Philadelphia’s poverty rate is an unacceptable 25% - one quarter of our fellow Philadelphians live in poverty. For children, the story is much worse – 36% of Philadelphia’s children live in poverty.

Nearly 50% of our children drop out before finishing High School. Only one in five Philadelphia residents has a college degree.

And while we have seen some modest upticks in our education testing, at our current rate of change, children in Philadelphia public schools will be at grade level sometime in 2163.

We don’t have 152 years.  Unless we provide our most vulnerable citizens with the skills required to earn a decent living and provide our middle-class families with a reason not to move to the suburbs, Philadelphia cannot survive.

Education can be the key to achieving different results. Bill believes we need to make the hard choice to scale what works in publicly-supported education – no matter who runs its – and shut what doesn’t – no matter who runs it.
There are examples right here in Philadelphia of schools that work and want to grow.  Schools like Mastery, which recently received $1M from Oprah, and KIPP.  These schools work, they want to educate more children, and they’re not being permitted to expand by an entrenched bureaucracy worried about adults, not kids.  It’s far past time to lift the cap on the expansion of successful charter schools.
While government cannot solve all of the problems plaguing urban education, Bill believes government leaders must take bold steps to change the status quo and ensure that our public education system is effective, accessible, and accountable to the children and families who rely on it.
To improve education in Philadelphia, Bill has offered concrete recommendations to achieve the following goals:

1. Invest in children from birth through college in a comprehensive early childhood education program similar to the Harlem Children's Zone;
2. Repair, replace, and consolidate our schools by wisely investing in our school infrastructure;
3. Improve the quality of teaching and instruction;
4. Improve and expand public school choices through more quality charter schools; and
5. Expanded scholarship opportunities for students to attend the college or private school of their choice.

You can read more details about Bill's education goals in this paper.
Bill will continue to use his position on City Council to advocate for improved educational opportunity for Philadelphia students and meaningful accountability for the expenditure of public funds on education.

For more information:

Investing in Philadelphia's Future: The Case for Comprehensive Education Reform (policy paper)

Councilman Green releases policy paper urging comprehensive education reform (press release, May 10, 2010)