It is absolutely ridiculous that Mayor Nutter, Schools Chief Mr. Hite, city council members, parents of school children, the school district itself, The Philadelphia Teachers Union and the Philadelphia Media all state and are in agreement that the Philadelphia Public Schools are underfunded.

The state run media here in Philadelphia are always using the terms, cash starved school district or the doomsday budget.  Here is the part the Philadelphia State run media won’t tell the taxpayers. According to The National Center for Education Statistics (which is a government website), for school year 2011-2012 the Philadelphia School District spent $3,142,979,000, that’s over $3 Billion or  $18,907 per student. It is very hard for me to believe that $18,907 per student is not enough money to educate the children. Yet, all of the above mentioned parties parrot the false narrative that schools are underfunded and demand hundreds of millions of dollars more from the taxpayers. Link to Philadelphia Public School Stats here.

It is also clear that the school district is not educating the children. Recently a principle, and four teachers were arrested for helping students cheat on required standardized tests. Link to news story here. In addition, it was revealed several months ago that Philadelphia Public School students cannot read at grade level. If the children were being educated, there would be no need to cheat and the children would read at grade level. If the parents of these children were paying a tuition of $18,907 and their children weren’t being educated they would be outraged. However, they are not outraged that their children aren’t being educated. They are outraged by the false narrative that the Philadelphia Public Schools are underfunded. Recently parents of school children had a rally for more education funding. If the media in Philadelphia did their job and reported the stats I have, the parents might protest against the school board and the teachers union for not educating their children. Here’s an idea: How about the school district and the teachers union prove they are educating the children before we give them more money. Where is the accountability? Just as the national media covers for the Democrats, the local media here Philadelphia does the same thing. Journalism is dead.