The Country Philadelphia’s Next Mayor Should Visit and Why

Philly’s next mayor should travel to Finland to observe excellence in education.

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Two of the four declared Philadelphia mayoral candidates—former Philadelphia City Councilman, Mr. Jim Kenney, and former Philadelphia District Attorney, Lynne Abraham—have already begun managing the expectations of voters by alerting them they don’t know how to fix the cash-strapped School District of Philadelphia.

Their brutal honesty is both refreshing—considering every Philadelphia City Council candidate seems to have an “S” on their chest with regards to improving the education system. And scary—because Philadelphia won’t survive in the 21st century without major education reform that focuses less on testing, and more on producing critical thinkers, civic leaders, and entrepreneurial, innovative individuals who can compete in a global market.

A recent Corporate Executive Board (CEB) analysis showed that Philadelphia, a predominantly black city whose schools graduates less than 1% of black and brown youth who go on to obtain a four year degree in STEM related subject matter, had 31,000 open IT jobs in 2013—more than three unfilled jobs for every 10 current IT workers, according to an article on the White House’s blog entitled “Training a Workforce for Today’s and Tomorrow’s Jobs.”

Technically, the School District of Philadelphia is state-controlled, which means it’s ultimately the Governor of Pennsylvania’s responsibility. But, when the schools fail to graduate people who don’t grow up to meaningfully contribute to the workforce, that directly impacts the residents of the city, because not enough taxes are being generated to pay for city services.

Mr. Kenney—who less than a week after resigning from the at-large seat he’s held for 23 years has established himself as a forerunner in the mayor’s race—said if elected as the city’s chief executive, he’ll traveling to Harrisburg often with his “hat in his hand” begging for money.

If citizens vote Mr. Kenney into office—or whoever gets elected—I hope the travel route extends further than Harrisburg, because the problems with the School District aren’t exclusively financial. Moreover, I’d argue that the School District of Philadelphia suffers more from lack of these key things: a global vision, proper support structures, a diversified team with variety of competences that add value, the ability to tax and generate revenue and a real-time model of achievement to imitate.

The latter can be found in Finland, whose education system has a 99.7% graduation rate and a national budget (in 2009) of more than 10 billion.

According to Wikipedia:

“The Finnish strategy for achieving equality and excellence in education has been based on constructing a publicly funded comprehensive school system without selecting, tracking, or streaming students during their common basic education. Part of the strategy has been to spread the school network so that pupils have a school near their homes whenever possible or, if this is not feasible, e.g. in rural areas, to provide free transportation to more widely dispersed schools. Inclusive special education within the classroom and instructional efforts to minimize low achievement are also typical of Nordic educational systems.”

Tied for first with Denmark, Australia and New Zealand on the Education Index, Finland has a 100% literacy rate among both male and female, and attributes their success to highly component teachers and the autonomy given to schools.

A trip to Finland for the purpose of research and development would be a great use of taxpayer’s dollars, especially considering Philly’s current mayor, Mr. Michael A. Nutter, last year took a trip to Paris to learn about bike sharing programs.

Can taxpayers afford to foot the bill for another international trip? In this matter, the question should be: can Philadelphians afford not to?