Thanks to former city councilwoman Helen Gym Flaherty’s failed campaign for the 2023 Democratic nomination for Mayor of the City of Brotherly Love, this site has reported several times on the Edward T Steel Elementary and Middle Schools, noting something that The Philadelphia Inquirer never bothered to tell readers as Mrs Flaherty, who campaigned on her educational record, used that school as a backdrop for her campaign, proudly telling the voters that she helped keep the school from “going charter.” What didn’t the newspaper tell its readership? That the school had an absolutely abysmal academic performance. That school is ranked 1193th out of 1591 in Pennsylvania Elementary Schools and ranked 656th out of 875 in Pennsylvania Middle Schools. Schools are ranked on their performance on state-required tests, graduation, and how well they prepare their students for high school. In the current rankings, 8% of students tested grade-level proficient in reading, and 2% of students who scored at or above the proficient level for math. Continue reading
Category Archives: Education
You in a heap o’ trouble, girl! Yet another teacher charged with molesting a minor
Elena Bardin and her husband, via the New York Post.
This story was in the Lexington Herald-Leader, but, adhering to the McClatchy mugshot policy, the Kentucky newspaper didn’t print the mugshot of the accused. Fortunately, the New York Post did.
Police: Kentucky teacher had sexual contact with minor, asked him to kill her husband
By Bill Estep | Updated April 4, 2025 | 11:31 AM EDT Continue reading
You in a heap o’ trouble, boy! Another teacher caught raping a student.
Christyan Cabrera, mugshot via WCNC.
As soon as I heard about this, checked all of the available articles, and, as usual, they all left out one pertinent bit of information.
Former Rowan County teacher appears in court after being arrested for alleged sexual relationship with a student
Christyan Cabera, 25, was a world history teacher at West Rowan High School. The district said he is no longer employed at the school.
by Nathaniel Puente and Jesse Pierre | Thursday, March 27, 2025 | 6:31 PM EDT | Updated: Friday, March 28, 2025 | 7:20 PM EDT
ROWAN COUNTY, N.C. — A former West Rowan High School teacher was arrested for multiple sexual assault charges involving a 15-year-old student, authorities reported. Continue reading
Edward T Steel Elementary and Middle Schools Our current education bureaucracy hasn't done very much good, has it?
The First Street Journal has mentioned the Edward T Steel Elementary and Middle School several times previously, primarily in connection with former Philadelphia city councilwoman Helen Gym Flaherty and her use of the school as a backdrop in her campaign for the Democratic mayoral nomination in the spring of 2023, a nomination she very fortunately lost. Mrs Flaherty proudly proclaimed that it was thanks to her efforts that the school didn’t “go charter”. We noted, at the time, that the school at the time ranked 1,205th out of 1,607 Pennsylvania elementary schools, in which 8% of students tested grade-level proficient in reading, and a whopping 1% of students scored at or above the proficient level for math.
Well, that was then, and this is now, 1¾ years later, and the ranks have been updated Continue reading
Has the federal Department of Education actually improved educational outcomes?
The left are totally aghast that President Trump’s plans to shut down the federal Department of Education are beginning to be put into action. “Students will suffer harm,” CNN told us, after department’s civil rights office was ‘gutted.’ Education professionals in Charlotte are “sounding the alarm,” “Ten percent of the district’s funding comes from the feds, used to pay for basic educational needs, staffing and professional development,” and “‘We really don’t know who, which department, what positions, who’s controlling what really, it’s up in the air right now,’ said Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Board Vice Chair Dee Rankin.” readers were told, which raises the obvious questions: why are local schools being partially funded by the feds, and why should the feds be controlling anything? NBC News told us that “Experts say this week’s mass layoffs could lead to less research and support for children with special needs.”
But perhaps, just perhaps, it should be asked whether the Department of Education was actually improving education. From The Philadelphia Inquirer:
Lower Merion led racial equity efforts in the ′90s. But its achievement gap has only widened.
Not everything has to be a federal government project!
Under our 47th President, the sensible people in charge are looking at all of the spending in which the federal government engages. With the FY2024 federal budget deficit at $1.83 trillion — that’s trillion, a thousand billion, or a million million dollars — and FY2025 possibly going to be more, the Trump Administration is taking a battle axe to spending where it can, because a battle axe is what is needed. Tiny little cuts by going over everything with a fine-toothed comb will never work, because there’s always some purportedly good reason to spend for someone’s pet project. The battle axe method is the right thing to do, and then, after that is done, we can check to see if anything truly essential was cut and needs to be restored.
Trump administration freezes $12 million meant to help Philly plant thousands of trees
A win for normality and common sense at Radnor High School
Radnor is a suburb of foul, fetid, fuming, foggy, filthy Philadelphia, straddling Delaware and Montgomery Counties, about 13 miles west of the city and part of the “Main Line” suburbs. Both were carried by then Vice President Kamala Harris Emhoff, by slightly over 60% of the vote, but slightly lower margins than the Democrats won in 2020. I expect the opinion columnists at The Philadelphia Inquirer to be outraged by this:
Radnor bans three books in response to a parent’s challenge, including ‘Gender Queer’
An ad hoc committee convened by Radnor’s superintendent reviewed three books, and determined by a 5-1 vote that the challenged books “are not age-appropriate for students.”
by Maddie Hanna | Tuesday, March 4, 2025 | 2:01 PM EST
Radnor High School has removed three books from its library, including Gender Queer and another LGBTQ-themed book, after a parent alleged they contained child pornography. Continue reading
Did Penn actually make a change, or are they just being more subtle about it? Discrimination on the down-low
The Philadelphia Inquirer’s liberal columnists will be aghast, upset, perhaps even spittle-flecking outraged at this, but my first reaction was: is the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine — named after a Jooooo, so I’m surprised that Penn’s pro-Hamas cabal hasn’t picketed it — really ending it’s “diversity, equity, and inclusion” programs, or is this just taking it out of the front window-box flower planters and bringing it into that part of the house where visitors don’t go?
Penn scrubs diversity initiatives from its website to comply with Trump order
‘Sanctuary’ policies could, and should, send those who obstruct justice to jail.
We do not normally use photos from The Philadelphia Inquirer, for copyright reasons, but this one is too important. For a newspaper which editorially supports significant immigration, maybe a picture of demonstrators in support of illegal immigrants might have thought harder about an image with three signs in Spanish.
Philly schools’ immigrant student population is booming. Advocates want the district to recommit to ‘sanctuary schools.’
The population of English learners in the Philadelphia School District is on the rise. Superintendent Watlington says he’s committed to ensuring students feel safe.
by Kristen A Graham | Monday, December 16, 2024 | 5:00 AM EST
At Franklin Learning Center, Michelle Ferguson’s students, all new arrivals to the U.S., are worried.
With President-elect Donald Trump promising stricter immigration laws and mass detention and deportation of immigrants, many students at the Philadelphia School District high school that draws English learners from around the city have shared their fears with Ferguson and other staff. Continue reading