What passes for media these days

These patch.com sites are SO erratic in their content, mostly because they let anyone write for them. On the local Main Line site, this was written by Bob Guzzardi.

You remember Bob, don’t you? He was one of the owners of Philly’s VERY gay-friendly 12th Street gym, who caused a huge controversy when he made a fat donation to the very UN-gay-friendly Rick Santorum. He had to sell out his share as a result.

He’s a wingnut gadfly who focuses on supply-side economics and Israel.

Anyway, so he writes this piece attacking local Rep. Chaka Fattah for his work with CORE Scholars, complaining that Fattah gets earmarks for the organization. (At least, I think that’s what he’s saying. He’s a tad incoherent.)

I happen to know something about CORE because Fattah was one of the people running against the guy I worked for in the mayoral primary, and of course we oppo’ed the hell out of him. Short answer: this wingnut is (hard to believe, I know) just plain wrong.

CORE is a GREAT program. Really good. Here’s what they do:

College Opportunity Resources for Education (CORE) is a federal tax-exempt organization designed to provide promise scholarships and college prep assistance to high school students. Our scholarships are only applicable to students who reside in Philadelphia, for now.

CORE is a nonprofit initiative designed to unite communities around the goal of ensuring that all of our children have access to college. CORE was formed in September 2003 under the leadership of U.S. Congressman Chaka Fattah.

Our premier program, the CORE Promise Scholarship, is the first of its kind in the nation to offer all high school seniors – whether from the public, private, charter or parochial systems – in Philadelphia a unique opportunity to attend select Pennsylvania colleges and universities. Over the past eight years, CORE has awarded over 18,000 Philadelphia students a total of more than $27 million dollars. Of our original group of CORE Scholars, 51% ultimately graduated from college over six years. This is impressive to say the least in spite of the fact that Philadelphia’s college degree attainment rate is approximately 10% over ten years, according to the National Student Clearinghouse.