Jeré Longman’s long piece in the New York Times is important reading. It’s partly about the tragic budget cuts and job loss in the Philadelphia school system, but it is told through the prism of the closing of Germantown High School in Northwest Philly, and the merger of their successful football program with the next door doormats at Martin Luther King High School. Will the experiment even get a chance?
Layoff notices were sent to more than 3,800 school district employees, 20 percent of the work force, including 676 teachers. Officials described what they called a “doomsday” possibility: classes opening Sept. 9 with no assistant principals, secretaries, new books, paper, librarians, art, music — or sports.
While much public attention was focused on how the cuts would affect the classroom, the fear of empty football fields and silent basketball gyms deepened the uncertainty, dislocation and chaos that accompanied this latest budget crisis in the nation’s fifth-largest city.
For now, they will have sports in the fall, but they have no money yet for winter or spring sports.
Mr. Longman tells his story through the eyes of Mike Hawkins, the longtime coach at Germantown who retired when his school closed down, the new coach at MLK, Edward Dunn, who was laid off and may have to coach for free this year, and a couple of the top football prospects, including Dontae Angus, a 6-foot-6, 320-pound tackle who will be going to the University of Florida if he can get good enough grades this year.
These are not good schools, and they serve very rough neighborhoods. A lot of the kids from Germantown are afraid that they’ll be the victims of gang violence in school, or even on the way to school. The two schools have long been sports rivals, but administrators are hoping that sports might be a unifying force. Considering the condition of the schools and the neighborhood, they need something to lift spirits.
Decades of demographic shifts, however, had left the enrollment at Germantown High almost exclusively black and poor. During the 2012-13 school year, only 676 students attended a school built to hold four or five times as many. Young people had other options now: charter schools and selective-admission schools. An entire wing of Germantown High had been closed.
Ten percent or more of the students were homeless or in foster care, said Alexis Greaves, Germantown’s principal in its final days. One-third had special needs. The school had a reputation for violence.
Slightly less than half the kids graduate, and many of those who do are motivated to stay in school by the sports programs.
Many Germantown supporters despaired that Pennsylvania could find $400 million to build a new prison outside Philadelphia while the city’s schools struggled for financing.
“They’ll spend $30,000 apiece to keep them in jail but not $10,000 to educate them,” Hawkins said. “What’s our priority?”
He did not want to consider Philadelphia’s schools without sports.
“You have a lot kids who keep their grades up and their behavior under control to participate in sports,” Hawkins said. “This releases a lot of frustration in their lives. If you don’t have sports, where are they going to go? Where is that frustration going to go?”
Obviously, not all kids like or are any good at sports. But the cuts hit at all programs. Considering their priorities, the state is probably smart to build that prison. Cuz, they’re going to need it.
