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 1,205^th 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^[1]This is the same reference for the previously given statistics; those statistics are no longer visible on the site.:

Edward Steel School is ranked 1193^th out of 1591 in Pennsylvania Elementary Schools and ranked 656^th 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. Read more about how we rank the Best Elementary Schools and Best Middle Schools. In the current rankings, 8% of students tested grade-level proficient in reading, and a tick upward, to 2% of students who scored at or above the proficient level for math.

Why do I bring this up now? From today’s Philadelphia Inquirer:

Some Philly schools aren’t able to offer kids much to do after school. At Steel Elementary, kids dream of playing on a team.

“A lot of these kids struggle behaviorally, and it shows in the classroom, and then you see how they show up in practice and it’s a different kid,” a Steel teacher said.

by Kristen A Graham | Tuesday, March 25, 2025 | 5:00 AM EST

It was a question Mark Macyk didn’t really know how to answer. His sixth grade students at Steel Elementary, in Nicetown, were forever asking: can we have a basketball team? What about volleyball?

Some schools have an embarrassment of riches: drama and coding, lacrosse and robotics, and Mayor Cherelle L. Parker has underscored the importance of offering programming after the bell rings. Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. and the school board have said one of their priorities is guaranteeing “every every student will have a well-rounded education with co-curricular opportunities, including arts and athletics, integrated into the school experience.”

But while 20 Philadelphia School District schools and five city charters now offer free before- and after-school programming, some have few opportunities after school, if any.

Steel is a small K-8 that doesn’t have families who can pay for extras, or find and apply for grants. It has a few clubs, but others have disappeared.

Reporter Kristen Graham never mentioned the school’s truly dismal academic ratings, though at one point she included:

In a city where gun violence and trauma are too common in kids’ lives, Sam McCullough, a Steel climate liaison and another team coach, said students need an outlet — especially those who struggle with academics or behavior.

Miss Graham gave readers a long article detailing the difficulties in establishing sports teams and other after-school activities. There is a general lack of facilities, and a lack of money. The clear message the reader is supposed to infer is that such things will eventually increase academic achievement, but that is never stated. I certainly do not dispute the idea that sports bring people together in schools, and that such togetherness can help group and individual academic achievement, but Miss Graham should have stated so much more clearly — her Twitter page shows that she’s a sports fan, at least of the Phillies — and detailed the Steel school’s dismal academic achievement.

As for Mrs Flaherty’s and the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers’ campaign pride in ‘saving’ the school from ‘going charter’, is this for what she saved it? There’s no guarantee that becoming a charter school would have made Steel school better, but it’s so close to the bottom now that it couldn’t have gotten much worse.

The left are complaining that the evil, reich-wing President Trump is attempting to destroy public education by ending the federal Department of Education, but Edward Steel Elementary and Middle Schools stand as a stark indicator that the federal DoE did absolutely nothing to improve public education in the United States. Perhaps, just perhaps, it’s time to end federal involvement in public education, period, and let the states, cities, and counties handle it. After all, they couldn’t do much worse.