Were hearing the case that day appeared reluctant to, as they put it, micromanage how 10 billion in annual aid goes to the states 500 School Districts. So, heres what you have. Could this be a step in the right direction to close the imbalance, cause i think everyone pretty much agrees there is an imbalance here. Or is this a problem thats so complicated that you just have to blow the whole thing up . Ajay raju, ill look to you first because with the germination project that you do in the city, you talk to so many students out there. What do you think the situation is . Well, first, just a disclaimer. My law firm, dilworth paxson, argued on behalf of the legislators, and patrick northern, my partner, made the argument. So, i want to be careful about what i say, but let me talk as a person, not as a partner at dilworth paxson. I think generally, if you look at the funding inequity that happens, when you look at lessdeveloped neighborhoods versus the neighborhoods like baldwin, where baldwin and haverford or main line area is, the kids who go to like my kids, who go to baldwin or haverford, have private funding, meaning we give them piano teachers. We give them extra tutors. We give them, in general, often twoparent households and fewer social and other distractions. They go to school not hungry, but wellfed, wellclothed. When you think about the lowerincome neighborhoods and especially urban neighborhoods, where kids are coming in, theyre not just coming in for education. Theyre usually coming in hungry. Theyre dodging bullets on their way to school. The money that is needed to educate them is not just what you do in the classroom, but also the other things. So, if anything, it should be the other way around not 33 shortfall in funding, but more funding required to not just educate them but provide the social service that you need so they have competitive leg up so they start at the same starting block as my kids. You have a state that is always trying to scramble together funding for anything. That would require even more. So. But here theres 10 billion in state funding, right . Half of it goes to the 25 of the districts that are the poorest districts. Some are saying that instead of being 50 going to the poorest, it should be 60 . It does seem like that is a legislators decision to make that decision, not a judge, to be honest with you. And so, then you get into you talk about a town like lower merion, where theyve raised taxes 50 over the last 10 years and saying they dont have a surplus when theyve got millions of dollars in surpluses. One of the challenges for this whole educational debate is and it does shortchange certain kids in certain situations is fundamentally, this solid wall of infrastructure of the teachers unions, they dont want measurement. Why dont they want measurement . Because they think theyre not doing a good job. So, we cant really measure. We cant have schools. We cant have scores. You have all these work rules, et cetera. I believe theres enough money to educate our children if adults, though, have the courage to just say, heres how were gonna spend the money, and were not gonna waste it on ourselves, and were not gonna waste it on jobs that really dont exist, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, cause thats where the moneys going. Sharmain . Matt, i would argue that this is not just a pennsylvania problem. This is a National Problem in trying to figure out how to fund education. If you look at new jersey, you look at other states, theyre all grappling with this. We can certainly argue over how the money is being spent, and i absolutely disagree with brian. Im in schools. We are testing everything other than what time you come in in the morning. So, i dont think that theres a question of accountability now. I think the real question gets down to if you are in a district that has low realestate value, this is how much the local share is going to be. If youre in a district that has high realestate value, this is what youre ultimately able to make the shares. And the shares are always gonna be different. So, ultimately, the states have to decide, and i think people have gone to court because theyre saying, the legislature will not make a decision. We need the courts to intervene. And i think that clearly there needs to be a clear argument on both sides of that. But at the end of this, its about is the state responsible and shouldnt the state ultimately put the money on the table and for us to finally begin to move away from property taxes and really pay for the cost of education at the state level for every student . Im glad you brought that up, sharmain. Michigan, as im sure you all know, revamped its schoolfunding system back in 1994 and made it more based on state taxes rather than realestate taxes, which is the way it works in pennsylvania. Then there was a study this summer, many years later, saying that the disparity in michigan between wealthy and poor School Districts has widened even more and is getting wider. So, what do you think about that, ed . Ajay said something very important, and ill use the term of art Wraparound Services. The lower the income, the more likely you will need more comprehensive Wraparound Services because kids come from households where theyre not getting everything they need. One of the things that we dont discuss is how kids coming from singleparent situations wind up more at risk. We talk about it when it comes to funding but not when were trying to assess whats the best way to address the problem. That is very expensive. Its going to be there for a very long time. One thing that we have not done nearly as much as we should is to offer choice. We do it in Higher Education. Weve got the best Higher Education in the world because people get to exercise choice. Money tends to follow the consumer not so in primary and secondary. Thats why you have onethird, approximately onethird of the kids, who would be in philadelphia Public Schools have opted out. Theyre going to Charter Schools, or theyre going to catholic private schools even though theyre not catholic. Theyre taking other options because the parents are saying, while all of us as adults are debating this, this is my daughters only third grade or my sons fifth grade. I cant wait for this argument to get settled. And thats the reality of it. If you gave people more choices, youd have even fewer people going to the Public Schools. But its not an either or, and ive been a big part of the schoolchoice movement. I helped to found a Charter School in philadelphia. There still, though, are thousands of other kids who ultimately dont have those choices, and we cant sort of say, okay, theyre okay while were sort of helping part of the students. Weve got to try to figure out a system thats ultimately how about letting some of that tuition money go to the catholic system that is proven and has capacity . As a postscript, i do agree with brian that this is an issue that should be resolved by the legislature, not in courts, because we do have a system in place. Having said that, i also agree that while i think there should be Adequate Funding and even more funding for lowerincome neighborhoods, i think the problem sometimes is the middleman. I think how you spend the money is as big of a problem as whether or not well have enough money. Lets go to another issue thats sort of related to some of the schools around here. More and more players are taking a knee. The Colin Kaepernick protest has spread across the country, including in our region. A picture that we will see in a moment is of a Woodrow Wilson High School Football game, where all but two of the players knelt during the National Anthem. This is about a week and a few days ago. The School District says that no matter what the players choose to do, it is proud of their engagement, but, at the same time, the Camden Diocese sent a memo to School Administrators saying such behavior could lead to disciplinary action. Is this a correct venue, sharmain, to do this . I think absolutely that students have a right to be able to say, this is an issue that i want to be a part of. I think we all have fought for the ability for students and young people to be able to express themselves in this particular instance. It is a nonviolent protest. Even on 9 11, and im talking about kaepernick. Its a non when theyre honoring veterans. You can disagree with whether or not you think people should, but the question is, do they have the right to do it . And my answer is they have the right to do it. Its a nonviolent protest. And i dont understand why the kind of hate mail and saying that were going to students should be dismissed from school because they are expressing a particular point of view in a nonviolent way. I think its terrific. Ill tell you why i think its terrific. Because you can do this in our country because we have freedoms. You cant do it in putins russia, even though donald trump seems to think hes a great guy. You can do it here in america. Now, if i was on one of those teams, i wouldnt take a knee. Id be standing up and pointing to my rear end, because id want everybody to know i think these guys are jackasses, okay . I dont know if i can say it. But thats what id want to say because that would be my expression. Id be celebrating those on the knee. Id want to express how i feel. I wouldnt stand there silently. Id want them to know that i disagree. Thats what so great about the country. Ed, ajay . I think we fetishize protest in this country. And too many times we say and i mean no criticism of my colleagues. Too many times we say, its fantastic that we can do it here, and, therefore, its a good thing. Well, the act itself has some substance, or it should. And the problem is, theres a disconnect between the act and whatever it is that is being protested. Listen. Colin kaepernick got it wrong. When you listen to him speak, you say, mate, youre wrong on the facts. Now, does he have a right to do it . Of course he does, under the constitution. But so does the employer and everyone else if they decide that this isnt an act that brings us together. Its one that separates us. And oh, by the way, youre wrong on the facts of the issue that youre arguing. That should matter, as well. Id hate to question whether a high School Individual understands what he or she is doing in that moment, but im sure other people are going to say that. We were at Woodrow Wilson, and some of the children were saying, yeah, i understand what this is all about. In high school but thats what people are saying. Right, but in high school, i marched on the parkway, which is where the School District used to be, because of the fact that we felt there was not enough School Funding and that is different than not having respect for the flag. What do you want to say, ajay . Were talking about sunday football, which is essentially where consensual violence among business and multimillionaires happen, right . But for many people, millions of americans, sunday football is holier than church, and for them the sacraments of flatscreen tv and the nachos and others are the holy sacraments of that safe place. And when you do protest where they have a legitimate right to make that protest, remind them about how unholy sometimes our union can be. The fact that we have the right and the freedom to express that and say that we aspire to be holier, we aspire to be better, thats what the fundamental thing about america is. It may be disrespectful, but they have that right. Real quick. Reason we have that sunday getting together is because politics is out of it. The minute you introduce politics now were going to have a discussion as to what happened in ferguson or what Colin Kaepernick is thinking, the countrys not coming together. So, when were talking about concussions and the whole issue of concussions, theres no way that you can ultimately say that this is separated from what do concussions have to do with standing for the National Anthem . The owner of a team could say, just as the owner of any kind of business could say, i dont want you to wear that outfit. I dont want you to express this when people come into the mcdonalds, because thats my business. So, i think theres a real legitimate interest for it. But i do celebrate kaepernick, what hes doing. I just wish i was on that field cause i would love to celebrate how wrong he was. And well see how the nba responds to this because the season will be under way shortly, and well just see. The battle for pennsylvania donald trump is, like, hanging around our area all the time. He was in here a couple of times. His running mate, mike pence, was up in scranton. His son donald jr. Was in western pa. Then president obama held a big rally at the Philadelphia Art Museum for Hillary Clinton, who is recovering from her illness with pneumonia. Clinton will actually be campaigning in philadelphia tomorrow, on monday. Meanwhile bloomberg analysis found that pa out of the big rust belt states might be the most difficult for donald trump to win. Let me ask you this, brian. Is trumps focus on pennsylvania out of desperation or out of strategy . I think its out of strategy, and i think he sees that if he could win pennsylvania, this could be a milestone. And if the state looks like youre getting into late october, hes ahead, i think it sends a good message to everybody else. I can tell you. I was in business with donald trump. I was an investor, i should say, in one of his businesses. Nice enough guy, et cetera. And i voted for a republican for president every time since 1976. This man should not be president of the United States. Anybody who says that putin is a strong putin is killing people and putting them in jail Ronald Reagan would never have said, brezhnev is a really strong leader. I mean, he wouldnt have said that. So, i think americans, no matter what party or stripe you are and, again, i was in business with donald trump. As it came to that, thats fine. But the guy doesnt have the competency. He doesnt have the emotional intelligence. He says crazy things that could really be dangerous for our children. If Hillary Clinton could have been here, she would have. President obama was her surrogate. Just the fact that you see both campaigns in pennsylvania must mean its tight, according to their own polling, right . Well, of course. And i think we always knew that it was gonna tighten up. But if you look at the pure numbers, there are more democrats. There are probably about, if i saw the numbers correctly, about a half a million more democrats. And so, i think what she needs to do and what president obama and the other surrogates will do is to go into a couple places. One, they want to make sure they talk to young voters to make sure that those young voters are actually gonna turn out for them. And i think the other thing that theyre gonna pay a lot of attention to is make sure that some of the workingclass democrats do not ultimately vote republican and vote for donald trump. Okay, back to inside story in a few minutes. Dont go away. Inside story is presented by temple university. Remarkable change isnt easy, but for those who take charge, it comes naturally. Explore temples impact. Visit temple. Edu impact. Blinds to gos new motorized blinds and shades. Quiet. Convenient. And surprisingly affordable. Right now, take 25 off all motorised blinds and shades. Lifes just gotten a little bit easier. Blinds to go. Blinds for life. Idonald trump says he alone can fix the problems we face. Well i dont believe thats how you get things done in our country. It takes democrats and republicans working together. Thats how we got health care for 8 million kids. Rebuilt new york city after 9 11. And got the treaty cutting russias nuclear arms. Weve got to bring people together. Thats how you solve problems and thats what ill do as president. Blinds to gquiet. W motorized blinds and shades. Convenient. And surprisingly affordable. Right now, take 25 off all motorised blinds and shades. Lifes just gotten a little bit easier. Blinds to go. Blinds for life. Back with inside story. One of the most watched senate races oh, what could it be . The most Expensive Senate race in u. S. History, according to some. That would be the Mcginty Toomey race, and it has tightened. The latest Quinnipiac University poll has republican senator pat toomey at 46 , democratic challenger Katie Mcginty 45 , well within the margin of error, 3. 5 . Back last month, 6abc Franklin Marshall poll had mcginty up by 5 points. So, lets go around. Some of the big issues in this race tpp, gun control, trump, ties to wall street, ties to governor wolf. Do you think any of these issues are tipping the scales right here, or just people are paying more attention to this race . I think its difficult to try to figure out exactly any issues that are sort of working their way through, whether its at the president ial level or also at the United States senate level. Weve seen the commercials, and theres been some issues, i think, around the issues of gun, gun control. Ive heard some conversation around ties to wall street and whether or not thats ultimately gonna be an issue. But for right now, i dont see people really talking about issues. I hear more people talking about party and whether or not senator toomey is gonna ultimately work on behalf of pennsylvanians and sort of whatever that sort of means. Talk about party thats when toomey gets nervous because of the straight republican ticket, and they dont vote for trump, and then there he is. Yes and no. I think senator toomey probably has more crossover support with both democrats and republicans. I dont know if ms. Mcginty will have that among republicans. This will turn into a voterturnout issue how many people come in, whos energized, whos not. And if the discrepancy between trump and hillary was going to be so wide, that may have hurt toomey, but today the gap is narrowing. Its become a real race between a republican, a democrat typical senatorial race. I think its confusing for a lot of people, the ads. They all kind of sound and come together. I think what would be good for the country, and necessarily what is, is unfortunately that Hillary Clinton gets elected, cause she wouldnt be my pick, other than its either her or trump. And then you have to really hope that the republicans keep the senate and the house because that would give us at least stability for the next couple of years. And toomey could make or shake that. He could be a critical factor in that. Toomey defies a number of caricatures that his opponents are throwing at him, especially on the issue of guns. Hes got Gabby Giffords and bloomberg, michael bloomberg, supporting him. He had this attempt to reach across the aisle with joe manchin, where they actually had legislation that would have been consequential and took a beating from both parties because they didnt want that to happen for their own reasons. And i agree with sharmain that right now its hard to say where this is. The one issue that may come into play has to do with mcginty and her record early in the Wolf Administration. Theres an ad thats being run that points at her, and its mentioning contemporaneous comments that say she was harshly partisan. Shes a big reason why that budget didnt get done. And when she left, wolf was able to strike a deal. In fact, this time around, no mcginty, much faster deal on the budget. Now, you can dispute that, but the ads going to say that. And if toomey can point to temperament and say funny you mentioned that word, cause you want to talk about emails . Theres an email situation going on with this race, where the Republican Party is trying to get mcgintys emails from when she was chief of staff with the Wolf Administration. And the word is, the Wolf Administration is trying to run out the clock. And maybe itll release them after election day. Do you think theyre fishing here . Look. You want to see emails where the word wolf is in the email. You want to see emails where the word president barack obama come on. Of course its a fishing expedition. I do think, though, however, in looking at this race that the issues gonna be whether or not the democrats, as we get closer to election day, are gonna be able to convince voters that if Hillary Clinton seems to be moving in the right direction, and shes creating some space, whether or not she can make the case that we need a Democratic Senate in order to balance a Republican House so that we can ultimately have the ability to get some things done and create some compromises and hopefully move the country ahead. Will toomey make it to election day without having said he will support or not support donald trump . I think he will. Yeah. I think he will. I think pat toomey the mcginty folks are trying to make him that hes some hard right. Hes not. He reaches across the aisle with democratic senator manchin out of west virginia. He supported after very smart gun laws, et cetera. Hes like a tom ridgey kind of republican. Maybe a little bit more of an egghead kind of a person because thats kind of where he comes from, but i think its gonna be hard core. And i think hes gonna thread the needle and saying reasonably neutral things about trump and just trying to get through election day. Where would the race be if joe sestak became the nominee . Not as close. Yeah. You dont think so . No. No, i do think that there is some push because shes a woman. Weve talked about this before. Pennsylvania right now has no women in office at the federal level. And never had a female senator. And never had a female senator and doesnt have a female in congress right now. So, i think the idea that you can create some Energy Around the fact that if youre looking for real representation, we need to have women in power in our state. Election day is 50 days and some odd left, so, its coming up. Inside stories of the week coming up. Inside story is presented by temple university. Remarkable change isnt easy, but for those who take charge, it comes naturally. Explore temples impact. Visit temple. Edu impact. Inside stories of the week we start with sharmain. Yes. Coming this saturday, something really exciting is gonna happen in our country. The Smithsonian Museum of africanamerican history and culture is going to open, and we are really excited about it. Its taken a hundred years for this to happen, but sitting right on the mall in washington, d. C. , youre going to be able to learn a lot about american history, including africanamerican history, as well. I hope everybody will take a chance to go and see it. Thanks, sharmain. Brian . It looks terrific, and a philadelphiaborn architect is part of the design down there. Twenty years ago last week, Rebecca Rimel of the Pew Charitable trust, thengovernor ridge, thenmayor rendell announced a program to start to market the region to tourists. They each put some money in. And its had a tremendous impact. It started with the place that loves you back that campaign, which my agency did. Now its grown millions and millions and millions of dollars of economic benefit to the city. So, congratulations, meryl levitz and visit philly. Thanks, brian. Ajay . Matt, you talked about the germination project earlier. Ten contemporary artists donated works of art to our foundation, which we consigned to christies auction house. And on september 14th, christies auction house sold the works in their auction. We raised 300,000. All the proceeds to go to help close the disparity between underserved communities and people like us, who are a bit welloff, in terms of overall healthcare. Congratulations. Really a great effort. Thanks, ajay. Ed . Matt, news you can use from fbi director jim comey this week. For everybody at home, youve got your computer, your cellphone, your television. That little camera . Cover it up. Turns out that internet trolls, criminals, and even foreign governments are using this as a twowaycommunication device. Theyre looking in at us. The fbi director says at bureau headquarters, they cover that up. Be a good idea to do it at home. Thats inside story for this week. Well see you next week, and ill see you monday morning on im nydia han,. Im gray hall, Police Officers are targeted for the second time after a violent night on the streets of philadelphia. The feds are on the case after a pipe bomb detonates at a south Jersey Charity run. Get ready for the glitz and glamour, emmys are hours away, we have a sneak peek at the big show. Those stories and more next on action news. Good afternoon, it is sunday, september 18 im nydia han. And i am gray hall. Heres some of the stories were following on action news. Seven people are shot and philadelphia Police Officers come under fire during a violent night in the city. Were live. Plus, we are learning n
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