Teachers Rally To Protest Public Schools Converting To Charters
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Hundreds of Philadelphia teachers and their supporters rallied outside Philadelphia School District Headquarters on North Broad Street yesterday afternoon. The teachers' union is urging the School Reform Commission to stop converting public schools to charter schools.
Philadelphia Federation of Teachers President Jerry Jordan addressed the crowd which spilled over the sidewalk onto Broad Street. He said the information used to transform the school from public to charter is based on bad data, "The school district has decided and the SRC will be voting on whether or not to convert eight of our public schools into charter schools based on faulty data."
He said last August, that the district was awarded a $50-million school improvement grant to work with schools. Jordan said instead of improvements, the district wants to use that to change to charters.
He urged all teachers to show up at the SRC meeting Wednesday and tell them to use it on students and improvements instead of transformation to charters.
Reported by Kim Glovas, KYW Newsradio 1060
