Have you seen your school's budget? The District's "doomsday" scenario has landed in our laps, and as usual, it's up to parents to set this ship aright.

There are three core areas to fix this year's school budgets.

Here's how awful local school budgets look for next year: 25% cuts across the board, no itinerant music, no sports, no secretaries or assistant principals. The budget is an outrage - putting up essential classroom needs in a dangerous game of brinksmanship. At the same time, both the City and State need to do more for our schools. Here's Parents United's suggestions for how to get active around school budgets, starting next week. We need your voice and we need your time, precious as it is, to bring a clear message to our elected leaders: Fund our schools and prioritize spending in schools and classrooms. Read more here.

 

Remember the Boston Consulting Group? As part of their contract with the William Penn Foundation, BCG promoted massive charter expansion and identified 60 schools for closure.The District has consistently refused to release BCG's school closings list, arguing that the information was private and internal. Parents United, thanks to the invaluable help of our pro-bono lawyers at the Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia, decided to pursue this case with the state Office of Open Records. Earlier this month, the state ruled in our favor, saying that the District had failed to prove the BCG list had not been shared with others and that it must be made public. It's a small victory with important consequences: School closings matter as much now as they will next year as we deal with school mergers and another likely round of school closings. Who had influence over this process is critical to understanding who's influencing District decisionmaking and whose interests are truly being served. Read our post here to learn more.

2013 saw a renewed national backlash against standardized testing - from Seattle to New York City to Pittsburgh to Philadelphia. Parents United member Tomika Anglin explains why she decided to end the testing insanity: "Why I opted out of the PSSA circus"