Lynne Abraham, who is part of the real three-person race that seems to be taking place at this point to lead Philly, shed very little light on her positions on charter schools.

To McCorry, Abraham said, “Parents want charter schools, but here’s the way I would tend to look at it. I don’t favor or disfavor charter schools. I do believe that the School Reform Commission will make the best judgment, but as a product of the Philadelphia public schools, I think the Philadelphia public schools can and will and should step up their game in every respect.”

It seems that Abraham does favor charter schools, considering that she is the chairwoman of the entire “national” board of I-Lead Institute for Leadership Education, Advancement, and Development.

As if it isn’t patronizing enough that Abraham implies she has no vested personal interest either way about charter schools to well-seasoned reporters, her charter school also clearly does all the behind the scenes practices that cause the sort of discrimination cited in the PCCY report.

Students who need educational “choices” the very most are faced with all sorts of barriers to entry, something which is against state and federal laws regarding charter schools, but which charter schools like I-Lead can clearly get away with perpetrating.

First there is a pre-application, then the parent/guardian needs to wait for a phone call from the school. (I guess at this point students in the foster system without a consistent legal guardian are out of the running.) Then students fill out a real application, and then they must attend an interview, with their parent or guardian present. (Single mother-ed children need not apply.)All documents must be provided at that time, or else they may face indefinite delays to their acceptance. This includes presentation of the parent/guardian’s ID. (At that point, pretty much anyone with a nefarious immigration status or anyone left from the last round who didn’t save up the money and vacation days to get a state ID can take a hike.)At the end of the application process list, I-Lead discusses foster parentage as an after thought, but if they mandate presence of said same guardian throughout the whole process, they might as well not even bother.Parents and students then have to sign a Pledge to Build Community Through Social Responsibility, which is only available in two languages: English and Spanish. Another mandatory part of the process. Students’ latest IEP documentation must be provided, which presumably would save the school a ton of money spent on doing this themselves.The final mandatory part of the process is providing a signed written statement disclosing all disciplinary issues that the student has had at other schools. This is mandated by state law, which I must say really is encouraging the criminalization and discrimination of children, before they’ve even grown up.

Click HERE to learn about the education platforms of all the Philadelphia mayoral candidates.

The Daily KOS Blog – January 16, 2015 – Read article online