create and tailor programs to meet the individual needs of young people who are currently not succeeding in a traditional classroom. The District currently serves approximately 2,800 students through the Educational Options program and the transitional high schools.

With increased alternative ed funding from the City, the District will work with the state and workforce development agencies to braid other funding streams to serve 5,000 students through these programs. 190 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 I also suggest appropriating funds to sustain and expand workplace internships for youth in Philadelphia. As you may know, the City is expected to lose 1,200 youth internships due to the higher costs associated with the new minimum wage increases. With an appropriation from the City, we could sustain the current number of youth internships and possibly create new workplace opportunities, including dedicated slots for former dropouts who enroll in School District diploma-granting programs. Thank you for the opportunity to present testimony before the Committee this afternoon. The importance of ensuring that all our young people graduate from high school ready for college and careers has never been greater. Thank you. I also have responses or general responses to some questions that 191 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 were raised earlier when Ted Kirsch was testifying. One of the questions was around the cost for reduced class size, and I have some general figures, and we can provide you with a more detailed analysis in writing. But we believe it will take close to 900 teachers, about 876 additional teachers, to move us to 10 kids in a classroom for grades K through 11 eight at a cost of somewhere between $70 12 and $80 million. And we can provide you 13 with a detailed analysis of this, but I 14 did want to give you the general numbers. 15 There were also some specific 16 questions about the number of vocational 17 schools. We have eight vocational 18 schools, and we have vocational -- or 19 career and technical education courses in 20 all of our high schools, and the programs 21 currently serve approximately 14,000 22 students. 23

Thank 24 you. Do you have any information on 25 defining "truancy"? 192 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807

On defining "truancy"?

Yes. I mean, 80,000 is what? Is it 80,000 people, cases or what; do you know?

The report I think you were speaking from this morning was the Safe and Sound report that was issued last year. So I don't know the criteria that they used, but I can talk to you a little bit about what we do. Ted Kirsch was right. After three absences, we do fill out the -- we start interventions for students who are truant after three unexcused absences. So we start with the form that Ted Kirsch talked about. I believe that the next intervention level is five absences, then eight absences, then ten absences. But I can get you sort of a summary of what interventions students receive at what level. But we do start at three absences.

And 193 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 what the 80,000 means. Is that cases, people, whatever.

Yeah. I mean, we can work with Safe and Sound to better understand their methodology on that.

All right. And we will make available -- in fact, we met with Mr. Vallas as recently as Friday, and we're concerned about two programs, one in new West Philadelphia High School -- Thank you, Mr. Bichner, who is here, Al Bichner. And thank you, Leigh Whitaker, who is here. And so we have a letter ready for him that I will give you today so that maybe when we deal with the budget in April -- April 24th you're due back -- we can have some discussion, because there's some issue over funding and also for a community center, Lucien E. Blackwell Community Center between Sulzberger and Martha Washington that would enable the Board to make Sulzberger 194 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 High School and Martha Washington K to eight before September when we'll have a lot of pressure with the work at University City High School. Al Bichner knows. And I'll just make my letter available to you and we'll have further discussion on that when budget time comes. Thank you. Councilman Goode.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Just going through some statistics again. Last year there were 406 murders in Philadelphia. Over 60 percent of them were black males, and over 60 percent of those black males were under the age of 25. I thank the District for providing the data that I asked for, or at least one piece of the data that I asked for, regarding the murder victims and the perpetrators. And 195 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 based upon that data, for those that we do have information on, we know the graduation rate for those murdered was less than percent. I believe it was 6 24 percent. And we know of those who 7 were the accused perpetrators, we have 8 data for 127 of them. Only 23 graduated. 9 That's about 18 percent. 10 Is the District now willing to 11 admit that there is some correlation 12 between dropout rate and the murder rate? 13

I think what 14 you've heard today, the testimony from 15 Ruth and from Laura, is that there are 16 many factors that contribute to students 17 dropping out, and I think Ruth's 18 testimony, especially around the 90 19 percent of students that are involved in 20 the -- who have been in a delinquency 21 placement eventually drop out of school. 22 I think, yes, there is a correlation. 23

Actually, 24 let me restate the question because 25 actually I've been stating the question 196 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 wrong about there being a correlation between the dropout rate and the murder rate. I guess the way I should ask the question, is there a correlation between the murder rate and the dropout rate, is a better way to ask the question. Of those people who are being murdered, we know that most of them are -- most of the murders are victim specific, that the people actually knew each other. So, in fact, if the epidemic within this City in terms of murder rate is related to victim-specific crimes and we then look at the data related to the victims and the perpetrators and see that the overwhelming majority of both dropped out and know the overwhelming majority of both had prior arrests, is there a way to better address this problem with that new information and with that new focus?

Well, I think one of the things that we are currently doing with the City, at least as far as with the delinquency system, is working 197 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 very closely with the new after-care program through RETI-WRAP, which is the transition program that students have to attend when they're returning from delinquent court placements, to do a comprehensive assessment of them, so not only of where they are academically but also of what some of their social service needs may be so that we can then work to find them an appropriate school placement. I mean, one of the things that we worry about when a child is returning from delinquent placement is if they go back to the school where they were before or back into the community without the additional supports that they need, they may fall back into those old behaviors. So we have been working very closely and we will continue to work very closely with our City partners in assessing the students and doing the best that we can to get them the supports they need and put them in appropriate 198 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 educational programs. So it may be that going back to a more traditional high school environment isn't the right place for them; they need to enroll in one of the transition high schools. It may be that a program like Job Corps might be more appropriate for them, and really looking at the individual student to assess what might be the appropriate placement for them.

There were two requests for information that I made at the last hearing. One was for graduation data for the victims and perpetrators of murders last year. The other was for a tracking of performance, academic performance, of young black males. That information has not been forthcoming.

You didn't get the stuff on the academic performance of African-American males?

I did not.

We can get that 199 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 for you.

Thank you. Lastly, you began to explain and I may have interrupted you. Please tell me what is the School District's position now in terms of the correlation between those people who were murdered last year, committed murders last year and their graduation rates, which is the best way I can phrase it.

Yeah. I'm not all that clear on the question and I'm not sure I'm the best person to answer it. I mean, I think as we learn from the research, there are many factors that contribute to a student dropping out of school. We learn that it isn't just one event or one cause, that we really have to look at all of the circumstances for that individual to figure out how to better program for them.

Actually, I did turn the question around. I didn't use the word "dropout." I said does the 200 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 School District know yet or have a new perspective yet on what it means that those people who were murdered last year and who committed murders last year share extremely low graduation rates, between and percent, as compared to the 8 overall graduation rate of the School 9 District at 56 percent? I mean, does 10 that mean anything to the School 11 District? 12

The best I can 13 say, I think the School District has long 14 participated in the Youth Homicide Review 15 Committee, which has been looking at the 16 young men and women under the age of, I 17 think it's, 14 to 25, or whatever, who 18 are murdered or commit murders in the 19 City of Philadelphia and what their 20 circumstances are, so what systems were 21 they involved in, how successful were 22 they in school. 23 So the best way that I can 24 answer that is that the School District has always been aware of a student's 201 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 academic progress and how that academic progress may impact what happens in the future of their lives and specifically around murdering or being murdered in Philadelphia. We've been an active participant in that and will continue to do so.

Are you participating in it for out-of-school youth?

Yes. I mean, my understanding of the committee, and I can confirm this, is that it deals with any person between the ages -- it's either 14 to 25 -- it goes up to 25, who was murdered or murdered someone in the City, and it's a cross-sector group that looks at those individuals, and it helps inform, I believe, some of the YVRP and AVRP stuff that the City has been working on over the last couple of years.

So I guess the better question is, so based upon the activity you've already been involved in, 202 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 where are you?

I'm not clear on exactly what you're asking.

You said the School District has been involved in this activity in terms of reviewing data. What does that tell you at this point? Where are you in terms of --

Well, I think it tells us what we've always known, which is a young person's academic success or lack of academic success has implications on what will happen for them in the future, whether it's being involved in the adult prison system, murdering, being murdered, being able to find employment, being able to pursue career opportunities. I think it's a more comprehensive look that we've been trying to make.

So a more comprehensive look at it, but what conclusions have you drawn, what new approaches are you taking? I notice in 203 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 Mr. Vallas' testimony the first highlighted area is the importance of a systemic citywide approach, and I'm assuming that that is toward the 56 percent graduation rate, not the much lower graduation rate associated with those people killing and being killed.

Around our students who are returning from delinquent court placement or who are involved in the delinquency system, we do work very closely with DHS and the after-care system to figure out for those students not only what an appropriate educational placement would be but what other social supports those kids need, those young people need.

That was part of my previous question. So is your work really just associated with those students who are still within the School District, or how are you involved in terms of out-of-school youth?

Well, I mean, 204 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 some of those students returning from delinquent court placement may have been out of school before they were placed and they come back to us when they return from placement. I believe that for the ones that are under years of age, a 8 condition of their probation is that they 9 enroll in school. It may be -- I don't 10 know if Candace is still here. She may 11 be able to answer that question. 12

I guess my 13 question is also related to those 14 out-of-school youth that are not required 15 by age to be in school. 16

Right. So 17 that's why we're a part of this. And we 18 are using -- one of the big parts of Project U-Turn is to increase awareness and outreach to students who are out of school, to young people who are out of school, and to create not only ways for them to find out what is available for them but to also create more opportunities, more appropriate 205 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 educational placements for them.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman. Councilman Greenlee.

Good afternoon, Ms. Frattone. How are you?

Good afternoon, Councilman.

The disciplinary schools, I know there are a number of incidents where students get put in a disciplinary school when they, for example, have a weapon. Sometimes they at least make the argument they didn't realize they had the weapon, it was dad's coat or something like that. Do you know if being put in those schools, has that sometimes -- obviously inadvertently on the School District's part -- pushed them totally out of the system; in other words, pushed them into the dropout category? Do you know? 206 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807

We have -- so as you may know, the District has a number of disciplinary schools. They are now run all by outside providers. We used to run some of them ourselves and we determined that we could find providers to do it better than we did. Our largest provider is Community Education Partners, and we did -- Temple University, through the Laboratory for Student Success, did a longitudinal study on the students at CEP and how they did while they were there and how they did when they went back to their schools. We would be more than happy to provide you with a copy of that study. We are taking a closer look at students who -- and hopefully we've started to talk through the Collaborative about how we may be able to do some of this through the research with the University, with the Kids Dataset and Johns Hopkins and Ruth to really assess. So the kids who don't make it all the way 207 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 through the disciplinary program and they end up dropping out, what happened, where did we lose them, was it because of something that happened at the program, was it because of where they were academically, was it because of something else that happened in their lives, and how do we find ways to reconnect them.

Because the reason I ask that, in my previous life as a staff member, I used to hear from a lot of parents who were saying, You send my kid to this school, he or she is going to be scared, they're not going to stay there. And I guess that's what I'm getting at. Have you seen, without going into a lot of specifics, have you seen that that's a problem? And I guess the second part, if it is, is there any possible solution to it?

I think the problem may be perception more than reality. I mean, we encourage families 208 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 who have those concerns to at least give the school a try, to go and enroll their child so that they can see if in fact that is true for them or not. One of the other things we do is that if we have a specific request from a family that this school is too big or this school is too far away, we try and work with them and place them in another alternative environment that may be more appropriate for them.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Frattone. Thanks, Madam Chair.

Thank you very much. Any further questions? (No response.)

Thank you.

Thank you.

The Alternative Pathways panel, if you are still here. Again, Courtney 209 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 Collins-Shapiro from the School District; Meredith Malloy, YouthBuild; Marcus Delgado, Principal, Fairhill Community High School; and Judi Taylor-Dunn, Center for Literacy. Welcome. Thank you for your patience. Is Candace Bell here today?

Yes, I am.

Okay. You're next. Thank you for your patience. Good afternoon. Would you identify yourself for the record and begin your testimony.

Good afternoon, Councilwoman Blackwell and members of the Committee. My name is Courtney Collins-Shapiro and I'm the Director of the School District's Office of Multiple Pathways to Graduation. As you heard Heather Frattone deliver Mr. Vallas' testimony, I'm going to explore some of the things that the 210 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 School District has been doing to address the out-of-school youth and at-risk youth problem within the District. I'm going to really talk about five promising programs that we've begun or retooled within the past months. 8

Please 9 pull your mike up. It's hard to hear 10 you. 11

Sure. 12 So the first type of program we 13 have are our accelerated high schools. 14 You talked earlier when Councilwoman 15 Reynolds Brown was here, she was talking 16 about hearing from the students who have 17 been here for some of the violence 18 panels, about students speaking about the need to get back into school, that they're there, they want to get back in but they don't feel like there's an option for them. We've created accelerated schools within the District that focus on meeting the needs of students, remediating literacy and math 211 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 deficiencies, and moving these students through the coursework required for graduation at an accelerated pace. These schools focus on high school dropouts ages to who are at least one full 7 year behind in school. In many cases, 8 they're two or three years behind 9 academically. They also many times have 10 literacy deficiencies, where they're 11 reading at third, fourth or fifth grade 12 levels. 13 This year, 775 students from 14 all sections of the City are enrolled in 15 four accelerated high schools. However, 16 right now we have more than 800 students 17 who are on voluntary wait lists for these 18 schools, and we get more than 20 phone 19 calls every single week on our Project 20 U-Turn hotline from students and parents 21 looking to get into an accelerated school. We believe that with new funding earmarked for accelerated school expansion, the members of the Youth Transitions Collaborative could fill 212 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 2,000 seats in these schools within 30 days of opening. This is the most significant thing we can do to see a drop in our dropout rate immediately, get these students back into school and on the road to success. The second program I want to talk about is the Educational Options program, formerly known as Twilight. Again, today we're serving 2,000 youth and adults ages to 65 in this 13 afternoon and evening program in ten 14 different locations across the City. The 15 goal of this program is for students to 16 earn their diploma. Most students are 17 coming to us a little bit farther along, so they maybe dropped out when they were a junior or a senior in high school and now they just need to complete their diploma. Low literacy remains a key issue in this program. So a student may have dropped out at junior year, but unfortunately they're still reading two 213 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 or three years below grade level. So this year, with the assistance of the William Penn Foundation and the Center for Literacy, we're launching a low literacy hub within one of our programs. We're starting that program actually next week, where we will be focusing on students who have taken literacy exams and tested several years below grade level and working with them on an individual literacy instruction program to see if we can help increase their literacy gains. We're proposing within the District that we expand both the seats and the locations of these programs so we can, again, have more seats across the City for students who are looking to reconnect to school. The Gateway to College program is the newest program that we have for out-of-school and at-risk youth. This program currently enrolls 100 students who were formerly dropouts. They are 214 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 enrolled completely at the Community College of Philadelphia. They take all their classes there, and they count for both high school and college credits. Most of these students will not only earn a diploma but will earn most or all of their credits towards an Associate's degree. And we're seeing high demand for that program. One of our challenges is, that program requires an eighth grade reading level. So many of the dropouts who are looking to reconnect and see that program as a very impressive option are far below the literacy level needed to participate.

So we're starting to create concepts for sort of a bridge to the Gateway program so we can focus on literacy for students who want to be enrolled in that program. In all three of the above programs, we know the potential applicant pool to be much larger than the current combined capacity of 2,800 seats. Using Dr. Nield's research and current School 215 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 District data, the current pool of students includes roughly the 8,200 students that drop out of school every year, and right now on the rolls we have 7,100 students ages to who are 7 enrolled in high schools but who are 8 overage for their grade and are at least 9 one full year in credits behind. These 10 students are in the next class of 11 dropouts if we do not act immediately to 12 find them and help them be successful. 13 The remaining two strategies 14 for students who are currently on the 15 verge of dropping out are preventative in 16 nature. The first I'll touch on are the 17 Student Success Centers. Again, with 18 help from the William Penn Foundation, 19 the District created these one-stop centers within eight neighborhood high schools with some of the highest dropout rates in the City. By leveraging resources and staff from the School District and other partner agencies, we've been able to provide comprehensive 216 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 college, career, academic and social support services for all students within these schools. So you've heard many speakers talk about providing those wrap-around supports that students need beyond just the academic preparation, and we do that through these centers. These centers are a logical hub for dropout prevention services and are easily replicable within accelerated schools and other neighborhood high schools. In fact, we've been invited to New York by the Annenberg Center at the end of this month to talk about New York City public schools replicating this model there. For students who are considering dropping out, the promise of assistance with college preparation, a trained adult to help them addressing personal problems or linkages to paid employment through internships are strong incentives to stay in school. Included 217 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 in the Youth Transitions Collaborative request to Council for additional funding to support internships for youth is the funding to bolster the workforce development aspects of this model and to connect the students most at risk of dropping out directly to the workforce. When Councilman Goode had spoken earlier about how do we know that we can guarantee we're going to target those most at-risk students for those jobs, those students who are juvenile offenders, I can guarantee you that if you target those funds and attach them to accelerated schools and our at-risk youth in the high schools, they're going to be those students in those populations. It's going to be children aging out of foster care, it's going to be teen parents, it's going to be students who were once in delinquent placement, because that's who is in our accelerated schools. This effort will support the 218 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 success in our model that's already in place. It will expand similar student employment models for our accelerated high schools, and I strongly urge Council to consider funding a portion of the citywide youth internship and workforce development program that is linked to accelerated and neighborhood schools as a significant way to attract dropouts and at-risk youth back to school. Finally, our Dropout Prevention Specialists. Social workers with a background in working with at-risk teens began working in seven neighborhood high schools with high dropout rates just this month. These specialists are targeting the students most at risk of dropping out using the data that we know to be the most sort of the target factors from Dr. Nield's research.

So we're pulling monthly drop-downs of data so we can target the students who are absolutely at risk of dropping out in these schools. In addition, they'll be charged 219 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 with creating a support network of caring adults in these buildings for each of these youth to help increase their chances of on-time graduation. A similar program in Boston is showing promise of early results in helping students return to school, stay in school and connect to the services that many of these students need outside of school in order to remove barriers to participating in education. I am joining other members of the Collaborative in asking Council to consider our request to provide funding to put at least one Dropout Prevention Specialist in every neighborhood high school to stem the tide of dropping out as soon as possible. In closing, I'd like to share that Philadelphia is being viewed as one of the leading cities nationally on the issue of dropout prevention and recovery. The District and the members of the Collaborative are doing everything we can within our limited fiscal means to create 220 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 new, viable educational pathways for this very important group of youth. We are now asking the City to join us by providing us with some of the fiscal resources needed to turn the dropout problem around and to really become the national leader on this issue. These youth live in every councilmanic district and they are out there in our communities asking for more educational pathways to success. Tangible things like more slots in accelerated high schools, Dropout Prevention Specialists and internships for at-risk youth are immediate ways that the City can invest in its future and make an immediate impact on the lives of thousands of young Philadelphians. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Any questions? (No response.)

Thank you. 221 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807

Hi. My name is Judi Taylor-Dunn and I'm the Director of Education Services for the Center for Literacy. I'm actually reading the testimony of JoAnn Weinberger, our President, Executive Director. On behalf of the Center for Literacy, I am pleased to be here today to discuss the needs of youth at risk of dropping out of school or those who have already dropped out because of low literacy levels. During the 2005-2006 fiscal year, CFL worked with over 1,000 young people ages to 21. These were 16 high school dropouts, both male and female, representing all races. These young people came to CFL with goals, wanting a high school diploma or GED. " Who are these youth? They are under 21, and 77 percent were reading below a sixth grade level. Eighty-seven and a half percent had math skills below 222 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 the sixth grade level. Some were in special education, while others were low achievers. Many have adult responsibilities as parents and workers and need support as they search for housing and strive to overcome barriers. In many instances, their case worker or parent calls CFL or the School District to find out about the opportunities available to them. The Center for Literacy's citywide programs are open to these youth in the neighborhood centers, in community programs and in family literacy programs. Some of the classes are designed particularly with youth in mind. In others, the youth are integrated with adult learners of all ages. Starting in July 2005, literacy coaching was available in the E3 centers. At the same time, the Center for Literacy was developing a Toolkit for Serving Out-of-School Youth with Low Literacy Levels as part of the City of 223 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 Philadelphia's response to the challenge of working with struggling youth using funding from the Youth Transition Funders Group collaborative. The research and professional literature were analyzed for this project and it can be summarized as follows: Serving the literacy needs of out-of-school youth, particularly those reading below the sixth grade level, is a complex task. Adolescence is a time for upheaval for the vast majority of people, and it is made more difficult by the kinds of situations that require youth to leave school early and require further literacy training. However, if teachers serving the out-of-school youth population come to better understand how adolescents develop, how they are different from adults and how to provide quality reading instruction to meet their needs, these learners will be better served regardless of the educational setting. In implementing this toolkit 224 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 that we created, we found out two items. First of all, in order for students to be successful in diploma-granting programs, they must first be equipped with the necessary skill base. Without these foundational skills, they are likely to once again become disengaged. Second, to enable these youth to continue in the program, they require a system of providing caring adult guidance. The underfunded adult education system does not enable the small class size or the supportive case management that these youth require. The School District needs to both, A, welcome them back and, B, provide options or what is being called multiple pathways. The E3 centers and other special out-of-school youth programs, including a literacy hub model and a bridge program, offer great promise in getting into place the critical elements that lead to success for these youth. There is a great deal of work 225 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 ahead for all of us if we are to provide hope to the thousands of youth who need our help. We believe that collaborative partnerships are essential in creating, implementing and bringing to scale the educational options being discussed.

We implore the leadership of Philadelphia to reflect on the impact low literacy has on our region's economic health and the power of literacy in helping youth contribute to the future of our great city. We know that a high school graduate will earn on average over $7,800 more per year than a dropout. We know what it takes to provide quality services that will enable these students, who have made a conscious decision to return to an educational program to improve their skills and be successful, but we need your support. Today, I specifically thank you for holding this hearing and ask you to, one, increase public awareness about the dropout crisis by continuing to address 226 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 this issue by tracking progress and, two, create high-quality workplace internships for Philadelphia youth, including the overaged and undercredentialed. 5 million invested in these internships have the potential to improve academic achievement while increasing access to adult mentoring and job readiness. Thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Any questions? (No response.)

Thank you.

My name is Meredith Malloy and I'm with YouthBuild Philadelphia Charter School. YouthBuild Philadelphia Charter School is an innovative academic and job-training program that reengages young adults who are 18 to 21 who have dropped out of high school and puts them on the path to 227 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 future success. Students spend half of their time on the work sites learning job skills as they rehabilitate abandoned houses for low-income families and the other half in the classrooms where they receive individualized academic attention as they work toward their high school diploma. Students also provide hundreds of hours of community service every year. Our students have rehabilitated over 60 houses since its inception. Our program has successfully mobilized at-risk out-of-school youth to become a positive workforce in Philadelphia. YouthBuild provides real and tangible benefits to the entire Philadelphia community. Through our 14 years of experience, we know that out-of-school youth truly can turn their lives around if they are provided with the right resources and opportunities. At YouthBuild we put a real investment into our students, not just through academics 228 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 and job training but individualized care through case management, life skills and transition services to ensure that each student knows they can be successful. Every year YouthBuild receives four times as many applications as available positions, proving that when you make a valuable opportunity available, young people will show up to take advantage of it. When we invest in our youth, lives truly can change. However, the level of service that YouthBuild provides cannot be sustained without a financial commitment from our community. Our community needs to support the transition of these students into responsible adulthood by providing high-quality internships, living wage jobs and career tracks. To truly reconnect to the education and succeed in programs like YouthBuild, young people need to be shown that they can have a bright future and a quality career. By providing support 229 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 from local tax dollars for youth workforce development activities, we can provide these students with the best transition possible, ensuring that the commitment to their future will not end with a high school diploma. In June 2007, we expect another 120 former dropouts to graduate from our program. We would like for each of those graduates to have a real plan in place for their future success with high-quality jobs and internships in the community waiting for them. We would love to be able to tell each and every one of those graduates that their next step is planned because their city invested in them and because we all believe that they can succeed. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Any questions? (No response.)

We 230 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 know there are only a few of you left, but we have to let the stenographer take a moment break. So we will recess for about three minutes and then we'll be right back. Five minutes. Thank you. (Short recess.)

Thank you very much. We'll resume our hearing. And it wasn't even five minutes. The next two people are already at our table, at the witness table, and we will allow them, Ms. LeBron and Ms. Shipler, is it, to introduce themselves to our record and begin their testimony. Thank you for your patience. MS. LeBRON: Good afternoon, Councilwoman Blackwell --

Good afternoon. MS. LeBRON: -- and other members of Council present. My name is Carmen Maria LeBron. I'm a leader with the Eastern Pennsylvania Organizing Project and a member of the Incarnation 231 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 of Our Lord Catholic Church in the Olney section of Philadelphia. EPOP is a faith-based non-profit organization of neighborhood institutions, churches and schools. EPOP has been working with the parents improving schools since its founding in 1993. For the past two years, EPOP has been a member of the out-of-school youth collaborative working together to reduce this City's escalating dropout problem. Each year thousands of our young people leave school before realizing the promise of a bright future an education offers. They leave school without ever being connected with the assistance they need to turn their lives around. All too often they become angry and frustrated, turning to lives on the streets or low-paying jobs. Overworked and overwhelmed parents feel they have nowhere to turn to help them. We need to connect them with multiple pathways to education that are here to help their 232 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 children. We are here today to ask City Council to support the Office of Educational Support within the Department of Human Services. The purpose of this office would be to aid these thousands of young people currently dropped out of school to get back to the path to success. This office would provide them with the assistance they need to return to school by matching them with programs that meet their needs. Additional support would be offered at high-risk high schools to provide a roadmap to the additional resources and support to begin to turn around this serious problem. As a parent of a young man who dropped out of school at age 15, with the reading level of twelfth grade, I know the importance of connecting young people to the services they need through one central location. He recently returned to school and received his GED at the Keystone Job Corps located in Drums, 233 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 Pennsylvania. I ask that the Council support this initiative to help our youth who are the future of Philadelphia, and I thank you for this opportunity to speak to you today.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Ms. Shipler.

Good afternoon. I'm sitting in for Nick Torres, who is the President of Congreso de Latinos Unidos. My name is Kristin Shipler. I'm actually the Director of Civic Engagement for Congreso, and I testified here a couple of months ago with the Project U-Turn partners. Congreso, as you might know, is the largest Latino social service agency in Pennsylvania. We're a community-based non-profit based in eastern North Philadelphia, and we thank City Council for prioritizing the needs of the Latino population in our great city, especially 234 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 knowing that Latino communities have unique challenges and they're a growing population in Philadelphia. Since 1990, the Latino population in Philadelphia has increased by over 65 percent, and that's actually probably underrepresented. And more than half of the Latino population is younger than years of age. 2 16 percent. Less than 40 percent of our 17 population in eastern North Philadelphia 18 has graduated from high school. So we 19 see it not only among our at-risk youth, 20 but we see it in our adult population as 21 well. So the dropout crisis is really 22 real for all of our youth but especially 23 so for Latinos. 24 Given the language and cultural 25 barriers and the poverty that faces the 235 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 Latino community, Latinos are very vulnerable to dropping out of school. So how do we tackle this in an effective, streamlined manner, factoring in all of the stakeholders who can potentially contribute to transformational change? That's the question that we're constantly asking. And we've been in the community for 30 years. Our services reach more than 10,000 youth per year, and most of them are in eastern North Philadelphia, but they do cover the whole gamut of the City. And we view the schools as the heart of the community, and as such, we have strategically aligned many of our youth programs within the educational system. Our contribution to the school system provides supports to prevent high school dropouts, and that's where most of our programs focus. Even outside of the school system we attempt to attack the root causes that lead youth to drop out of school, because prevention strategies 236 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 are paramount, but we realize these strategies aren't enough. There are many youth already out of school who desperately need the larger community's support, and that's why we're here today to focus on this. And in response to this, we are one of the community-based organizations charged with managing one of the City's E3 centers, which you keep hearing about, and I'll go into a little more detail. The E3 centers were designed as an intensive career preparation program for youth age 14 to 21. Students who drop out of school are very unlikely to return. As such, the E3 centers were designed to provide an appropriate and youth-driven context, which is a really important point, within which to educate clients toward a high school equivalency diploma and to build the essential skills they need to enter the workforce. Members work with our staff to identify their career interests, they set goals, 237 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 they have life plans, and they try and gain skills that they need to achieve those goals. But this is hard work and it takes extensive dedication to each of the youth to ensure that they meet the goals set out for them. This is especially so for the youth who have entered into the juvenile justice system, because as you've heard, approximately 90 percent of them drop out of school. On average currently, $3,000 is dedicated to each youth slot in an E3 center, and this is an amount that differs quite dramatically from the upwards of 40,000 that can be spent on youth placement residential treatment. One of the most important investments in the E3 center and in many of our youth programs is human capital.

Our career advisors and instructors are vital investments, because research demonstrates that the primary critical factor in successfully intervening with 238 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 these youth is a caring adult, another point that you've already heard today. Nevertheless, under the current funding structure at $3,000 per youth, we must often make difficult choices regarding providing social or instructional supports. So we're finding that the needs are much more than just education and workforce development. When we have to make those difficult choices, we fail to give the youth comprehensive support, resulting in very few gains leading to a degree or an employment. So we're really talking about wrap-around services here. As such, we propose increased capacity within the current centers to fully address the myriad needs that each of our clients present. Another essential need for our centers is the entree for more workplace internships for our clients, as real-time experience not limited to the classroom is often the essential ingredient that 239 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 motivates the youth to change his or her life. We respectfully request your partnership in supporting workplace internships for our youth for the upcoming fiscal year. With an emphasis on quality over quantity, we will more likely ensure real positive change in the lives of our clients we serve. We have seen in the year that we have operated the E3 center the absolutely essential component of personal connections with an adult in the center. And, again, an adult connection is one of the most influential components. So I just want to quickly share an example of one of our clients with you. This is a client story. Her name is Christina and she's a 17-year-old Latina who dropped out of school when she was 14. She was in the ninth grade. She had become pregnant, and when her baby was born, her mother kicked her out of the house. Fourteen, pregnant, kicked 240 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 out of the house. So where does this leave Christina? She doesn't have consistent childcare. She has been evicted three times from housing. She doesn't have relationships with her parents, the father of her daughter or other relatives. So she's very alone. She's an only child. And she's currently looking for work, but because of her childcare situation, she hasn't been able to hold down a job for very long. And this is one of our clients. This is a real person. And she's not an exception, this is the rule. She's connected to the E3 center last January. So she's been with us for a year. And so far, Christina has improved from fourth grade reading to seventh grade reading and math levels. She's currently in one of our GED classes, and she's completed a six-week program in computer repair program within the center. She works about 15 to 20 241 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 hours per week in the program. So it's an internship in-house. But just as important, through case management she has found more stable housing and childcare. She's built better peer and social networks and she's working toward involving the father of her daughter in their lives. The connection she has made with her case manager and the direction the case manager has been able to provide her have been successful keys in bringing her toward self-sufficiency. She's not quite there, though. More time, committed focus and resources will be dedicated to Christina so that she actually receives her GED and works in a more sustainable job, and we're committed to getting her there. So just, again, to focus on the need for wrap-around services, when you have no family support, you have childcare issues, you have housing issues and you're only 17 years old, the 242 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 supports that these children need -- and she is still a child even though she is a mother -- the supports that they need are pretty great.

So the wrap-around services at the E3 centers are really important and need to be emphasized. And there are many Christinas in Philadelphia. We aim to provide quality outcomes-based results that will lead our clients toward self-sufficiency. The collaboration of all of these organizations that have been here today is significant and need support. In addition to financial support from City Council, like other people have mentioned, public education efforts around the issue of dropouts and increased community collaboration for a proposed solution on your behalf would assist us immeasurably. With such limited time to discuss these really important issues, we invite you, any and all City Councilmembers, if you would like to view our E3 center, we're right 243 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 at Girard and 5th if you'd like to come out and to see any of our youth programs so that you can more ultimately see the important supports we offer to enhance the work in and out of our schools. We're committed partners, and we really thank you for your time.

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thanks for your patience, too.

I'd like to commend you, Councilwoman Blackwell, and your Committee for having us all here for the second time to run through our testimony more completely. My name is Candace Bell and I'm a Program Officer at the William Penn Foundation and I'm here to speak in support of Project U-Turn. As you know, William Penn's commitment to education in Philadelphia is both longstanding and substantial, as is our commitment to ensuring the economic and social well-being of the City. The dropout crisis is described in 244 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 the Project U-Turn report and testified to by those who have already spoken is one that has serious implications beyond school reform or quality of life in our neighborhoods. Philadelphia cannot move into the 21st century with close to 50 percent of its young adults not having a twelfth grade level of educational proficiency. What employer is going to want to move here with half of the workforce unqualified for jobs in this new high-tech economy? This is a ball and chain on progress at all levels that cannot be ignored any longer. It impacts the City's economy, its tax burden, its safety, its quality of life and civic life. And some of this we've already discussed this afternoon. The Foundation first became involved with this issue through a national funders affinity group called the Youth Transition Funders Group in 2002. We participated in the design and funding of the seven-city initiative that 245 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 has produced Project U-Turn here in Philadelphia and in similar initiatives in Boston, New York, Portland, San Jose, Washington, DC and Las Vegas. Locally, the Foundation has invested $2.4 million to date on this issue as part of the local matching funds that are required by the nationals for the initiative. We feel a critical element to the success of Project U-Turn has been the participation of multiple systems in the initiative, because we feel this is a problem that goes beyond what the District can do on its own, and I think that the testimony from Congreso certainly underscores that in a big way. We're proud of the fact that the District, DHS, Family Court and the Youth Council have set aside politics and brought their best minds to bear on this issue. Not surprisingly, Philadelphia stands out among the other cities in its progress to date, astonishingly enough. I have a colleague who sometimes says 246 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 it's like being the tallest midget in the circus, but this is a big issue and we've just started working on it. So we should realize our progress but realize there's a lot more to be done. And, in fact, Philadelphia has an opportunity with Council's support to be a national leader on this issue. There are several actions Council can take that will support this work. First of all, create an office of education within DHS to help youth in their care earn a high school diploma. That 90 percent dropout rate is just outrageous, right, and something needs to be done about that. Provide resources to place social workers in schools with low graduation rates and/or a large number of students in DHS's care. Three, expand the number of paid student workplace internships, as discussed by Laura Shubilla earlier. And, No. 4, support pregnant 247 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 and parenting teens in finishing their high school education by providing case management services to pregnant and parenting teens. The William Penn Foundation for its part is committed to supporting Project U-Turn going forward. National foundation investment will also continue through the Youth Transition Funders Group, provided the City systems and the District continue to work together and prioritize this problem for investment. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Councilwoman Reynolds Brown.

Thank you for your testimony and for your recommendations. Have you had a chance to share Recommendation No. 1 with DHS, might you have had an opportunity to be a part of the year's past work with the Blue Ribbon Commission, which really took a wholistic 248 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 view and examination of how we can serve children better? Are you familiar with that?

That's the Behavioral Health Blue Ribbon Commission?

Yes.

I personally was not a part of that, although another person from our Foundation has been. And, yes, we try to support and incent any cross-system effort we can find in the City. The Foundation is on record with doing that.

Yes, you are, and in a mighty way.

We try to encourage it anywhere we can.

So you have had a chance to share that formally with DHS, the recommendation that an office of education --

That has been shared with DHS. I do not believe that -- I can't speak for whether my colleague did 249 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 it on behalf of the Foundation in an official sense, but that has certainly been a recommendation I know that has been given to DHS as part of our collaborative efforts both on the behavioral health side and also on the Youth Transitions Collaborative work.

Okay.

So two ways.

Okay. Well, thanks again for your important testimony.

Thank you very much for having me.

Nice to meet you.

Thank you very much. I believe we have three people left. I will name them. If there's someone else who would like to testify, please let us know. Shelly Yanoff, Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth, and we 250 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 thank her on all that she's done to organize today the speakers and all that was concerned. Great job. Leola Stowall Muse, are you here?

Yes, I am.

And Vernard Johnson. I know Vernard. Anyone else who would like to testify? (No response.)

All right. That will be our last -- yes, sir. Okay. We'll get you next. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Good afternoon. Before starting, also I want to thank John Christmas from your office, Councilwoman, for his help in setting this up, and I want to thank Councilman Greenlee and Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown and Councilman Goode, who was here earlier, and even Councilwoman Verna, President Verna, for really 251 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 recognizing the critical importance of this issue to the City, to the youth and to our community. I also wanted to just note before I forget, since Councilman Goode keeps raising the issue of the number of kids who have been either murdered or murdered who are African-American male and what was their education, what was their dropout rate, the first issue that the public school Notebook did -- and I wrote one of the articles and titled it "What Gets Counted Counts," and the reality is that unless we continue to count how many kids are dropping out, what's their story and what can we do to change that story and to make it better, we're going to continually be behind. We can do this. So Councilman Goode's questions, while they're uncomfortable, they are -- in many ways we need to be uncomfortable in order to look closely at this issue, and we need to have the police make their data on arrests 252 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 available to the Kids Data Group so that in fact we can answer how many kids were arrested who had dropped out, who dropped out, who were in foster care. One of the issues that this collaborative has been really pushing has been combining and collaborating all of the systems' work so that we can look at a child not just because he's in DHS's care, but we should know how is he doing in school, what's happening to him in the rest of his life, and too often we only look at kids through one perspective. So the young women who are pregnant and parenting, they get prenatal care, but the prenatal care people do not have the time or wherewithal to connect them back to school or to ask about that. One of the things that we can do, that Council can do is to really support the collaborative effort. So it's not just counting wholistically, but it's also saying, Let's put social workers in high schools 253 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 that have high foster care, high number of kids in foster care, or low graduation rates. Because we know that kids who drop out often say they don't have anybody to talk with, they don't have anybody that they can turn to with their problems. Well, we know these kids have problems. Let's put the social workers there. You can support that. We know that the health centers -- and we know that you have been fighting for more support in health centers. We want you to keep fighting for that, because all of Philadelphia needs our health centers to be able to treat people who need to be treated, but we need -- when young women go for prenatal care, we need them to have the ability in those centers and we need to have teams to expand our teams of nurse-family partnerships and maternity care coalitions so that people can actually help these young women who are pregnant go back to school or stay in 254 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 school. We know also that we want the School District to continue exploring alternate pathways and setting up new kinds of schools that can appeal to these kids that have not experienced success in regular schools. Well, these schools need -- these new alternative pathways need social workers, need case managers. You can support that. You can do those things as you also increase the support for education so that we can in fact target and focus on these children. We have in the City lots of very good programs that are research based that say we can save these kids, we can make this Philadelphia really be what we want it to be, we can turn the negative stuff around. We can only do that -- and that also includes cutting down on violence -- when there's more support for the connectors.

We urge you to really do that. We need to continue supporting 255 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 successful projects for kids in transition, whether it's in transition back from juvenile delinquency or back from foster care or back from having a child or just back from not having been successful in school. Those transition times are very, very important. We need a collaboration between the City, the state, the School District and community. This is a problem shared by all, and it cannot be solved unless we all work together. So we believe that we are close to an epidemic, and we believe that with your help, we can treat it seriously, but that help will require budget time serious negotiations. We need you to fight for 45, 48 percent of the kids in the City, and when you fight for them, you'll be fighting for the City's future. I thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Again, we thank you for all that you've done today. And I know 256 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 we have probation officers in more schools. We need counselors, probation officers.

Exactly.

And certainly more health professionals, as we mentioned, people that kids can talk to. Thank you very, very much. Leola Stowall Muse. Thank you, Shelly.

I just want to make sure that you have this, the breakdown.

Thank you. Ms. Leola Stowall Muse. Thank you. I know your name and it just slipped my head. Thank you as well. William Butcher.

Thank you, Council Chair Lady. Before I read my testimony, I would like for the record the date of this testimony corrected from 257 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 February 6, 2006 to February 6, 2007.

Absolutely.

Thank you. My name is Leola Stowall Muse and I am the founder of the Poor People Caravan for Christ. That's the acronym that's on my testimony. I won't say good morning. I'll say good afternoon, because that's what it is at this point, to all of the Councilmembers who found it not robbery to stay here in the Education hearings. I have given testimony at the School Board four times: On October 18th, 2006; November 8th, 2006; December 6th, 2006; and January 10, 2007. My testimony was in opposition of Gay and Lesbian History Month being placed on the School District's calendar October of 2006. At the SRC meeting January 10th, 2007, I asked Mr. Vallas was he or any of the Board members gay, lesbian or on the down low letting this abomination 258 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 be placed on the District's calendar. Consenting men and women may practice gay and lesbian acts on top of Billy Penn's hat if they choose to. However, almighty God will be the judge. However, our babies should not be subjected to this. On January 23rd of this year, NBC 10 conducted a poll regarding same sex relationships being taught in school. Eighty-seven percent were opposed. On CNN last week they showed a clip in which two men entered a home where a party was being held hosted by young gay men. Seven of the young men were slain. It was stated by the commentator this occurred because the men did not want this in their community around their children. The commentator stated this took place in Chicago. I pray this does not happen in Philadelphia. Councilmembers, as members of the Education Committee of this Council, I respectfully ask you to tell Mr. Vallas 259 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 that your constituents do not want Gay and Lesbian History Month placed on the 2007-2008 school calendar. Mr. Vallas is the Goliath and we/I are David, only we are not armored with a slingshot or a stone. We are armored with the words of almighty God, "The battle is the Lord's and He will give us the victory." If the request regarding the calendar and other pertinent issues regarding our children attending the public schools are not honored, we will revert back to the days of the late Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King and Mother Rosa Parks and attempt to launch in this city the Philadelphia public school system boycott. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Thank you for your patience. Thank you for contacting us about this issue and your willingness to come to the hearing to voice your 260 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 continuing concerns. Thank you very much.

You're welcome. And Chair Lady and members of this Education Committee, I am prayerfully hoping that you will meet again. I know you were kind enough to get in touch with Mr. Vallas as you stated. You were the only Councilmember that we heard anything back from. We contacted all of the Councilpersons that were on the Education Committee. You were the only one to get back to us in regards to this issue. I know that your constituency has a large amount of gay and lesbians in your constituency. We are not attacking the gay and lesbian community. We are saying to tell Mr. Vallas that this should not be taught in our schools to our small children. One of the people in our committee stood by the door of one of the gay teachers and this is what they are 261 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 teaching our schools, and they are lying when they say that they are not, because we planted somebody there so that we have the evidence whereas these people are teaching this stuff to our babies. And I know that you have children, Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown. I don't know if you have any, Mr. Greenlee, but I do know that you would not want gay and lesbian history taught to your children, and this is what we are saying we don't want with ours. And this is our last time tomorrow to go before Mr. Vallas and the SRC. If they do not comply with removing this abomination from this calendar, it is on.

Thank you again very much. Thank you. Mr. Butcher.

Yes. Madam Chairman and members of the Board, the lady next to me mentioned about the Gay and Lesbian History Month. I just want to make a small comment on that.

Your 262 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 first name is William; is it not?

Yes, ma'am.

Right.

It has Gay and Lesbian History Month. For a long time in the school system, with 65 to 70 percent of the children being of African-American heritage, there's no 10 black history really. So they want to have a gay history month, but they're not giving the children, which are 65 to 70 percent, black history studies, which I think should be mandatory. I live in Philadelphia. I cannot go to Bryn Mawr, Devon, Lower Merion, Upper Merion, sit on one of their Boards saying, No more white history, we're going to bring in black history. They'd run me out of town. I could not even sit on one of those Boards, but we have Boards coming from out of town -- I mean people, I'm sorry, which I have no 24 problem with these people personally, but I think what goes on in Philadelphia 263 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 should be done by Philadelphians. I feel that we should have an elected school Board and just -- Leon is not here. He's a nice guy, whatever, but I went out to --

He was invited and said he would be here.

I saw that. I saw that. But I just want to say this: I was kind of -- not depressed. I don't know the right word for it. But Leon gave a press conference about two weeks ago and they were supposed to elect or -- no; appoint a member to the Board. So they said they would make that decision around the middle of February. Well, this was back in January when they had this press conference. But that morning, the Governor or someone appointed a qualified black female to the Board. Leon was -- and the people there were looking for a black qualified male to the Board. So I think that was underhand with the state. 264 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 Now, the last time -- that's what I have to say about that. Now, the last time I was here was the violence, youth violence, which is a year ago just about. It was on February the 8th. And at that meeting, Councilman Blackwell, what came out of that? Is any report of all the testimony that you have, is that somewhere where I could read those things?

As you see, we have a stenographer. Everything is a matter of public record, and we can -- that copy is available for you.

Okay. There was a resolution or something?

From our violence hearings, yes. We came back and we made a recommendation to the full Council from the Education Committee that they adopt it. I'll pull that for you. Mr. Christmas will make that available to you.

Thank you. And 265 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 I'm going to try to be brief what I have to say, but what was so beautiful that came out of that meeting -- in fact, I told you, girlfriend, that was a long day, you know. I mean, I just loved you more, you know.

Thank you.

But there's a lady, a Dr. Geralyn Radcliffe. , an ABPP, whatever that is, but she's got all these lists of things she's done, but her recommendations -- and she said, As I move forward, I respectfully offer these recommendations to Council or whoever. Number one, it says consider implementing empirical validated programs to reduce violence in a thoughtful way. Now, empirically means hands-on, not the theory that we get in the school. It's like seeing and touching. Just to give you an example was the children at West Philadelphia High School in their motor shop or 266 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 whatever you call it. They competed with other universities and General Motors themselves to create this motor that did something that they couldn't do. Now, these were just teenagers, but the theory was there but they also had the ability to have a hands-on. So I think that within this problem we have with dropouts, there's a chart here that comes from a kids count, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and it states here that children in poverty in Philadelphia are 36 percent compared to the 50 city averages, other cities, 50 of them, with only 28 percent of poverty. Then it goes on to children in single-parent families, city average, 50 city average, 43 percent; children in Philadelphia, 58 percent. And there's a last one that I just want to read off is children with no parents in the labor force, 50 city average, 14 percent; Philadelphia, percent. 25 Now, I'm with alumni of 267 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 Sulzberger and they gave me the task of dealing with poverty. I'm putting together a committee for that, and violence -- no. They wanted me to do the violence thing, but I put poverty there because I feel they both go together. And the way it is now in the school system we have, our children are not -- they're not ready for work because they're not getting the proper education. So when there's a problem in a city, in a country -- in the Civil Rights Movement I'll speak on, that's history, and we had the Kings and the Jacksons, but the ones that were out there going to jail more than the Kings and the Jacksons were the students. The students are really the ones that made that work. They made it happen. They didn't sit next to President Johnson when he was signing all those bills, but they were the ones that did it, and even you and other people who are in City government in high positions might not have gotten 268 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 there without those children. Maybe you would; maybe you wouldn't. So the children are looking at history, and I'm talking about mainly the black children. They're looking at the history that there was children involved in the Civil Rights Movement. There's going to have to be children involved in the Children's Rights Movement, the right to have a better life. The movement means that there will be health looked at, education looked at and their welfare involved. Those three things. And they feel that they have given enough through the politicians or the parents, because, see, the children can't borrow money, they cannot sign a contract under 18, they cannot vote, and they can't work 9:00 to 5:00. It's against the law for the children to be involved in those four things. But there's something they can be involved in. They can be involved legally in going into business. In Philadelphia, we have 269 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 650,000 supposedly people of African-American heritage, and less than one percent are in business. There's no 5 way that that should be that way. But who are the childrens blaming? Not City Council. They're blaming their parents. And this Children's Rights Movement will not come down to City Hall and raise hell, so to speak. They're going to go to their parents and say, Mother, Father, Uncle, whatever, friends, we got a problem, but I tell you what, we have a plan.

The children have a children empowerment plan, and it's a little bit of Martin Luther King in it, a little bit of Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey. This is Black History Month I'm talking about. And WB Dubois. But mainly they're going to have a whole lot of Donald Trump and Bill Gates and the rest of those republican corporations. See, the children know that their parents, whatever it is, vote -- most of them vote democrat. The majority 270 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 vote democrat. But the majority of their parents spend money with republican corporations. And they do not appreciate them, because what they do is outsource to make a better profit. You can't even get an x-ray in most hospitals and get it back. It has to go to India or China and then bounce back over here. So the point is that where are our children going? Who has a solution? Well, the children have a solution. They are going into business. Now, you might think that it's kind of silly, but children are smarter than we think they are. But here's the deal: They can't run a business, but they can own it, but they can also have an advisory board to advise them on their employees or whoever. They'll have MBAs on the advisory board, CPAs. They even going to have doctors on the board or dieticians, because they're going to eat different food in the school system now. That grease is going. They even going to 271 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 tell their parents to have different food in their house. So what's going to make this work, they're going to have a union. See, the teachers are educated. They have a union. You have all these strong men, trash collectors, SEPTA drivers, government workers, they have a union. So the children are going to have a union, and as a union, you don't have to be afraid of them striking, walking out of the classroom. It's the Philadelphia Student Achievement Union, and the person they're going to speak to will be their parents, not you guys. They will tell their parents what they want, and then with their union they will negotiate with the state. Now, just to go this way: Lower Merion, Devon, Bryn Mawr, children out there get 14, 15, I don't know, a thousand dollars a year compared to eight or nine here in Philadelphia. Out there they pay six percent sales tax. They're 272 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 affluent. The poverty-stricken people here pay seven percent. People who work in Philadelphia that live outside of Philadelphia pay a lower rate of City wage tax because, Well, we don't live here, we just work here. But when someone goes out to Radnor, wherever, outside of the City, on their payroll they pay City wage tax and they don't work in the City. So it seems that the affluent has a better deal than our little babies. So in closing, I would like to say there is a union already. We have not come up with anything new. There's something called a Philadelphia Student Union. They have about five or six high schools. And this report is a few years old, but they have an operating budget of like $320,000. I'm quite sure it's more than that now. But 73 percent of that goes to salaries. Now, that's salaries. That's not rent for the building on Locust Street. That's not for office 273 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 supplies or whatever. So there's not very much left over, as I can see, for the students, but, of course, they get 90 percent of their money is raised through foundation and grants they get. Now, these people that came here before me are all -- they're subsidized by federal and state governments and private foundations or whatever to represent mostly black children. Is it a job or is it something that's helping the children? I don't know. We are not here -- well, first of all, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is William Butcher. Maybe I didn't say that. And I'm a children's lobbyist. That's why I'm so into this, because I lobby for the children.

So I'm here to let you know that next February of Black History Month I would like to come and not say one word, but have the children make a presentation of what they have acquired in a year with their plan. 274 2/6/07 - EDUCATION - RES. 060807 So I would like to thank each and every one of you for giving me the opportunity to speak.

Thank you, Mr. Butcher. Mr. Vernard Johnson.

Hi, Councilwoman.