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Community and Family

Krasner, Philly Dems rally for Pa. school funding boost as way to curb gun violence

April 9, 2021

Wolf is calling for a $1.35 billion increase to the state’s main pot of K-12 education funding. The increase would allow him to redistribute the entire basic education subsidy through a formula based on school and student needs without negatively affecting any school district in the state. Currently, only 11% of Pennsylvania’s $6.8 billion basic education subsidy is distributed via that formula. | From: WHYY (Read more.)

Education

D.C. raised $5 billion to rebuild toxic schools. Can Philly do the same?

April 9, 2021

The U.S. overall spends only about two-thirds as much as it should on school maintenance and upgrades, or about $46 billion less per year than is needed, according to a 2016 report by the 21st Century School Fund, a Washington D.C. nonprofit. In Philadelphia, the backlog was $4.5 billion for repairs and $3.3 billion for capital projects as of 2015, and continued underinvestment since then has pushed those figures even higher.

Washington managed to accomplish a task that has long stymied Philadelphia and many other school districts, and that over the past 13 months has exploded into public view as parents, teachers, and school administrators battled over how to safely reopen schools in the midst of a pandemic. | From: PlanPhilly (Read more.)

coronavirus

Communities can’t solve Philadelphia’s inequitable vaccine rollout alone

April 9, 2021

Our experience reveals that getting people vaccinated — doing the education and outreach necessary to even get people signed up— requires a lot of time and labor, especially in communities of color.

But in Philadelphia, the individuals and organizations doing the work are doing it for free without any funding from the city for outreach. The data on who’s and where’s getting the vaccine the fastest reveals a public cost to this ad-hoc strategy: a chasm that affects communities of color across the city and region. | From: PlanPhilly (Read more.)

Housing

Kensington community responds to SEPTA closing down Somerset Station

April 6, 2021

After SEPTA’s announcement, NKCDC, HACE CDC, and Impact Services released a joint statement about the closure, stating the “frustration with SEPTA’s decision to shut down this station without engaging neighborhood residents in the decision-making process,” due to the negative impact it will have on the Kensington and Fairhill neighborhoods. | From: Kensington Voice (Read more.)

Community and Family

Kensington arts center below Somerset Station closing for good

April 5, 2021

After four years providing an arts sanctuary in a neighborhood battling opioid use and homelessness, the Kensington Storefront has closed its doors for good. Mural Arts, which ran the center in partnership with the city, attributed the shutdown to “a perfect storm of zoning restrictions and COVID.” Though virtual programming will continue, and a search for a replacement space is underway, the loss is causing grief among the community, which had come to depend on it as a beacon of hope. From: Billy Penn (Read more.)