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.

Can a Test Security scandal be the last straw for the Ackerman Administration?

For those of you in the Philadelphia area, the School District has been in the news considerably as of late.  First, Superintendant Ackerman's salary was made public, as she made a base of $348K and over $40K in bonuses last year.  Then she was caught cancelling a legitimate bid process after an award to then give the contract (no-bid) to a friend's firm.  When challenged by State Representatives (the Philadelphia Schools are state-controlled as the School Board was disbanded in 2002), she made a very public racial argument about it.  Then, the news of a $600M budget deficit surfaced at the School District, prompting many voters to demand the firings of the Superintendant and her whole administration.  However, when citizen's groups demanded her head, the Mayor and City Council defended her.

Why? 

Rising test scores.

Well, it seems that the recent trend of rising test scores at the Philadelphia School District may have been linked to what has been recently investigated in Atlanta, a widespread cheating ring.