We need adequate support for public schools

With all of the discussions, these days, about charter schools in the Philadelphia area, I find myself reliving my own educational experiences as a kid in Philadelphia during the 1940s and 1950s. In those days, we kids had two choices. We either went to a public school, or our parents paid for us to go to a private school. Frankly, I consider myself lucky to have been a Philadelphia Public School student. I believe I was served well by my teachers at the Leidy and Mann Elementary Schools, at Beeber Jr. High School, and eventually, at Central High School.

 I could be wrong, but I get a sense that things are not quite as good as they used to be in Philadelphia, and I tend to think that the current existence of public supported private Charter Schools, has diminished the current educational experience for young Philadelphia students. The practices of the past are not, in all cases, better than what we now have, but when it comes to educating our children, I do prefer what we had in Philadelphia when I was a kid to what Philadelphia now has.