One interesting fact I researched was is it the guys or the girls that have problems in schools? While I was researching I came across an interesting site that proved to me that boys are at risk in schools as opposed to girls. In the Philadelphia Enquirer states that if you go to the home of an average white working class family you'll notice an odd pattern. The chances are that the daughters are doing well in school (whether it be college or high school) the daughters bring home better then average grades, have careers in mind, and are on realistic tracks to achieve their goals.
    As for their sons not so much, Chances are, their grades are poor, their lives disorganized and their futures uncertain.
Now some people are probably thinking wait a second you're thinking about the boy problems are supposed to be limited to African Americans. And black males are faring terribly in society. Richard Whitmire the president of the National Education Writers Association describes that their plight is so severe that it overshadows the significant problems seen among white boys from blue collar and lower income white-collar families. For the most part the problems of white boys go unnoticed. Teachers will tell the parents that their sons lack motivation, leaving the parents believing that bad parenting is at fault. Worse yet, teachers tell them not to worry, that boys will be boys and everything will turn out well in the end. Only it doesn't...

One of the surprises that I had was a question that kept bugging me. The question was what exactly do I want to change? If I had 5 minutes of the Director of Philadelphia Student Union, what exactly would I say? What exactly would I want her to change? She knows and understands the problems with the School District of Philadelphia better then I do. Is there anything I can tell her that would actually assist her on her mission to change the schools in Philadelphia. This would be the biggest question in my book, and its been bugging me for the past two weeks.
Though besides that everything has been going well, every article I read I gear myself with more knowledge of the system as well as different opinions and points of view. I’ll be writing my last and final two blogs in the aspects of the school districts.
My plan is to finish what I started and help progress the road to better education. I honestly do believe that anyone is capable of doing so if they care enough.

January 2nd students, teachers, and administrators were returning to school from winter break. Everyone but Janice I. Solkov. Dr. Solkov has resigned on December 31st as principal of one of the 20 lowest achieving Philadelphia Public schools.
It all started with a Phone call from Edison's Human Resources Office in July. She was still working as a manager of administrative services and second language instruction in a suburban school district in Montgomery County, Pa. Enthusiastic and eager to make a difference in Philly. She was bringing in an outside company to run some of them. As she had explained to the Edison recruiter her experience in bilingual education and in administration made it a good bet to lead one the city's bilingual schools. The company agreed and offered Dr. Solkov a position to be an Edison Principle.
To her surprise a week later Edison was considering her for a third, smaller school, with a 35 percent Spanish speaking school in West Philly. She accepted the job to be Principal of Morton McMichael Elementary, which had a 100 percent African American student population.
4 Months later she resigned

It says in the New York Times Dr. Solkov resigned because the system’s bureaucracy ultimately defeated her.
Even Dr. Solkov says, "Privatizing schools just shouldn't be this hard." This proves my point showing that Privatizing schools wont work and handing them over for companies to run was just a bad idea. Even if we were to privatize every under achieving school in Philadelphia we still have problems such as funding. It seems that we have to start with basics such as having enough textbooks, having teachers that are capable, having new and clean facilities. Philadelphia has a ways to go.

Back in September Janice I. Solkov was brought in to be a new Principle for Morton McMichael Elemntary. She was hired by the state to manage the 20 lowest performing schools. Dr. Solkov was from the suburbs with an idea to change it all. Her idea was to privatize Edison. After 3 months into the school year and everything was starting to fall apart. The idea of privatizing public schools was a good idea but it just wouldn’t be possible in Philadelphia. For example Dr. Solkov wanted every student to have a computer to be able to use. That wasn't possible because she was only allowed to spend $880 per student. So those computers never materialized. Dr.Solkov was also never given an accountant which was promised to handle funds, or the second school secretary so she wouldn’t have to type her own meeting minutes and letters. She wasn’t even allowed to paint the school's peeling walls, or open the school library because of the lack of funds.

It was a big mess and after 4 months left the veteran principle in her office in tears. I've also done a little research on Dr. Solkov on whether she really was capable or not. It says that Dr. Solkov is 50 years old with a doctorate in education and has 30 years worth of experience.  She even turned down an offer to be a suburban school administrator. She was described by her Edison recruiter as ''extraordinarily talented, with an outstanding track record for success.''

Recently I've been able to find a lot more sites and information helping my studies. So the lack of information is not apparent anymore. At the same time I feel somewhat happy that there are actually a lot more people out there that care and aware. What my main goal in doing this is increasing awareness of the poor funding in Philadelphia Schools. I believe that in a few years that the entire city will actually be aware of this and that change will finally come. I feel happy due to the fact that my entire school just about knows about it and that hope is still very much a consideration. After living in Philadelphia my whole life I never actually thought that the neighborhoods or schools would get better. Living in this environment for my entire life ive come to lose all hope. Now though, I know that as long as there are a group of people that care, in time things will change.

It is said on the “Philadelphia Public School Notebook ” that Kensington and West Philadelphia high school are going to be replaced with new school buildings as part of the School Districts 1.5 Billion capital plan. Philadelphia student union members have looked at and researched new ways for how their new schools should be built. As part of a trip the Student Union members visited schools that have success that are in a similar environment. Some of the states they went to are New York, Chicago, and Oakland. What they found in each of these schools were small schools. Schools that are to big don’t do so well. So at West Philadelphia High they’re ideas of breaking the humungous school into different wings. When schools have 1,000 kids, to educate and support every student is unimaginable.

So the Union came to an agreement that there should only be around 300-500 kids per school.

It is said by a group from Washington D.C that says “Smaller schools correlate to improved student achievement and lower dropout rates.” It’s shown that having small schools can do numerous things. Such as raise student achievement, reduce incidents and violence, student isolation, increase attendance and graduation rates, elevate teacher satisfaction, improve school environment, and also much more cost efficient.

If your even more interested in how the structure for West Philly High will be, the ideas for it is to have each building have no more then 400 students with its own teachers, and staff.

The common building will have a library, lunchroom, gym, and auditorium that will be shared by all of the 4 wings.

The other 4 wings are business and commerce, health and fitness, automotive, and creative and performing arts. Each wing has different interests which are geared, and equipped with different ways to teach the students in what they are interested in.

It’s been a pain trying to get an appointment and it’s mostly my fault. I went to Sayre’s high school like I do every Wednesday to meet up with Nijmie Durinko but at both times she wasn’t there. The first week I went there was an action so she left early, and the second time the Union meeting was cancelled for whatever reason. I’ll be going tomorrow so I should finally be able to talk about my ideas in person.
So far I’ve been able to find one or two more sources about the Union but I realized that they were way out dated. My plan is to talk with every member on the Union, which will include, Erika Almiron, Eric Baxton, Lawrence Jones, and Ms. Weinraub. I have a lot of people to talk to and even more work to do. I’m excited for the fact that I have everything I need. I have all my materials, now all I have to do is start the experiment.  

The question that people always ponder on is why are Philadelphia schools so bad? How would you assess the quality of Philadelphia public schools? Craig Weeks a highschool history teacher replied “If there was funding, the schools would run a lot better than they are now.”
On Activism Online it states that a typical class size is 30 kids, textbooks are ripped, pages missing, drawn on, not up to date, we have under qualified teachers, not enough funding, and much more. The Philadelphia Student Union is also working on these problems. The Union is doing everything they can, they’ve protested, done civil disobedience, went to Harrisburg and talked to the legislature. Talked to city reps, talked to mayor Nutter, been to SRC (School Reform Commission) meetings. The Union has really done just about everything they can to make Philadelphia schools better.
When President Bush's made the voucher plan which uses public money to send kids to privatized schools the Union was a bit surprised. What President Bush just did was putting public schools further down because they are taking money that we don’t have, and giving it to schools that have double or triple what we have. All of this information was cited at Activism Online.
The voice of the Philadelphia Student Union is screaming for help to have the right to education. But to only to be muffled out by the higher ups caught up in other matters. Isn’t the next generation important? If we’re not educated isn’t that a big deal? Why is this kept being pushed aside and not taken care of? These are the questions that stir in the mind of the students that are being abandoned.

One of the problems that the Philadelphia Student Union has is the fact that the Philadelphia School District is in the midst of a state mandated takeover. Which will privatize the district schools just so that the companies that take over can make a profit.
The Philadelphia Student Union greatly opposed this for many reasons. Craig Weeks who is a member of the Philadelphia Student Union and was part of the executive council for the Union said “It's not necessary for there to be a takeover. If there was funding, the schools would run a lot better than they are now.” I agree with Weeks and that basically put, the state is hiring people who don’t care about the students, they only care about how much money is going to their pocket. School is a non profit organization, and should be kept that way. If school ends up being another way to make money for people then the goals, and the intention of school wont be the same.
Education is supposed to be given to children, not a profit made out of. It changes the principles and entire concept of what schools should be. If school is another thing to make a quick few bucks off of how would the students feel? That their own education is just another way to make money. According to the “Activism Online” it states that this is the fight of Privatization.

    Some of the surprises and difficulties I had was the lack of information that I could collect. This is because the awareness of Philadelphia Student Union. Close to no people know what P.S.U is or even care about it. Its not very well known and so its hard to gather and good information.
    One success was that I can easily schedule an appointment with the head of P.S.U. I’ve actually been working with Nijmie just at Sayer’s high school and so getting a short interview wont be as difficult as most.
    My plan is to fully understand everything that goes on at P.S.U and work with Nijmie for a long time to make changes. There’s only so much I can do in 2 or 3 months but over the course of years I can make a much bigger impact. Im interested in becoming a member of P.S.U and building the way to better education.