When the Philadelphia School Reform Commission announced the selection of Dr. Arlene Ackerman as the CEO of the School District of Philadelphia, I was pleasantly surprised. Being a former resident of San Francisco who maintains strong ties to the City by the Bay, I already knew of her reputation and believed that she could be the beginning of the answer to the problem that has been and is the Philadelphia school system.
Now, nearly three years later, I am ready to admit that the School Reform Commission was wrong and I, too, was wrong. One can only look at the debacle which is currently unfolding over the no-bid selection of contractors for persistently dangerous city schools to understand exactly how bad this decision was. So much is answered via Ackerman’s own words regarding this situation.
Our city has had a system for doing business in place for many years that has been blatantly corrupt and controlled by power- and money-starved so-called public servants. It appears that Ackerman, in the name of doing the “right” thing, has joined that system. In her own defense, she stated (according to the 12/2/2010 PI article), “We’re trying to break a culture that is hurtful in many ways . . . Change is hard.” She was referring to the feeling of entitlement some businesses have regarding district contracts. However, instead of working to change those systems by publicly challenging them, she chose to join the other old and established system that many of our leaders have held and still hold membership in – and just simply execute a no-bid contract. Its business as usual in Philadelphia, it seems. Ackerman seems to have taken the accelerated course in the Philly system of public service. She’s a fast learner.
Not only does it appear that she allowed staff persons to take the fall for her over the contract decision until it was obvious that it was gaining a life of its own, but she reminded us of her other bad decisions in the process. To further cover her actions, Ackerman seems to have changed her opinion of the job Tri-State (an approved women’s business enterprise) did at South Philadelphia High School. It appears she forgot her previous praise of the project as a model to set the standards for the other schools. This is a project that cost substantially more than projected because she insisted it be completed over a weekend. In regards to the IBS selection, she said that she pushed the project to enhance the security at the 19 persistently dangerous schools because “if something happened, we would have been in the papers for failing to act.” Obviously, she forgot that they had already been in the papers because they failed to act – a failure that had happened many times over.
I agree that there should be an urgency to the dangerous situation in our schools. This urgency should have been in effect long ago. It is more than obvious that there was enough information in hand to understand, for example, the seriousness of the problem at South Philadelphia High. However, now she evokes the need for urgency because it helps defend her case in regards to no-bid contracting. On top of all of this is the fact that the district had an original timeline for this project that called for it to be completed by November 30, 2010. Now, the IBS contract runs to June 30. So much for urgency.
So, I propose that it is time to move on. There are several systems here that need fixing – one of those is the process that is used to select vendors. It should certainly be repaired in order to provide greater opportunities for minority businesses. However, of all the fixes needed there is a much greater system that needs fixing – and that is the Philadelphia school system. The fact that we have 19 schools that are deemed unsafe and that it has taken this long to begin to provide some fixes is criminal. Ackerman’s feet-dragging during the recent South Philadelphia High situation is well documented. She waited way to long before she even spoke out on the issue at all. Now, this once-crowned savior of our schools has just become another leader who does things the old Philly way. She has become the kind of leader of which we must purge ourselves. It is time to begin the search anew. This time, let’s do it with the students in mind.
