Petition Seeks to Abolish SRC

“Pennsylvania Working Families plans to deliver 40,000 petition signatures this morning to Philadelphia City Council asking them to place a question on November’s ballot demanding that the state abolish the School Reform Commission,” City Paper reports.

The measure would add a section to the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter charging that “the state’s takeover of our schools through the School Reform Commission has weakened the voices of parents and community” and “call[ing] upon the Pennsylvania General Assembly and the Governor to abolish the School Reform Commission and return local control of Philadelphia’s schools.”

One problem: “Committee of Seventy Policy Director Ellen Kaplan points out that by statute the SRC can only be abolished by the state Secretary of Education on the recommendation of a majority of the SRC’s five members.” So a vote would have only symbolic value.