Amanda knows every school and every student in Philly deserves fully funded, safe, toxic-free schools in our neighborhoods.

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As a cafeteria worker in a neighborhood school, Amanda’s mom directly experienced the terrible conditions and divestment our students and educators universally suffer through. 

Amanda attended Christopher Columbus Charter School in South Philly and then went Central High School in Olney (270!) Central is public school with a robust and affluent alumni network that fills many of the gaps from years of neglect. But even that wasn’t enough. She and her classmates used decades old textbooks that were falling apart and drank from water fountains that had signs above them saying they were unsafe to drink. Even schools like Central, which is one of the top schools in the country, are grossly underfunded. Amanda is deeply grateful for Central’s alumni network but relying on a small group of well connected and wealthy alumni is a band aid at best and leaves behind not only students at CHS but students at every other school who are equally deserving of a high quality, well funded education.

 

As Councilmember, Amanda will:

 

• End the ten year tax abatement to redirect necessary funding to our public schools

• Organize and partner with the Home and Schools Council and the visionary work of Shakeda Gaines to hold the management of the school district accountable to serve our students.

• Collect Payments in Lieu of taxes from large universities

• Immediately remediate all toxic lead, asbestos and mold in our schools and remove rodents

• Invest in green energy transformation of our schools to fix poor ventilation and electrical systems. Repair our schools with union labor to remove toxic materials and to make them resilient in the face of climate change. 

• Support a full moratorium on charter schools and support legislation to hold existing charter schools accountable. 

• Reduce testing standards which put immense pressure on teachers, students, and parents and undermine true learning in favor of teaching for the test.

• Demand for an increase in opt out communication from the school district, to immediately reduce the harm of standardized testing