magnet schools: Philadelphia Metropolis

Answer No 3: Philadelphia's Vietnam

Within the next year, the mayor and the School Reform Commission will hire someone to replace Arlene Ackerman.  All I can say to that new superintendent is: Welcome to the Big Muddy. Declaring victory and withdrawing is not an option... (Comments)

Is That All There Is?

The planners at the Philadelphia School District labored mightily and produced a mouse with the school closing/consolidation list released Wednesday (Nov. 2).  As Peggy Lee would put it, the plan had an "Is That All There Is?" quality to... (Comments)

Fifty Glorious Years

Arlene Ackerman's recent essay in the Inquirer reminds me of the old adage about what is news. When a dog bites a man that is not news, but when a man bites a dog... In Ackerman's case what we had... (Comments)

The Queen Is Dead

Queen Arlene is gone and already the talk is about her successor. Leroy Nunnery, her No. 2 guy, has been named interim superindent and let me say he is exactly the right person for the job - as long as... (Comments)

Creating the New City: Part One

By Ada Kulesza» This is a story about lovers. It's no love story; rather, it is a story about people who love a city they have inherited, an ancient place founded by Quakers and built by Revolutionaries. Pockets of that old world are still scattered around Philadelphia, but the men who first built it wouldn't recognize it. Philadelphia is the bone yard of the Industrial Revolution. The ruins of extinct businesses stand like empty monuments to an economy that's gone. But, many of the young people living here today see beauty in its post-industrial shell. Look inside and you'll see people working, slowly, to create the city's new eco (Comments)