Philly closing schools in spite of public outcry. The reformers don't listen to the people.

They simply do not care what the public thinks. The "reformers" have their agenda, and they have the support of both parties' leaders to privatize education. They do not have to listen to anyone. And they are not.

Billionaire reformer Eli Broad said of Arne Duncan's appointment: "the stars are aligned."

I looked up some background on the situation that helps explain the anger.

Philadelphia votes to close 23 schools after protests, arrests

The closings were opposed by all but one of the 32 people who spoke at the meeting. “The process by which the Philadelphia School District decided on school closures was flawed and must be rejected,” said State Representative W. Curtis Thomas.

Last summer, Chief Recovery Officer Thomas Knudsen pitched the 5-year closure plan to the SRC using terms like "portfolios," "modernization," "right-sizing," "entrepreneurialism" and "competition," reports Philadelphia's City Paper. The plan was prepared with the assistance of Boston Consulting Group, a major global business consultancy and school "right-sizing" mastermind. Boston Consulting Group got a $1.5 million contract paid by the William Penn Foundation to come up with the plan.

Philadelphia Federation of Teachers President Jerry Jordan at the time called it "a cynical, right-wing and market-driven plan to privatize public education." Following the SRC vote last night, Jordan said the decision "to close 24 neighborhood schools is a stark illustration of how out of touch the School Reform Commission is with the parents, students, educators and communities that depend on these institutions.”

In Philadelphia, the proportion of students attending charter schools jumped to 23 percent in the 2011-12 school year from 12 percent in 2004-5, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Meanwhile Pennsylvania cut Philadelphia’s financing by a further $419 million this year, and the federal government is providing incentives to close schools that do not measure up to national performance standards.

Glad to see a former member and teacher of the Broad Academy stand with teachers. Maybe they really are pushing things so far that a union head, Randi Weingarten, stood with the public.