State senators take aim at SRC, favoring an elected board

STATE SENATORS are joining the call to abolish the School Reform Commission, the state agency facing a whirlwind of criticism for putting together and approving a $905,000 send-off package for now-ousted superintendent Arlene Ackerman.

Sen. Michael Stack, D-Northeast Philadelphia, yesterday said he plans to introduce a bill to get rid of the SRC, which took control of the city's schools a decade ago.

"The SRC's lack of accountability is unacceptable and must end," Stack said by email. "The SRC's tenure has been rocky and the last 6 months have been difficult for everyone."

Stack, with fellow senators Larry Farnese and LeAnna Washington, also Philly Democrats, and Andrew Dinniman, a Democrat who represents Chester and Montgomery counties, will hold a news conference Tuesday in front of the school district's headquarters to announce the bill.

It will aim to sweep away the SRC and replace it with an unpaid, nine-member school board elected by city residents.

Farnese said yesterday: "Since the SRC is composed of appointees, they are neither responsible or accountable to the taxpayers."

Not all lawmakers in the Republican-controlled Legislature are convinced this is the best answer.

Sen. Jeff Piccola, R-Harrisburg, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, told the Associated Press that commission members "haven't been perfect," but he's been "generally pleased with the direction the Philadelphia school district's been taking."

"I don't think there is any real groundswell to change the governing structure," Piccola said.

State representatives have also called for getting rid of the SRC and creating an elected school board. Rep. Angel Cruz and Rep. Louise Bishop, both Philly Democrats, each has a bill. James Roebuck, minority chairman of the House Education Committee, is co-sponsoring Bishop's bill.

Separately, a Bryn Mawr lawyer yesterday mailed a letter to IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman, with a copy to state Attorney General Linda Kelly, calling for an investigation into the nonprofit entity through which $405,000 of the Ackerman buyout - money from private, anonymous donors - is being funneled. (The remaining $500,000 is taxpayer money.)

"This is all about a non-profit soliciting, accepting and generating income for a single party [Ackerman]," the letter by Mark D. Schwartz said, adding: "This seems to me to be a clear abuse by and of a nonprofit," the Philadelphia's Children First Fund.

Schwartz asked the IRS to withdraw the fund's charitable status.