In a turn of events reminiscent of what happened with the Archdiocese of Philadelphia earlier this year, Fox 29 is reporting that the Philadelphia School District could close 40 schools by next year. According to Fox, the closings will come about due to major budget cuts, forced because of a large deficit. The report says, “The district is essentially saying that if it’s an underperforming school, students will be moved with no regard really to sending area … students could be moving across boundaries of the city they’ve never moved to before.” And in addition to the 40 schools they plan to close by next year, six more schools per year will get the axe until 2017.

So the diagnosis is pretty grim, but let’s not forget how it turned out for the Archdiocese. We’ll keep you updated as more information comes in.

UPDATE: Daniel Denvir at City Paper breaks down the end of the Philadelphia School District, the creation of “achievement networks,” and what the future looks like for the re-defined Philadelphia public schools here, including that fact that, “Philly schools [will] panhandle for donations from rich people.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 24th, 2012 at 11:23 am.