Daniel Denvir in the Philadelphia City Paper:
It appears that the $2 billion William Penn Foundation will cut funding to the Philadelphia Student Union, which organizes young people throughout city public schools. And so PSU needs your support.
“For 17 years our foundation partners have helped pay the salaries of our hardworking staff and keep the computers on in our media lab,” according to aPSU fundraising appeal. “As the City Paper has reported recently a foundation that has been one of our largest funders for over 10 years will probably not renew our funding this Fall. We’ve known this for some time and have planned and fundraised accordingly. We have a little over a year to replace this funder.”
Last month, City Paper reported that William Penn is taking a new direction under president Jeremy Nowak: raising millions to fund a controversial and corporate-minded restructuring plan authored by theBoston Consulting Group; while cutting funds to community and youth organizers who are critical of privatization.
My previous education cover story, “Who’s Killing Philly Public Schools?,” related how PSU led the fight against privatization and the state takeover in 2001 and what that means for the District’s current crisis.
