The following joint statement comes from Philadelphia School Partnership Executive Director Mark Gleason and Philadelphia School Advocacy Partners Executive Director Mike Wang in response to the SRC’s actions at the 4/28/16 Action Meeting:

“For years parents in the Cooke, Huey and Wister neighborhoods have been demanding better schools; now their children have the opportunity to benefit from a program that has already given a better education to thousands of students in Philadelphia. We encourage the SRC and the charter office to move swiftly to ensure there are no delays or other impediments that will make even harder the extremely difficult task of transforming a chronically underperforming school.

“While these are positive steps, there is more to be done. By the District’s own count, there are 88 Philadelphia public schools—serving over 50,000 students—in need of intervention. Tonight’s actions extend to only a small fraction of these children.”