Arlene Ackerman Caught on Tape at Unemployment Office!!!

Whaddya mean she isn’t entitled to unemployment?!?!  She WAS fired ya know.

Philly 2050: What will the future bring?

Today’s Metro has a front page re-imagining of Philadelphia in the year 2050 (okay, it’s really New York, but let’s not quibble).  It’s quite a lovely vision – shiny solar glass towers with green roofs and powered by the wind.  It’s clear Philly is on track to become a sleek, green, urban utopia in just 40 years!  We’re well on our way with Philadelphia2035.  And within just a couple of years we won’t even be using metal subway tokens and maybe have citywide WIFI — how modern is that!?!  By 2050 we’ll be totally FANTAS-FUTURIS-TIC!

We realize there are some cynics out there ranting about our economic problems, crumbling infrastructure, shale fracking, and violent crime.   But, hellloooo?  We’re talking about the future here, and the future is always bright!  Maybe you should educate yourselves and read some Aldous Huxley or George Orwell so you can see just how amazing the future can be.

We know people can have different visions of the future and  things may not be so great right now, but it can only get better….right?

Our utopian future is right down The Road...

“Philadelphia nonprofit announces $20 million scholarship campaign”

The Children’s Scholarship Fund Philadelphia is set to raise $20,000,000 to  provide tuition funds for 10,000 students, which is GREAT!  20 million bucks is a lot of money and each student will get…umm…10 into 20 is….ummm…Oh!!  Only $2000 per student???!  What private school are they going to go to for that kind of money?!?

Well, CSFP lists over 200 participating schools on their website – from “Germantown Friends” all the way to “Crooked Places Made Straight Christian Academy.”  According to philly.com the average tuition amongst those schools is only $2800.  But if Quaker schools charge roughly $20,000 and Catholic schools get $2800 at a MINIMUM, how do you come up with an AVERAGE of $2800 a year?  (A 2009  study showed the average tuition at the least expensive Christian schools was over $5,000.)

I’m a product of public schools, myself, and my math is not that great so maybe I’m just missing something here…Why don’t they just put that money into targeted public schools?

At least the program insures that students are fully qualified to attend the school of their choice because scholarships are awarded based on…A LOTTERY?!?!  Well, I guess if Mom has the wherewithal to fill out the application then Junior will be welcome anywhere his $2000 will take him – pay no attention to those class size restrictions, academic requirements, or waiting lists.

Why does this smell like a scam?

Keep on scratchin your head....

Get Your Revisionist History Straight in Philadelphia!

Arlene Ackerman, David Oh, and John Perzel.  If only the real world could be as perfect as the ones in their heads…

Oh, My Faux-Pas, to me they are so negligible...

 

 

“Three charter-school firms in Philadelphia to share $2.4 million grant”

Kenny Gamble’s Universal Companies is part of an educational partnership that’s set to go platinum – raising $100,000,000 in just 5 years.  That’s a lot of candy sales and glee club performances!

Usually public education is a drain on the local economy, but charter schools are like money magnets – even if they’re a far cry from magnet schools.  Oh, well, if Kenny can turn the beat around, maybe he can turn our schools around.

O'Pay Day!

Eugene David…The One Minute Pundit signing off 9/3/2011

The blogosphere is a little poorer today for the loss of “Eugene David.”  His blog had a quirky take on the subjects that were (maybe not so) dear to his heart.  He was a civil servant who excelled at his job (sounds slightly oxymoronic, huh) while keeping up a running commentary via frequent posts to his blog.  His death was sudden and unexpected.  He will be sorely missed by his coworkers and by those who read his work.

Philadelphia School District’s Ladies Who Lunch Well!

Isn’t it nice that Arlene Ackerman doesn’t have to eat her lunch all by herself.  I’m happy that my tax dollars allow our super superintendent to bond with her BFF, Melonease Shaw, on a regular basis while eating high quality meals.  It’s interesting that Ms. Shaw’s Maven, Inc. website is suddenly offline…oh, I’m sorry, it’s “under construction.”  Probably just a coincidence that she’s decided to revamp the site at this point in time or maybe all those warm words from Arlene overheated the server.

It appears, though, that Ms. Shaw has been dining out on the city for years, as she has other good friends in high places.  Some of them are on the board of her OTHER company that provides essential services in Philly.  Her original board chair is her former employer who has chased large facilities management contracts with the city (and one of HIS board members is also a member of the Obermayer law firm.)  The current chairman is the upstanding, Hillel Levinson. who was the city’s MDO in the 70s and 80s.  He beat a corruption rap back in the 70s, and coincidentally has a company that has NO WEB SITE AT ALL – a little sketchy in this day and age and the only thing the company seems to do is make political donations.  Another Transitional board member, Walter Cohen, works for a law firm that is quite generous with it’s political donations.  Wow!  $20,000 to Vince Fumo…hey, isn’t he a criminal…?

This is just another chapter in the saga of the Philadelphia School District – a rat’s nest of corruption and insider dealing where money trumps our kids’ opportunity for an education every day.

Devon Horse's Ass Show?

Tales of the Serenghetto

We work in the city, and not a particularly nice neighborhood, nor exactly rural (the sort of area whose most abundant forms of wildlife are the pit bull and cock-fighting chickens). However, we have a significant greenspace and a resident groundhog.  One of my colleagues named it Snuggles (don’t ask…).  Snuggles has been there a couple of years and even had babies last year.  Baby groundhogs are pretty darn cute.  Anyway, my coworker came down to my cube last night all excited to tell me a bird was riding on Snuggles.  Civil servants are an odd bunch, but I thought, “he’s really lost his mind now.”  So I looked out the window and, sure enough, there was Snuggles with a starling following her.  Then the bird hopped up on the groundhog’s back and started pecking at stuff in its fur!  And Snuggles just kept waddling along eating grass – just like those rhinos and tickbirds on the Serengeti!

 Who knew you could have an episode of Animal Planet in the middle of the ‘hood!  (Disclaimer:  groundhog photo has been “retouched”.)