Justice
Philly's Schools Are So Broke They're Borrowing Cash to Start the School Year
Parents call it "the deliberate starvation of one of the nation’s biggest school districts."
It is a normal rite of August for kids to dread the start of the school year. This, however is not normal: when all the grownups in town, the parents, the taxpayers, the mayor, and the superintendent are dreading it, too.
This is currently the state of affairs in Philadelphia, where it was unclear if the public schools would even open on time next month until Mayor Michael Nutter vowed on Thursday to borrow $50 million to make it happen. The situation is so bad, the New York Times reports, that one beleaguered elementary school principal even mailed home letters asking parents to make donations to fill his budget ($613 per student, please).