Friday, October 14, 2016

DN letters: New contract would attract quality teachers to Philly schools




THERE'S ONLY one way the Daily News can credit the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers for helping create Penn Alexander, while simultaneously blaming the PFT for the district's inability to replicate it: blatantly misrepresent the facts, as you did in your Oct. 3 editorial.


Here are the facts: Since 2000, school-based site selection of teachers has been the rule, not the exception in Philadelphia. Every school in the district fills at least 50 percent of its teacher vacancies through site selection. Moreover, site selection is used to fill every teacher vacancy in Philly's "high needs" schools.

But there is no correlation between site selection and student achievement. Regardless of the hiring procedures in place, to fill vacancies, you need applicants. Site selection did not help the district fill the hundreds of teacher vacancies that existed last year, and it won't bring new teachers to our schools this year.

The biggest impediment to recruiting and retaining the best teachers is not the current PFT contract, but the lack of a new contract. The instability created by the district's freezing of PFT members' salaries has resulted in an exodus of teachers from which our schools are struggling to recover.

Many PFT members are young parents with child-care expenses, student loans and expenses associated with acquiring required post-graduate credits in their field. They've lost tens of thousands of dollars, which has reaped millions in savings for the district.

Your assertion that the PFT is playing "rope-a-dope" with negotiations is outrageous, especially in light of our numerous public statements calling for the district to return to the table. Every day, educators at Penn Alexander and other schools accomplish amazing things with children. They deserve a contract that supports and honors their work.

Jerry Jordan, president

Philadelphia Federation of Teachers

Source: Philly.com

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