Parents are clearly trying to find better education options
As a follow up to the School District of Philadelphia’s budget and proficiency article, we decided to delve into a few issues that the district is facing including school choice, English learners, and a potential teacher’s strike.
School Choice
The School District of Philadelphia recently published a Research Brief on Enrollment, which looked at student enrollment over the last 11 years. In that time, the number of students registered in Philadelphia schools remained pretty consistent, with an enrollment difference of only 805 students between 2014 and 2024 and with the current enrollment at 198,299. While traditional district schools lost enrollment, cyber charter schools led the way in educational choice with a 2,500% increase in enrollment over the last decade.
The enrollment numbers for each type of school available are listed in the below chart from the School District of Philadelphia’s Research Brief on Enrollment.
Parents are clearly trying to find better education options than what the district has traditionally provided. Testing performance by category of school was not readily available on the district’s website.
Teacher to Student Ratios
To complement the student enrollment numbers, we looked at the employment numbers for the district from their website. Those employed by the school district include not only teachers but administrative personnel, teacher aids, food service workers, maintenance and janitorial staff, school police officers, bus attendants/chauffeurs, psychologists, nurses, and more.
From 2014/2015 through the 2019/2020 school years the average number of district employees was 18,443. However, starting in the 2020/2021 school year, the district went on a hiring spree! The district averaged 21,124 employees over those five years and ended with 23,636 employees in the
2024-2025 school year. That’s a 27% increase in personnel over an 11 year period. And, what was the increase in student enrollment over that period? As noted above, there was an increase of 805 students which equates to a ZERO% student increase. Why does the School District of Philadelphia need to increase personnel when enrollment was stagnant?
English Learners
You may remember from our article on Sanctuary Cities and their impact on county budgets that Philadelphia is a sanctuary city and home to asylum seekers, refugees, and immigrants (legal and illegal) from all over the world. According to a report from the Philadelphia Education Research Consortium published in September 2023, there were between 106-118 different languages spoken in the homes of students between 2014 and 2023.
English learners are those students who take an English proficiency screening test and are scored as those who need to learn the language. As seen in the chart below from the School District of Philadelphia’s Research Brief on Enrollment there were large changes in the English Learner enrollments. The number of English learners in Philadelphia increased from 12,492 in 2014-2015 to 25,350 in 2024-2025…a 103% increase. During that same time, non-English learners decreased by 28,404 students, or 24%.
Those numbers raise questions several questions:
- Where are the Not English Learners going? Home schooling? Charter schools? Private schools?
- How much is the district spending to educate English Learners?
- What is the opportunity cost to Not English Learners of the resources spent educating students who don’t speak English?
- When the district screams that it is underfunded by the city and state is the English Learner/illegal immigrant/sanctuary city issue part of the reason?
- Do taxpayers have any idea? Do they care?
The Philadelphia sanctuary city policy undoubtedly has a direct impact on the education costs and, potentially, the poor proficiency rates earned by the city’s children. The additional services the city needs to provide asylum seekers, refugees, or illegal immigrant children drain the resources available to educate the citizen children of the city.
Teacher Strike?
The School District of Philadelphia’s budget is already running a deficit as the district approaches the August 30th deadline for a new contract with the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers (PFT). The PFT voted in June by an “overwhelming” margin to strike, if a deal isn’t reached with the school district. During the contract extension from 2024 to 2025, those represented by the union received 5% increases and bonuses. Considering the history of abysmal proficiency rates achieved by students in the district, one would hope the negotiations include a teacher efficacy measurement. Incentivizing excellence in teaching would not only improve student scores, but it would ensure quality teachers remain in the classrooms which would aid student enrollment.
Bottom line…
The School District of Philadelphia faces many challenges. Many students come from single-parent households, are at or below the poverty level, and don’t even speak English. However, policies enacted by the City of Philadelphia and some of the educational priorities made by the school district have not benefitted the majority of children.
Spending budgeted dollars on additional personnel potentially to help improve test scores didn’t make a substantial difference. So, why aren’t those people being fired? Well, they are probably members of the PFT and therefore can’t be fired for simply being bad at their jobs. District negotiators must include competency and efficacy standards in the next PFT contract. The city insists on remaining a Sanctuary City despite the risk of losing federal funding. The resulting cost to the city and the children is enormous in many ways. The City of Philadelphia and the School District of Philadelphia must stop, learn from their mistakes, and course correct. They are failing the citizens and the children of this city. Doesn’t the community deserve better? Don’t our children deserve better? What are you willing to do to help make that happen?
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