William Hite's selection to the PSD is yet another demonstration of Philadelphia's ongoing inferiority complex.  Why is the 5th largest city in the nation looking to a place like Prince George's County, Maryland for educational innovation? Anyone who knows PG County should know why I'm asking this.  PG County is the runoff for Washington, DC's closing public housing and has a rampant crime problem, largely attributed to a poor educational system, high poverty-rate, and unreasonable cost of living.

One has to wonder what Philadelphia's infatuation is with the Washington, DC area? Arlene Ackerman, before starting her scandal-riddled tenure with San Francisco and Philadelphia was the Superintendent of the DC Public School System, which is one of the lowest rated systems in America (lower than Philadelphia's).  Mayor Nutter appointed, then gave an unprecedented off-schedule raise to Commissioner Charles Ramsey, who was the D.C. Police Chief, where they had a higher per-capita crime rate than Philadelphia, in a much smaller area with more concurrent law enforcement agencies on patrol.  Now, Philadelphia picks Dr. Hite from DC's worst suburb (which is ironic because Fairfax County, another DC Suburb has one of America's top 10 school systems). 

One has to wonder the political motivation for appointing those who come from places worse than our great city, not better; and why we as a city continue to perpetuate an inferiority complex that doesn't reflect the size and cultural diversity of Philadelphia.

Mayor Nutter Addresses the City in a Plea for School District Funding

Tonight at 7pm, Mayor Nutter came on TV to make a heartfelt plea to save our schools by supporting the soda tax. Note that he made no mention of the numerous instances of waste, fraud, and abuse in the administration of Arlene Ackerman that have heavily contributed to their massive budget shortfall.

If Mayor Nutter wants another tax hike, he needs to show us that we aren't flushing our hard earned money down a toilet of racism, violence, and corruption. You want my money, Mr. Mayor? Start with a clean sweep of the entire Ackerman administration at School District Headquarters. Replace her with a leader like Michelle Rhee (DC) who doesn't cater to identity politics, and place the school district under the jurisdiction of and open an investigation by the Inspector General.

Until such steps are taken, I strongly encourage any resident with common sense to go to council chambers at 9AM and SPEAK OUT against new taxes and fees in support of waste, fraud and abuse. If you can't make it, call your councilman and State Representative (you can get their number from the Committee of Seventy's Website at seventy.org)!!

Mark my words, citizens, this corruption will stand unless we make our voices known.  The primary was not the last word - we can vote in 5 new Republican at-large members to send a clear message to City Hall.

Do not let Philadelphia go down the same path of taxation and business alienation that was previously taken by Detroit, DC, and Baltimore City.