GreatExpectations2007 - Chestnut Hill REPORT ON CITIZENS FORUM

Date: Jan. 22, 2007

Location: St. Martin in the Fields

Citizens attending: 20 participants

Inquirer observer: Tom Ferrick Jr., Inquirer columnist

Check out reports from the dialogues:

Group One: Led by moderators Dick Gross and Sally McAfee.

Group Two: Led by moderators Louise Giugliano and Alan Sharavsky.

Participants in each group were first asked to describe one hope or one fear as the city enters its election year. Then each group did an exercise that asked participants to imagine they were giving a good friend’s family advice on whether to move to Philadelphia.

What would be the pros and cons of that move?
What forces and factors underlie those pros and cons?
What steps could the city and region take to strengthen those pros or weaken those cons?

For a full description of the exercise, see http://go.philly.com/friendsdilemma

Observer's Notes:

Tom Ferrick Jr.

Inquirer columnist

After a half century of decline, Philadelphia appears poised for growth. Center City and adjacent neighbors are increasing in population. The hope is that this trend can spread across the rest of the city. What is the biggest impediment to this happening?

The public schools.

The sad state of the school system has been mentioned repeatedly in the baker's dozen of Citizens Forums held around the city so far. It came up again at the forum attending by about 40 people on Jan. 22 at St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Chestnut Hill.

To summarize the discussion: Despite the advances made during the Paul Vallas years at the school district, most middle-class parents will not send their children to the closest public school and opt instead for either private schools or suburban districts. Working-class parents, with fewer choices, will seek out charter schools or the good niches in the district, such as magnet schools.

Even if you find one of those niche, as one parent put it, at Chestnut Hill: "You have to work so hard at it that it becomes almost a second job to help the school function."

How to fix this problem? No one has a good answer. Like crime, the schools are one of those gnarly problems that seem to defy solution. At Chestnut Hill -- and at other forums -- there was a call for more public and private financial support for the schools. Another idea advanced at the forum was to greatly expand tutoring and mentoring services for children. Another was to expand the school year and the school day to keep children off the streets.