Education

Improve Teacher Retention and Pay

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A teacher reads to a group of students at Andrew Hamilton school. A new report found that teachers in their first three years of teaching and teachers of color leave their jobs at higher rates than others. (Carly Sitrin/Chalkbeat)

Progress Updates

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Philly School District: Teaching jobs saved if Parker’s Uber tax passes,

(Inquirer) The Philadelphia School District will reverse its plan to eliminate 340 classroom-based jobs if Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s $1-per-trip rideshare tax passes, officials said Wednesday.

Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. has ordered the cuts in light of a $300 million structural deficit. In total, 148 teachers, 23 counselors, and 119 climate staff would lose positions as the district faces the end of federal COVID-19 relief funds and rising salary, benefit, and charter-school costs — and is unable to raise its own revenue.

“It means destabilizing our schools and in essence setting us back,” the mayor said Wednesday of the budget cuts as she touted her proposal to avoid them and lobbied for the new tax at a City Hall news conference.

Mayor Cherelle Parker wants to lower teacher attrition, in part to uphold educational quality and consistency for students in the Philadelphia School District. Here's some of what she's done so far on this front:

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