Head of Philly teachers union holds outdoor ‘office hours’

The head of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers held office hours alfresco at School District Headquarters.

Jerry Jordan had to stay past the two hour window he allotted to talk to members of the teachers union outside district headquarters. He says his members are frustrated and are hoping someone will help.

“I am hearing horror stories one of the things at the top of the list are the enormous amounts of money that teachers are spending on supplies, they are buying boxes of paper because as one teacher told me her principal said we do not have any money in the budget for supplies,” Jordan said. 

Andrew Guyon is a middle school math teacher in Philadelphia and says the financial demands on teachers is getting worse.

“I’ve taught for five years, I’ve spent at least $1,000 each year, mostly on paper and pencils and computer ink, which is $2,500 a gallon,” Guyon said.

So we are only buying a few ounces at a time but still it’s extremely expensive.

Jerry Jordan was greeted by SRC head Bill Green, who says there just isn’t money to give the teachers everything they need, or want.

“There’s no question that our schools are under-resourced and as people know we have been in Harrisburg and City Council trying to get all the resources that we can,” Green said. “We are at a huge disadvantage to all the other school districts in the state because we don’t have taxing authority and so we are supplicants every single year.”

Teachers complained about everything from a lack of school nurses to ink and paper for their printers. Despite issues, school is expected to start on time in Philadelphia.