City Council will begin hearings today on the budget for the Philadelphia School District. An editorial in the Philadelphia Daily News, reprinted below, outlines some of the budgetary issues facing public schools.
Here is the editorial:
THE RED FLAGS are flying again over the School District of Philadelphia. They were hoisted last week in light of two disturbing stories that suggest that the district's track record for fiscal oversight and management is still troubled.
Early last week, the case of the missing $100,000 from a Germantown High School student activities fund came to light. A few days later, a letter from the School Reform Commission's inspector general raised questions of fraudulent billing practices in one of the district's contracted security firms - a firm whose contract the district recently renewed.
To cap it off, last week about 40 protesters, frustrated with how the district handles its finances, demonstrated outside district headquarters. They say the district needs more transparency in awarding outside contracts.
All this almost makes us long for the simpler days of surprise $73 million deficits. Naturally, it also makes us wonder whether the controls imposed during those 2006 deficit days are enough - especially for a budget as complex as the district's.
Take away its primary mission for a second - the education of children - and the district is essentially a $2 billion government agency, funded by a complex network of city, state and federal money. The district's pot of gold will always tempt the dishonest and unscrupulous. The School Reform Commission's job is to protect the pot.
Should the state step in and impose stricter controls? In the wake of 2006's budget blow-up, a financial accountability unit was created, and the district began submitting two budget reports to the state education and budget secretaries; the state can withhold funding if the reports don't show adequate progress in cutting costs.
One silver lining: Both these problems were brought to light by the district's own inspector general. In one, his recommendation that a $403,000 contract with Security Universal LLC, a school contractor, be terminated came after the SRC renewed a contract. The SRC is doing its own review.
Incoming schools chief Arlene Ackerman has a long to-do list to improve education, but none of it will matter if better fiscal management isn't given top priority.
City Council also has a role to play in holding school officials accountable. Council is required to authorize nearly $1 billion in local funds for schools. In the past, the process has been little more than a rubber stamp; the time for that is over.
Given the multitude of budget-related issues facing the school district, Council needs to take its oversight responsibility seriously. They can do that starting today, when two-day hearings are to begin.
Council will hold five hearings on the $2.3 billion district budget. Considering that there were more than 60 hearings about Mayor Nutter's proposed operating budget of $4 billion, Council should consider expanding the number of hearings.
Two of the hearings will be dedicated to public comment. Both hearings will be held tomorrow , when Council is in session from 1:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. To get on the schedule, contact Sharon Ortiz at 215-686-3407. (Bring multiple copies of your testimony to distribute to media and members of Council.)
Can't attend the hearing? The Daily News and WHYY's "It's Our Money" project on the city budget, funded by William Penn Foundation, will post public testimony on budget matters. Visit www.ourmoneyphilly.com and testify. *
Comments (4)
I'm so glad to see such a well written, concise treatment of the Phila. Public School budgeting. The numbers are not going down, and the deficits are there year after year.
Of course we need to have accountable spending -- so why does Council rubber stamp every budget, not even reading the final product, meanwhile, the Comptroller who should be tasked with reviewing and prosecuting waste fraud and abuse is protesting formally in his capacity as Comptroller against Darfur.
If no one knows who is supposed to be doing what job in the city, then no one will be doing any job in the city that involves oversight. It's thankless, bound to step on someone's pet councilmanic toes. Everyone flees from oversight and auditing like the plague.
So have a contracted auditor go over it. Deloitte, or any of the top 10 accounting firms have municipal accounts. Simple. A contracted top auditor has no problem writing the truth and letting the chips fall where they may -- they do it for corporations larger than the PSD even. A signed paragraph by the legal department states that all lawsuits and irregularities are under investigation and will be reported on in the annual report.
This is how big corps avoid corruption on the scale that is the PSD. By corruption, I refer to the softer kind, the kind that simply doesn't want to know the financials. That is also corruption, the ground floor, the gateway.
Posted by Annual Report that adheres to top 10 accounting audit policy -- a must | April 28, 2008 2:19 PM
I know the papers are loathe to consider the flip side of sheriff sales -- they pay for schools when property owners don't want to voluntarily write a check for annual city property taxes.
But consider that the schools are owed 60% of the half a billion in overdue, uncollected property taxes. Look at this info from Hallwatch.org:
Years delinquent Property count Total Owed
1 34,732 $31,261,207.03
2 14,194 $31,128,538.30
3 8,705 $24,962,556.30
4 5,981 $21,301,166.08
5 4,714 $20,374,306.58
6 3,855 $21,324,590.31
7 4,518 $19,955,949.98
8 3,264 $19,704,787.23
9 2,963 $20,731,880.72
10 3,364 $24,347,492.70
11 27,037 $259,542,881.84
If the city just automatically foreclosed on the property taxes that have been unpaid for 11 years or more, the city would get $230 MILLION in revenue, and about 60% of that would go, under Nutter, to public schools.
Good school districts have automated assessments that are objective and based on property values, then collect promptly. If we let the owners who owe for the first two years try and get it together, a much more forgiving policy than any bank, we still have an 494 minus 62 = $432 MILLION DOLLARS times 60% that would go right to public schools.
That is a rough estimate, but imagine having no more $40 million deficits, no more $73 million deficits, but a surplus for the kind of visionary new schools Vallas never got to build.
Politicians are not going to collect taxes. Their rationale is simple -- school kids can't vote, property owners can. That is why you still see so much vacant, unrenovated property in Philly. It's cheap and easy to own and not pay for property here.
Do we have to have the state take over the property tax collection functions of the Sheriff and Revenue Dept like we did for the Parking Authority?
Adults have to step up and demand that their elected reps stop making excuses for the legion of deadbeats -- 113,000 owners owe money to the city that is critically needed for schools.
Can the paper finally take the side of kids instead of the side of cheap votes at the expense of kids?
from /www.hallwatch.org/proptax/about/redelinq/stats/summary
Posted by City must assess and collect property taxes in full and on time | April 28, 2008 2:32 PM
In addition to property tax collection to pay for good schools, which is how every school district does it that has good results, we also have to have a property tax assessment that has meaning.
Right now, in my neighborhood, 19146, there are numerous properties that were "reassessed" by the BRT. Problem? The BRT still counts them as vacant lots, but they have BRAND NEW HOUSES ON THEM NOW and did WHEN THE BRT CAME THROUGH IN JULY, 2007.
The BRT is so corrupt and so stupid that they will let their "assessors" hang out in diners all day, and just raise taxes a little on everyone without even looking to see if the property data is correct.
This would not be possible if only the BRT will put in its computerized system, CAMA, that uses proprietary real estate data used by industry.
Real estate agents can't afford to treat a house like its a vacant lot. The databases they use are very current.
Not so the BRT, which seems to really not want to go to the trouble of supervising its nepotistic hires and upsetting someone's relatives in Council.
I've emailed the BRT to let them know that there are brand new houses on what was once a vacant lot, and that their assessor totally missed that when they "drove" around and "had a look." By the dozens, in fact.
Response? "Only the owner can appeal a property tax." DOH, you idiot, I'm not trying to appeal someone else's property taxes. You moron! You refinery baby!
I'm trying to let the BRT know that IT MADE A MISTAKE AND KEEPS DOING IT.
I can't wait for Nutter's 311. The only place left for me to go is the Ethics Board, and allege deliberate misconduct, but it's hard for Ethics to prosecute accidentally on purpose we don't want to know what's wrong with us types of ineptitude.
Lead paint and the BRT -- they both have got to go. We'd be better off as a city if we were to contract out the entire function of the BRT to a municipal data contractor. But where would we go to have patronage hires and bad judges that your ward leader wants you to support without knowing thing one about them?
End the BRT machine party political corruption, and start up the era of the objective assessment based on real data. Put in CAMA and the FMV now. Council will change the millage just fine.
People have got to stop relying on the BRT to kickback ultra low assessments or no assessments for cash contributions. It's pay to play just like any for contracts. It hurts public school kids, it cheats the city of vital programs for safety, and services. We WILL NEVER BE A WORLD CLASS CITY so long as the BRT is allowed to live in the past like this, just because the politicos are used to it.
Clean it up Philly, or BRETT MANDEL IS GOING TO SPANK YOU IN PUBLIC when you finally get sued for violation of the requirement to have assessments based on uniformity.
Get your affairs in order so you can join Fumo. Breaking the rules to suit your own agenda is going to mess you up just like it did Doc. No one is going to want you to be at their party. Are you going to be on the side of the status quo, or the side of the right thing for good schools?
Posted by Full Market Value -- why is the BRT waiting to get sued? | April 28, 2008 2:50 PM
The School District of Philadelphia has a much-touted Safe Schools Hotline. The hotline is merely used to retaliated against teachers who use it and who report violence occuring in the school. I should know. I called the hotline and within days I was retaliated against and ended up sitting in a basement, that was unheated at 427 Monroe Street, doing absolutely nothing.
My high school was Furness High School.
I sat there for a half of a month while my principal conducted bogus "investigatory meetings."
The School District of Philadelphia is able to harass and humiliate teachers because most teachers are scared and intimidated by corrupt and incompetent principals in the Philly schools.
The district needs to be thrashed for what it does to its hard-working teachers.
- Down in the Basement
Posted by Down in the Basement | April 30, 2008 10:42 AM