Partnership

His austere budgets closed or curtailed an array of after-school programs. Now his connection to a deep-pocketed education advocate may help restore them. On the day that New Jersey After 3, the only statewide underwriter of after-school programs, was to shut its doors after losing state funding, Gov. Christie announced at a news conference Monday that a public-private partnership was being established to save the nonprofit organization. A key savior would be the billionaire hedge-fund manager David Tepper, who recently founded a group that is going up against teachers' unions to push Christie's proposals for overhauling the education system.

Standing in a muddy field next to a stables in Fairmount Park, city officials announced plans Monday to build a $1.4 million home for the Philadelphia Police Mounted Unit. "This is huge," Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey said of the plans to build the facility on Chamounix Drive that will house the mounted unit, reestablished this spring after being disbanded in 2004. The 13,000-square-foot steel structure will house about 40 horses. The site is next to the McCarthy Stables, also known as the Chamounix Equestrian Center, where children participate in the Work to Ride equestrian program.

  St. Martin de Porres School in North Philadelphia may have found the key to survival for inner-city Catholic schools. Through a pioneering partnership with the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and local business leaders, the school at 2300 W. Lehigh Ave. has become an independent Catholic school overseen by an 18-member board but it retains ties to the archdiocese. It is the only school in Philadelphia with such an arrangement. Bolstered by an endowment of more than $4 million, a full-time development director, and fund-raising that covers a quarter of the school's $1.7 million annual budget, St. Martin de Porres has been able to increase enrollment and add programs without raising tuition.

GlaxoSmithKline said Tuesday that it would donate $1 million worth of cervical cancer vaccine to a new partnership launched by former president George W. Bush and aimed at reducing deaths from women's cancers. GSK makes Cervarix, says it also will provide $50,000 to support the program operations and that more than 10,000 girls and women will have access to vaccination. The Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon partnership is a new initiative led by the George W. Bush Institute, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS.

RE THE OP-ED "Philly's food desert" (Aug. 9) : Mr. Kaye's article suggests that local government should work with the private sector to make it easier for Philadelphians to eat healthfully. We agree. In fact, we're already making tremendous progress. Through the leadership of Mayor Nutter, the Philadelphia Department of Public Health and its partners have implemented the Get Healthy Philly initiative. In 16 months, Get Healthy Philly has: * Opened 10 new farmers' markets in low-income communities (including at the Frankford Terminal!

Question: I broke up with my boyfriend eight months ago because he was too scared to tie the knot. We were together four years and are 28. He has said before he can't ever see himself getting married, to me or to anyone. I am conflicted. I love him very much, was happy with him and know he'd still be with me if I had not broken up with him. But I would like to get married to have some security that he's going to be with me forever, even when I'm old and gray. (Yes, I know he still could divorce me.)

At Community Partnership School's first graduation Friday, the departing fifth graders will give short speeches about the moments at the small, private school in North Philadelphia that meant the most to each of them: A first-grade party. Praise for an academic accomplishment. And a "once-in-a lifetime experience" sharing the stage with Bill Cosby at a school fund-raiser at Temple University last month. But the inaugural graduation at this close-knit school, which is funded largely through donations, will mark more than personal milestones in the lives of 11 students and their families.

In a spring when school districts across the region are digging deeper for spending cuts, the Chester Upland School District is considering a downright daunting move - shedding 40 percent of its teachers next school year. Facing a budget reduction of almost 20 percent, the Delaware County district might also cut support staff 50 percent. The average class size would go from 21 to 35. On May 25, the school board passed a budget plan that outlined, but did not fill in, the cuts. The final spending plan will be passed before June 30; no date has been set for the vote.

The campaign to turn America's highways back a century to when they were privately run - only with new electronic tollbooths that will silently tap your wallet as you drive - is shifting into high gear. "New York and Connecticut are rolling along with bills and hearings," Frank Rapoport , Berwyn-based partner at McKenna Long & Aldridge L.L.P . and a busy proponent of "public-private partnership" ("P3") - the sales of state assets to private interests - told me. "In Pennsylvania, look for a House bill to hit the Capitol floor on June 6 and move on to passage.