Staff Editorial: Confront the inevitable

Sometime over the course of the next few days, Philadelphia's failing public school system will be taken over by the state.

The exact details of the transition still have yet to be worked out, but all indicators suggest that Gov. Mark Schweiker's controversial plan to wrest control of the city's schools away from the board of education is no longer merely hypothetical, but an inevitability.

For their part, Schweiker and Philadelphia Mayor John Street have been working tirelessly to reach a takeover agreement that meets the needs of the city's children, as well as the its taxpayers -- who have seen the system crumble before their eyes, and who will likely lose their direct representation in its governance with the dissolution of the board.

Indeed, a great many issues separate the two parties: the role of local communities in the recovery plan, the fate of current labor contracts and, most controversially, the extent to which Edison Schools, Inc., will have direct control over the operations of the district and individual schools. But in the interest of the city's children, Street and Schweiker are at least talking, and the initiative of both parties -- especially when the state could go about a takeover without the consent or support of city government -- is an encouraging sign.

It's a sign, regrettably, that stands in stark contrast to the actions of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers and several other city labor unions, which have ferociously resisted any takeover talk with strong words and defiant actions, including a City Hall protest yesterday that blocked traffic and disrupted the city's traditional holiday lighting ceremony.

While its concerns about possible job cuts and administrative shifts are legitimate, the teachers' union has, it seems, failed to recognize the inevitability of the state takeover. And unlike Street, who has been an outspoken opponent of the action and of Edison Schools, the union has chosen a pathway grounded more in its own interest than those of the city's children.

That's not what this city needs right now, and it's likely not even in the best interests of the teachers, as state and municipal leaders meet to determine their collective fate.

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