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The following is the text of a letter written by Congressman Chaka Fattah (D-PA) toPennsylvania Governor Mark Schweiker on the need for quality education for Philadelphia students:

As we discussed when we met a few days ago, I believe your appointment as Governor provides you with an historic opportunity to reform Philadelphia’s public schools.  Improving the
education, and therefore the life chances, of Philadelphia’s 215,000 public and charter school
students will have a profound impact on the health and well being of the Commonwealth. It is
incumbent upon you to use this opportunity and your leadership to craft a resolution that
improves the quality of education for each and every child in Philadelphia.  

An appropriate solution must address the fundamental problem facing the School District of
Philadelphia.  Our School District is not unique among major urban cities and small rural areas
around the country. No large urban school district in the nation performs better than Philadelphia. 
 The problem facing Philadelphia and cities like Atlanta, Los Angeles, and New York, is that our
students fail to achieve the level of performance found in many of our neighboring school
districts. Philadelphia is not dealing with a failure of local leadership; we are struggling to
overcome a nationwide phenomenon of poor quality schools for urban and rural students. 
Almost every state in the Union is currently in litigation to correct the problem of an ever-
widening opportunity gap.

The growing disparities between the best and worst schools can be measured by assessing
students’ access to seven basics of quality education: qualified teachers, smaller class sizes,
rigorous academic standards, educational technology, up-to-date school libraries and textbooks,
and school counselors.  Philadelphia’s children have been short-changed on all of the above. In
order for you to develop a plan that corrects the fundamental problem facing Philadelphia’s
schools, Edison’s report to you must contain an assessment of the current availability and
accessability of these seven basics of education.  The report should outline to what extent
Philadelphia students have:
     •    access to instruction in core courses from a fully qualified teacher.
     •    access to rigorous academic curriculums, both basic and advanced.
     •    access to textbooks and instructional supplies as current as their suburban counterparts.
     •    classroom sizes substantially equal to their suburban counterparts.
     •    access to a school with an up-to-date library staffed by a certified librarian.
     •    a student-to-computer ratio similar to their suburban counterparts.
     •    access to guidance counselors in a ratio that is comparable with that of other students in
     suburban districts.

Any report absent these comparisons is flawed and any plan that does not address how these
seven basics of education will be provided to Philadelphia’s children is fatally flawed. 

As the Congressman representing many of the students in the Philadelphia School District, my
concern is that students have a right to the same high quality education that produces the high
achievement result of our nearby students. 

Whatever proposed changes are made in governance or management will mean nothing unless
we change the quality of resources available to students in each and every neighborhood. It is
impossible to get comparable education results without comparable educational opportunities.

The focus right now is on Philadelphia.  However, there are hundreds of school districts in
Pennsylvania that must be guaranteed these seven basics of education. 

The last thing that Philadelphia children need is the sizzle of reform without the substance of
reform.  We will not achieve higher academic performance for Philadelphia’s children without
providing more opportunities for them. We must grant all children in this State equal access to a
high quality education.