Could school choice reduce Philadelphia killings?
Samuel Sean Collington was a 21-year old Temple University student from Delaware County. The senior, who was set to graduate this spring, had an incredibly bright future in front of him — “had” being the operative word.
But instead of following his dreams and chasing happiness, Mr. Collington’s life was snubbed out by a killer in North Philadelphia — robbed near his off-campus apartment, then ruthlessly murdered in broad daylight.
Far from an isolated event, this type of situation plays out daily in what is anything but a “City of Brotherly Love.” In fact, Philadelphia has the dubious distinction of, quite literally, blowing away cities far larger than itself in racking up homicides and shootings, such as New York (six times bigger), and L.A (twice Philly’s population). Even more disturbing, Philadelphia surpassed its staggering all-time record of 500 murders during Thanksgiving week — becoming the poster child for what not to be thankful.
It is so bad that homicides in November doubled the entirety of murders in all of 2014 — a feat that, at the current pace, will also hold true for 2015 and 2016. Ominously, murders have increased five years in a row, and in seven of the last eight years.
And it isn’t just civilians being victimized in recent years, but also police officers. While all innocent human life is sacred, there is something especially abhorrent about shooting a law enforcement officer. It breaks down the last barrier of respect, and it violates the code that most criminals follow: You don’t take shots at police. But just as shooting children has become fair game, the taboo of not shooting at cops has also been broken.
The carnage has left indelible effects on victims, their families, and, indeed, anyone with a soul: lonely, distraught spouses raising young children because his/ her partner was callously murdered; parents trying to cope with the unimaginable grief of burying their children; and even the unborn who never saw the light of day because their mom was gunned down in cold blood — as just happened to an expectant mother of seven months as she returned home from her baby shower.
The hardest part is trying to explain the senselessness of why so many are being slain. With civility and respect having all but disappeared, people are increasingly asking what, if anything, can be done to reverse course.
The answer is simple, but just not easy: Real educational reform, otherwise known as school choice.
Each time another heinous crime makes the headlines, Mayor Jim Kenney spews the same monotonous babble that guns (rather than those actually committing the crimes) are the culprit. For most of Philadelphia’s politicians, someone, anyone, and everyone else is to blame: not enough gun control laws; inadequate funding; failed government-community partnerships; lack of mental health resources; and not enough redistribution of wealth. Hell, why not blame the Eagles, supply chain woes, and climate change, too?
Just like his predecessors, Mr. Kenney can play the blame game all he wants. But in real life, the buck stops with him, as it has been under his watch that things have gone the wrong way — fast. And it’s only getting worse. Whether it’s flash mobs, citizens getting gunned down, brutal subway attacks, or cops in the crosshairs, it’s clear that respect for authority is non-existent, and no one is off-limits to the predators.
Philadelphia’s murder, violence, poverty and homeless rates are among the nation’s highest, and its educational system is dismal. Sadly, there’s nothing to indicate that the situation will improve. Few CEOs wants to relocate to Philadelphia, given the lack of will to tackle those problems
— not to mention Philly being one of America’s highesttaxed cities. And as precious jobs disappear, so too does a positive outlook for the future.
Three things have become apparent: 1) What Philly did in the past hasn’t worked. 2) What it’s doing now isn’t having an impact. 3) Unless a bold leader institutes true reform and eschews band-aid solutions to gaping wounds, the city will continue its decline.
Here’s the part no one wants to admit. There is no short-term solution. We can talk all day about fairy-tale feel-good “solutions” by invoking vague rhetoric: community partnerships, town watches, more police, and of course, the ultimate “panacea:” banning guns.
But since we’ve been hearing that for decades, ad nauseam, and Philadelphia has long been a oneparty city, here’s a newsflash to its leaders: None of those things works because they are tactics without the benefit of a strategy.
Enter school choice.
The dire situation in which we find ourselves boils down to our horrendously bad educational system, and, as a direct result, the lack of hope in our young people.
With little possibility of receiving a quality education, and prospects for a decent job almost nonexistent, many city youth see the dream of a stable and prosperous life as a cruel illusion. Faith is lost. At that point, when people feel they have nothing to lose, and nothing to live for, they resort to crime. The result is despair, fear, violence and murder.
Many of Philadelphia’s public schools are in shambles (despite adequate funding), and deathtraps for student and teacher alike, yet most parents have no options. Translation: When education is trumped by survival, everybody loses.
So why doesn’t the system change?
Greed.
Greed of pols to keep the status quo the way it is because it benefits
a narrow few. And greed to keep the truth out of sight, buried behind 30-second sound bites come election time.
And the teachers’ unions are terrified of school choice because it would inject competition into our educational system, exposing just how inferior our schools have become. And when that occurs, the masses will finally see that the system’s failure has nothing to do with a lack of money.
Ironically, the pandemic proved just how desired school choice is. Many parents and teachers clamored for the right to switch schools based on vaccine and mask mandates (both pro and con), but found their options lacking. It’s sad that it took COVID-19 to illustrate just how valuable choice in education is.
Since so many of our politicians are in lockstep with wellfunded unions, school choice and voucher programs continue to be thwarted. But given the dire
straits in which Philadelphia finds itself, how long can we accede to the misguided view that school choice is anathema to good education?
When parents have a choice in their children’s education, schools that perform will attract more students and succeed, and those that continue with the status quo will be forced to improve — or lose students and fail. The free-market system that has served us so well will have the same effect on our educational product.
For the first time in generations, school choice will allow our students to learn the skills necessary to succeed in life. Because of a quality education, they will have hope for a brighter tomorrow, understanding that it is better to live in a stable environment than be part of a criminal world in which the lifespan is shorter than those in thirdworld nations.
Criminals today don’t fear the crossfire because they feel they have nothing to live for anyway. Until that mentality changes, Philadelphians will continue to be held hostage, and more people will die.
But instead of action on choice, all we hear are empty promises.
To be clear, Mayor Kenney, Gov. Wolf, and the state Legislature cannot, and should not, be held responsible for the city’s violence, as culpability must reside solely with the person pulling the trigger. With that said, however, their failure to act on implementing, much less even discussing, the only solution that stands a chance of working is shameful.
The likelihood of action from city leaders is virtually zero. Therefore, we can only hope that the next governor and Legislature will have the political will to do the right thing for all of Pennsylvania’s parents and students — but especially those
in Philadelphia — by giving them a choice in that which matters most: their children’s education, and society’s future.
If we don’t make the right choice, how much more blood will continue to spill?