I took the opportunity of joining two-hundred of my closest friends this past Tuesday on a bus trip to Harrisburg to lobby the Pennsylvania legislature in support of full fair finding for Pennsylvania schools. Pennsylvania is one of only three states across the nation without a full fair funding formula. While I was one of a few participants from a wealthy suburb, the majority residing in city districts, I could speak for the dramatic disparity in school funding and educational equality within the Philadelphia region.

I reside in one of the wealthiest school districts in the state of Pennsylvania (Tredyffrin/Easttown). We have high quality schools with small classes and superior resources. This fact is due solely to the affluence of those of us living within the district. Our kids get a great education because we have great schools funded by people of means. We have nurses in our schools and we have counselors. We have advanced AP courses and strong offerings in the arts. Our sports programs are well funded and we have a new state of the art football stadium. We are proud of the Tredyffrin/Easttown schools and while some carp about taxes, we seem to willingly pony up.

When mid and upper level corporate executives with young kids move into our region they pay the price to live in the T/E school district . . . or Radnor or Lower Merion and there are others. The city of Coatesville is never considered because their schools as with many in poor urban and rural areas are struggling. The vibrant city of Philadelphia is experiencing a strong resurgence with millennials and empty nesters moving to trendy sections of town. Empty nesters are beyond the child rearing stage so hurting schools are not a tactical consideration and the studies reveal that many millennials exit the city for the cushy suburbs when they begin their families. It seems money talks and money underwrites good education.

Many years ago I began teaching at 60th and Cedar in West Philadelphia. Urban teaching was an uplifting and invigorating experience; both teaching and Philadelphia never left my heart. In early 1980 my ministry brought me to the Philadelphia Main Line. I served the same congregation for almost thirty years but never lost a passion for civic justice and a love for cities. While my two children benefitted from a T/E education I could not ignore the abject disparity that I witnessed as I crossed City Line Avenue from the leafy Lower Merion School District into West Philly where I had begun my teaching days.

Now I have returned to my activist roots with an interfaith justice movement called POWER. Along with the group Public Citizens for Children and Youth, POWER hosted last week’s trip to Harrisburg. Two-hundred of us broken into small groups, climbed the Pennsylvania State Capital steps and knocked on the doors of legislators to make the case for a quality education for all children and youth. We went in support of a pending two dollar tax on cigarettes in Philadelphia which would generate $80 million per year and more taxes on Marcellus Shale drillers in the state (5%). We were all greeted cordially and we made strong presentations. Being one of the few suburbanites along for the ride I made a case for why people like me are concerned and progressively engaged in growing numbers.

It used to be that people like me who moved to the Philadelphia Main Line cared about a great lifestyle, with places like Philadelphia serving as diversions for an occasional dinner out or concert experience. Most of the time, cities were out of sight and out of mind. These days more of us see the quality of all our schools, not just those tied to the best zip codes, as critical to the common social capital and well-being of our nation.

Go to the POWER Facebook page and check out how you can get involved and check out the website of PCCY. I have always felt that every child is born into this life with the same hopeful smile and it is the challenge for us grown-ups to assure that each child has an opportunity which does justice to that hopeful smile. Not everyone has the financial means to reside in Wayne PA with its leafy parks and great schools, but should the vagaries of the magnitude of our paychecks control the futures of all our children? If you decide this is not your issue or that you are beyond the kids in school stage of life . . . not to decide IS to decide! To do nothing is to take a stand for business as usual. Finally, we are the ones who shut down the hopeful smiles! I think this quotation from writer James Agee says a lot:

“In every child who is born under no matter what circumstances and of no matter what parents, the potentiality of the human race is born again, and in him(her), too, once more, and each of us, our terrific responsibility toward human life: toward the utmost idea of goodness . . .” James Agee Let Us Now Praise Famous Men

Monday Morning Reflections – June 16, 2014 – Read article online