Nutter Sees Hope For Phila. Schools in Wolf's Election as Pa. Governor
By Mike Dunn
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Mayor Nutter says the election of Tom Wolf as Pennsylvania governor will improve the prospects for better funding for the cash-starved Philadelphia school district.
Nutter said today he believes Wolf's election will boost the prospects for passage of dedicated, student-weighted state funding for all school districts in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
"I would also expect that we should see a change in the relationship between and among the city, the commonwealth, and the School Reform Commission, the SRC," Nutter said today.
Wolf, during his campaign for governor, vowed to work to abolish the state-controlled SRC and return it to local control. Nutter said the funding question for the schools must be settled first.
"You could put Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Luther King on the School Reform Commission and we would still have a problem," Nutter said this morning. "No matter who's there, if you don't have any money, you can't run the place and provide the students a high-quality education that they deserve."
Nutter also called for a resumption of contract talks between the teachers' union and the SRC, despite the SRC's decision to impose terms last month.
That action is being challenged in court by the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers.