Philadelphia Mayor Nutter traveling to Denver to learn about schools

As part of Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter’s promise to improve city schools, a delegation will travel from to Denver this week to look at how that city deals with public charter and other special schools.  

Mayor Michael Nutter says the day-long trip to Denver is designed to find ways to bring together regular public schools, charter schools and promise academies in Philadelphia so they work in harmony.

“One in ten of our high school graduates makes it all the way through and graduates from college,” said Nutter. “So it’s not enough just to go to school and go to college and get accepted to college, what we’re focused on is not matriculation but graduation.”

School Reform Commission Board head Pedro Ramos says the trip should provide inspiration in a tough budget year.

“As we navigate through some of the storms we have ahead of us, the financial storms, we have to remember where it is that we are trying to go,” said Ramos.

The trip is being paid for with a grant from the Gates Foundation.  The grant seeks to help low-achieving schools replicate what’s going on in high performing ones.