Phila. Charter School Holds Lottery To Cut Enrollment
By Dan Wing
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A charter school in Northern Liberties held a lottery Thursday evening to determine which 250 children would be forced to leave the school and enroll elsewhere, due to a loss of about $300,000 per month in state money.
Parents packed into the Walter D. Palmer Leadership Learning Partners Charter School gymnasium waited anxiously to hear their child's name. For some, relief:
"My heart is still beating fast. I didn't want my kids back in the school district. So, yeah. I'm very happy," a parent said.
For others:
"I don't have money to just be throwing two, three hundred dollars around on uniforms, when he knew for a fact before school even started that we they were not going to have these kids a guaranteed spot in the school," another parent said.
After numerous legal fights with the city school district and state education officials, Dr. Walter Palmer says the school had no choice. Its funds were exhausted.
"I am hit with the dubious responsibility to do what is legally right and morally responsible, and that is to find a way to reconfigure our children to 675 children," Dr. Palmer said.
A number of charter and catholic schools were on hand, offering information to parents searching for a new school. An official with the School District of Philadelphia was also on hand, to discuss public school options. But for many parents, that was little consolation.
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