Kenney to school district: Don’t take $25M from PSP

Mayoral candidate Jim Kenney just released a statement regarding the highly debated Philadelphia School Partnership’s $25 million offer to “the Philadelphia school district to help offset the stranded costs of charter expansion over three years.” 

He’s against it. To wit:

“Our school district should not accept PSP’s $25 million. Not only does that offer cover a fraction of the nearly $500 million required to enroll just 15,000 more students in charters, but the donations come from unnamed millionaires who already have far too great an influence in our upcoming mayoral election. These millionaires are far more concerned with the financial stake they have to gain from public dollars flowing into pro-voucher programs and privately run charters than they are with ‘school choice.’ As mayor, I will work with Governor Wolf to stand up to those who would seek to profit off our children by privatizing our education system.”

We’ll keep our eyes peeled for reaction from the other campaigns and update this post accordingly. In the meantime, here’s where several candidates stand on the charter issue.