> good for Jalen
Good for Jalen, and an absolute fuck up by the politicians and tax payers. $200k is a drop in the bucket for a city budget. Not a heartwarming story, but Jalen's great for this. Any time a player makes a donation like this the owner of the team and the city should be embarrassed.
Yeah like when Joel Embiid paid workers for the Wells Fargo center who were laid off by the owners during COVID. And Harris was so embarrassed he had to change policy.
Highly paid, but still nothing compared to owners, athletes doing good and embarrassing the rich into being forced to act is truly leveraging your position for good.
While I agree with your general sentiments, it's worth noting that there *are* other people working to address it. Hurts and other athletes have arguably the easiest solution because they can directly donate $$ for AC units but for the money to come from the state, there's a lot more that goes into it than writing checks.
This [article](https://www.chalkbeat.org/philadelphia/2023/4/26/23698251/philadelphia-school-facilities-crisis-construction-renovation-authority-thomas-building-asbestos/) is a good read about how last year was best opportunity to fix schools given the State's education budget surplus but the big hurdle is going to be getting that $ approved, especially since Harrisburg doesn't exactly look at Philly schools with much concern.
It's always great to see Hurts and other athletes do real philanthropy but it's also important to remember that there are people on the ground working to address these issues throughout the year
I imagine having the money donated with the explicit intent to spend on something like AC units basically "removes" much of the difficulty of the process that comes from allocating funds? I mean you still have to solicit bids for the units and installation work I imagine, but you know the money is fixed with a certain goal.
I feel like I've also heard that sometimes the donated money is too stringently defined and basically leads to surplus that could get spent somewhere else useful, but I'm not sure how often that actually happens.
Absolutely true, My unconditioned classroom in a pa rural school, so usually a little cooler than Philly, would get up to 100 degrees pretty regularly at the start and end of the year. Basically couldn't teach the afternoon classes and had to buy 5-6 box fans to create some sort of meaningful air current to literally stop kids from passing out.
You wouldn't be surprised to learn that attendance dipped significantly when it was going to be hot.
Hey Mr. Scott, whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do to make our dreams come true! Hey Mr. Scott, whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do, make our dreams come true!
Haha I'm in HVAC too. Long long before I was though, I had a condo that had this big assessment and part of that was the replacement of the chiller. When I saw how much that was going to cost I was flabbergasted. Economies of scale didn't apply when this was going to be twice the cost of simply giving everybody a window mount AC unit (which would have been not as nice of course).
Yeah, our units aren't cheap.
my district is trying to pass a millage, and I made the mistake of looking on NextDoor to see what people were saying
the amount of people who have ZERO idea of how taxes work, how different levels of jurisdictions and levels of government work...purely astounding
They also fail to grasp that the past 40 years of tax cuts for businesses and the rich is what has led to them footing more and more of the bill.
People don’t appreciate that shit costs money and that money has to come from somewhere.
Then they complain when things start deteriorating or they actually need something for the first time and it’s not there.
A good many don't want any public money spent on anything that doesn't benefit them _right now_. You can argue the benefits of an educated society, or how parks improve liveability and house prices, or any number of things, but they do not care unless they are using that program right now.
It takes a logical leap that many refuse to take to understand that better schools equates to lower crime rates.
There’s also a concerted effort to villainize public education at all levels, and it’s especially heinous when it’s coming from the people who get to decide how money is spent.
> People don’t appreciate that shit costs money and that money has to come from somewhere.
Perfect example was the town I grew up in. They had this deal worked out where everyone paid literally a couple of dollars a month on their city trash/water/sewer bill and fully funded the ambulance service.
Someone eventually pitched a fit and it snowballed into removing the fee, which of course screwed everyone else who ever needed emergency transport.
> Then they complain when things start deteriorating or they actually need something for the first time and it’s not there.
Schools being underfunded can cascade into entire neighborhoods deteriorating.
Basically
1) Schools get underfunded because people refuse taxes
2) Schools then lose teachers and other programs leading to lower educational standards.
3) Young parents see school ratings and don't buy houses in that district. Hell some might even straight up move out and away eventually.
4) Because young professionals no longer want to be in the district housing prices tend to lag, local businesses get less traffic, etc
5) Steps 2-4 repeat until all the old retired people go "What happened to our neighborhood, it used to be such a nice place!" unironically completely ignoring they are the ones who set their own downward spiral path.
I’ve seen the opposite happen a lot in my area. Good schools lead to a lot of demand for housing. My hometown was mostly white/Jewish, with some Asians (like myself), but now that young Asian parents got the word that the schools were good, the elementary schools are about to become majority Asian. I read about a private equity fund whose whole algorithm is just buying houses in areas where the school districts are rising in the rankings… which is pretty gross but makes sense, financially.
It's wild whenever people act like it would be the downfall of America if we increased taxes for corporations or the extremely wealthy. Anyone who can read a graph can see that those tax rates are currently at a near 100-year low already.
One of the biggest hoodwinks was managing to convince most of the USA that things like small businesses, monopolies, healthcare, insurance, etc. aren't part of the "economy". When people talk about the "economy" they just talk about inflation and the price of gas really.
Paying schools via property tax is a Segregationist "innovation". It was created to go around Brown v BoE and is highly successful.
By changing to a property tax model and drawing district lines on racial boundaries, they were able to keep non-white schools underfunded. And the scheme was approved by a SCOTUS recently packed with Segregationist sympathizers by Nixon. They claimed the scheme wasn't racist because the laws never mentioned race, which is highly dubious. Once SCOTUS approved it, the model quickly spread throughout the rest of the US. It also allowed states to be as racist as they want, just so long as they don't actually say out-loud they're being racist.
And now all these people complain about their property tax.
This isn't how school funding works in essentially the entire US, and it hasn't been that way for decades.
Yes, schools do receive funding from property taxes, but they also receive funding from the state and federal Government as well. In the majority of instances, schools in wealthy areas get the majority of their funding from local property taxes, and very little from the state and federal government. Meanwhile, it's the reverse for schools in poor areas: they receive most of their funding from state and federal, and a tiny percentage of it from local property taxes.
New Jersey is a good example of this (and generally considered one of the better school systems). There, local taxes in Camden (which is very poor) only account for 3% of the school budget; 92% of their funding comes from the state. Compare that to Princeton, NJ (a much wealthier area), and they only get 16% of their school budget from the state, and local taxes pay for 75% of the school budget. It's also worth noting that if you base it on per-pupil spending, we spend more per kid in Camden than we do in Princeton.
https://www.nj.com/education/2017/05/the_50_school_districts_that_spend_the_most_per_pu.html
But it's not just Jersey. Across the US, on average, students in poor areas receive the same or more funding as kids in rich areas.
https://www.justfactsdaily.com/the-school-funding-inequality-farce/
https://www.educationnext.org/progressive-school-funding-united-states/
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2017/05/25/do-school-districts-spend-less-money-on-poor-and-minority-students/
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2018-02-27/in-most-states-poorest-school-districts-get-less-funding
"Nationwide, per-student K-12 education funding from all sources (local, state, and federal) is similar, on average, at the districts attended by poor students ($12,961) and non-poor students ($12,640), a difference of 2.5 percent in favor of poor students."
"We find that, on average, poor and minority students receive between 1-2 percent more resources than non-poor or white students in their districts, equivalent to about $65 per pupil."
(ignore the title of the last link. If you actually read it, it even points out that poor students on average receive the same or more funds, it simply argues that the distribution is "inequitable").
Of the top 5 places in the US with the highest per-pupil spending, every single one of them are in areas where black people are a disproportionate % of the population, and in 2 of them (Atlanta and Baltimore), they're over 50% of the population. https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2020/school-system-finances.html
Step 1: RAH taxes are evil they can't tax business owners like that!!!
Step 2: How dare they raise our taxes??? Grrrr
Step 3: I don't understand why the schools don't have money, does our government do nothing????
It probably varies state to state somewhat, but I’d argue that they tend to fuck over both the cities and rural areas (in different ways and for different reasons) and affluent suburbs tend to get more than their fair share.
It can—perhaps counterintuitively—actually cost more, per capita, to serve rural areas due to access and supply chain issues. There’s also often the need to incentivize skilled labor to live and work in these areas that aren’t otherwise attractive.
Look at what’s happened to state hospitals in rural areas over the past 20 years (it’s not good).
I'm not saying that Cities need the exact proportional amount they put in, because economies of scale are a thing and rural towns/counties should still be able to have modern infrastructure and such even if they can't afford it, but they also shouldn't be sending legislators to state congress who want all taxes slashed and for the cities to be squeezed.
As for rural health, I *definitely* agree with you there, but that's also a tricky topic in that if the Government is going to subsidize rural hospitals to *that* degree, why are we not just doing public healthcare rather than over subsidizing a hospital network to stay in a region?
and then people complain "all the tax money is going to to the city"
I love when downstate Illinois people think they should get rid of Chicago. Or when rural red states want to secede. Bitch where you think your funding comes from!?
I hear that about Boston all the time. Where do people think the majority of tax revenue comes from? It comes from the large populations centers, like cities!
"I'm not giving the government my money, they don't know how to use it, look at what little they can achieve with what they get now..... oh also corporations need more money to be able to innovate duh, not their fault"
> the amount of people who have ZERO idea of how taxes work, how different levels of jurisdictions and levels of government work...purely astounding
The older you get, the less astounding it becomes. Nobody fucking bothers to learn how anything works. If they did, we might actually do something about it.
But no, we better focus our efforts on culture wars instead. Why help people when you can hurt them instead?
"Schools need to be better funded!"
"Ok well here's a new tax proposal that will let us pay for these improvements."
"Woah, woah, who said anything about taxes??"
This is why I deleted all my social media, and I'm living life like a hermit with its head in the ground. Except Reddit. I still have this, but honestly, even Reddit is becoming exhausting to me with all the whining.
Voting yes on a millage for the school district in which I live was the easiest vote I’ve ever made. Not only does it benefit my kids, but it helps to nourish an educated society. How can anyone not want that?
Philly spends $22k per student which is higher than every OECD country's elementary and secondary 2019 average except for Luxembourg. US was fifth at $15.5k, also behind Norway, Austria, and S Korea.
Edit: [This is my source. If I am misinterpreting the data or there is something baked into the numbers that I am missing that makes the comparison illegitimate, I am genuinely all ears.](https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cmd/education-expenditures-by-country)
The Philly data is per their new $4.5 billion budget which as noted elsewhere in the thread, is a 5.3% annual increase and an even more dramatic increase from their prior budget.
People just say things. US schools are underfunded is a meme completely unreflective of reality. The way the money is spent, well.... that's another story
About 5 years ago, my school district raised $6.7 million dollars to put into a fieldhouse at the high school so fucking big, it's never been more than 60% used at one time.
It has 7 basketball/volleyball courts to go along with the 5 we previously had.
Yet, the school district bitches year after year about the outdated classrooms. Maybe you could have built a 4-5 court field house and took the other $3.3 million and put it into the classrooms!
I get that athletics and fitness are really important for kids but yeah... over-investment in *competitive* sports seems like a gross misuse of funds for most schools. Especially when like maybe 1 out of 100 kids might expect to get an athletic scholarship, whereas we can hope that ~all of our kids become smart, productive members of society
The problem is if you get given money, it has to be spent as the giver wishes. So plenty of times schools are kinda hamstrung sometimes, since they have to listen.
> It has 7 basketball/volleyball courts to go along with the 5 we previously had.
I wonder if they are able to lease those courts out to sports camps in the summer and/or weekends as a source of revenue?
I’m convinced that the amount your parents give a shit is the biggest determinant of educational outcomes. You can’t just throw money at schools without acknowledging that lots of kids don’t have parents that prioritize their education.
People also have a terrible understanding of what is and isn't waste spending. Our last referendum was a few months ago and people said that our superintendent was paid too much, nearly 300k a year, despite the fact that it's the fucking superintendent, who manages 7 buildings, two thousand employees, and oversees the operations of a couple thousand kids and all the bullshit government bureaucracy throws at you.
There are smaller organizations in my private sector job where the director is paid more than these supers.
Thank you for this. All the people whining that 'people who don't want to raise taxes are destroying our education system!' seem to be conveniently ignoring the fact that school systems are being funded at unprecedented levels yet still performing worse than ever.
My school district in the upper middle class suburbs (aka one where the homes have a higher rate of financial and family stability, lower population, and land is cheaper) requires less infrastructure and have less at-risk kids than the impoverished communities. Making the schools better is a two pronged effort - actually fund the schools, and create overall economic stability in the surrounding community. One is easy, one is very hard. And even with that, we still had to struggle to get more funding to get our day to day operations up to snuff. There's still a lot of work that we need to do and a lot of equipment that needs repairing and we don't have funding for. Philly and Baltimore spend a whole lot of money on the schools because they have more problems with the older buildings, more kids, and also need to accomodate for the larger amount of at home issues that stem from poverty and America's segregated past. Its a very complex, multi faceted issue.
Hard to parse and I'm not seeing the distinction in the source but important to see spending per student in a district/city/country with the pay of district administrators removed. Obviously there is some value to higher level district administrators but education funding and the amount of funding that actually reaches a classroom/building are important to look at.
This is my big gripe. Superintendent pay/perks that are rivaling some CEO packages, umpteen “administrators” who haven’t actually spoken to a student in 25 years yet make 6 figures with gold plated benefit packages, etc.
One of the reasons why schools are expensive is that schools have to compete with the US labor market, which isn't cheap.
And for the most part, the advanced technology that has allowed businesses to slim down labor doesn't exist for schools. Think how many employees a typical McDonald's used to have. Now, you have to order on the app or on some kiosk. You can't outsource teachers. You can't have a kiosk teach children.
So comparatively, yes, education will cost more than in the past.
Was talking to my local school board rep (who I happen to work with) the other day. What I learned:
* Funding is basically determined at the state level
* Tax increases are capped: if property values in our district increase greater than a certain amount, they must lower rates in order to cap the total revenue increase
* If our taxes bring in more money than the state has basically budgeted for us to spend, the excess gets Robin Hooded away to other districts
* Spending is targeted at low performing and special-interest districts
* As a result of the above, our suburban district gets more than $1000 less funding per student than rural or inner-city districts
* Because of said underfunding, our facilities are slowly deteriorating because we can basically only afford the necessities/operating costs, and not necessarily the capital costs required to update our half-century-old school buildings
* Also, as a side note, our best teachers are capped in terms of pay (no incentive pay for better teachers allowed), so their only opportunity for more money lies in becoming course instructors, then assistant principals, then principals
* Going on that path removes our best teachers from the classroom, and by the time you make assistant principal/principal, you haven't interacted with kids in years
* Course instructors are loved by superintendents but not loved by teachers, who don't feel like they get much value out of the course instructors
* Additionally, course instructors pull teachers from classrooms to train them, which further depletes actual teaching resources
* There is a large amount of resistance to having course instructors perform training in the classroom, as well as a large amount of resistance to having course instructors, assistant principals, and principals dedicate some portion of their time to teaching to remain connected to the classroom
Honestly, sounded like a fucking nightmare.
Lots of private schools are doing just fine. And they want to suck even more money out of public schools with voucher programs, the GOP's only approved means of wealth redistribution.
conversely, you'll find an excess of people who complain about crime, underfunded schools and extracurriculars, and undereducated kids, and not wanting to pay taxes because the school is underfunded, the kids don't want to be there, and they don't have any kids going to school anymore.
but that's only half of the problem. My school district in the upper middle class suburbs (aka one where the homes have a higher rate of financial and family stability, and land is cheaper) requires less infrastructure and have less at-risk kids than the impoverished communities. Making the schools better is a two pronged effort - actually fund the schools, and create overall economic stability in the surrounding community. One is easy, one is very hard.
>The philadelphia school system projects a $407 million deficit in its $4.5 billion spending plan. - Dec 7, 2023.
10 years ago the budget was $2.5B, so it's almost doubled in 10 years and it's still not enough.
Well the cost per student is $23K for 2024 for an education where most kids can't pass a standardized math test. Does that sound like a great deal now? Should it be $40K per year per student for an average public school education? Basically private school prices for way worse outcomes.
>In 2021-22, the proficiency rates were 34.7% in English, 16.2% in math, and 37.1% in science (Phiadelphia school district totals)
You should add a little perspective: Public schools are education of last resort for the most downtrodden and unsupported youth in the country. Schools have to handle *all* of the consequences of cyclical poverty, institutional bigotry, and horrifically mauled communities. They aren't working with two-parent, high income, socially stable youth with supervision and parental expectations. Naturally, in my book, this implies that the cost of educating students is going to be *higher* than your standard private school education because it has to cover far, far more about a child's life than just education. Food, life experience training, guidance and psychological counseling, a far, far higher ratio of learning disabilities and working youth...
At the same time, urban tax bases continue to struggle in the face of capital flight. Folks who *can* move out of these poor districts do so, harming the whole process of taxation and spending on students. Conversely, the *good* public education environments often use municipal tax burdens as basically an income barrier to keep their student populations lower and therefore classroom size and facilities needs more stable. In comparison, most urban districts are burdened by having assets *far* exceeding their current needs because of mid-century buildup in urban cores, and those assets need far, far more maintenance than stuff built after the '90s. This is a good example of that. This AC problem is a global warming one, exacerbated by Philadelphia schools having an average building age well over 35 years.
Practically, the solution shouldn't *just* be investing in school district budgets (though that helps). General poverty remediation, housing investment, work and labor reform, prison and judicial reform, early childhood education and parental support tools, community unification and creating pathways through education for personal betterment, a rationalization of regional tax rates to help manage natural economic migration...
Nope been short officers for years (at least from the budget)
>(2022)Philadelphia's Police Department Is Short 1,300 Officers
Aug 29, 2022 — All told, the force is already some 1,300 officers short of its full complement of 6,380
>(2024)The department said it is currently short more than 800 officers. "We're looking to get out there, get in the field with officers on foot and bikes," Captain John Walker said. "But, we can't do that if we don't have the people."Jan 8, 2024
Funding isn't the issue with school districts in America. Our local, state, and federal leaders are so incompetent and corrupt that it causes our institutions to consistently be inefficient and have issues.
4.5 billion for a school district is insane. I'm sure it's not directly comparable but Calgary is roughly the same size and the public school budget is about a billion. Teachers make good money too
Philadelphia government is famously corrupt and has been for a long long time. No idea if he's still on the council, but years ago there was a member that would never show up to a meeting unless they were voting on a contract one of his friends' businesses could get.
The problem is how old the buildings are, it's the same issue here in CT. In the suburbs they just tear the old building down and build a 50* million dollar new highschool, cities like Philly don't have that luxury
Yeah, that was my thought initially. But the article said the money will be used for 300 classrooms. That comes out to $666/classroom. Sounds like [portable](https://www.homedepot.com/p/Whynter-NEX-12-000-BTU-Portable-Air-Conditioner-Cools-600-Sq-Ft-with-Invertor-Dehumidifier-Wifi-Enabled-in-White-ARC-1230WN/318926775) units.
/u/fenris_maule
It is boiling in Philly in the summers, that's great from Jalen!
I just wish he didn't have to do this and the state/city had handled it, but funding issues...
My high school in Philly did not have central air or window units. It was all fans and keeping the windows open, and half the windows you couldn’t even open because they were so old. Only good part of that was it was a sign that school was almost over for the year
This is how I grew up in Pennsyltucky. My school campus was in the middle of a cattle field, and the farmer had a grudge against the school district for annexing part of his land for school use.
90 degrees and humid, windows open, and fresh manure spread during school hours by the disgruntled old farmer. Even the young ladies graduated with a brass pair after that experience.
Thankfully my high school had AC, but my elementary school in Pennsyltucky was originally a two room brick schoolhouse that had a long wing put on. 4th and 5th grade didn't have AC since they were in the old part. It was awful.
I'm not even sure the rest of the school had AC though. I remember my class was so big it needed a 3rd group (usually it was only 2 separate classes for grades, so class 1-1 and class 1-2, we needed 1-3), our 3rd class used to use a modular trailer that had AC in it and everyone hoped to get that class.
[What most people don't realized about Philly is that it has the same climate classification as the rest of the US Southeast Region \(hot and humid\).](https://www.plantmaps.com/koppen-climate-classification-map-united-states.php)
Having lived in both Philly and TX, the only difference in the summer is that Philly does get cool at night, while TX can be still in the 90's (F).
We broke a record here last winter — we’d gone nearly two full years without measurable snow. While growing up, we’d get a good foot at least monthly. Now we see 100 degree days every summer and winters are in the mid 40s/50s. The climate here has changed dramatically in the last 30 years.
Thats interesting. Yeah it can get very hot here. Probably more so than most would think. It hit 89 yesterday which is crazy for april. But it does get cold s well which is nice in the summer but not great in winter. One year about 9 yrs go it was getting around 0 some days. But usually it doesnt go lower than high teens.
There aren't funding issues. There are issues with the fundamental measures of success that our government/economics prioritizes.
If the school district operates at the smallest financial loss possible, that's a success.
If kids have comfortable rooms to learn in, that is not a success.
You're sadly correct.
So many high schools and colleges around the country are removing the arts because they don't make enough money, for example. The college my mom taught at for decades, well, there's no longer any music or theater programs/departments there.
Actually, I refuse to step foot in Kensington, but yes, I have.
Funny story about Kensington. A friend from childhood was living in NYC, and thinking about moving to Philly unbeknownst to me. So he and his wife saw this listing for a great looking condo for only 90k. They didn't/couldn't see anything wrong with it, so they drove down to Philly to see it. Predictably, it was in Kensington and they got to see addiction at its finest.
When they told me the story, I stopped them as soon as they told me the price and asked if it was in Kensington.
The funny thing is that place might turn into a crazy investment opportunity.
There’s a conspiracy (and historical precedent) that the city allows the open-air drug market to drive locals from the neighborhood, and after property values tank, the city co-ops with contractors to buy it all cheap, level the neighborhood, and rebuild new and swanky apartments and coffee shops. Dishonest gentrification. See: Fishtown and NoLibs.
Quinta's budget for guest stars has to be CRAZY. Bradley Cooper for absolutely no reason. I didn't realize it was Rob Belushi as the marketing guy in the Eagles episode until it was almost over.
She's just doin it cause she can now. I mean why not?
I gotta think it gets easier with how popular the show is and in Cooper's case, it's Philly! Quinta being so lovable and highly regarded in her own right, is also a plus.
Wasting money on administrators and no-bid contracts.
Last year they passed a budget that works out to $22,800 per student per year.
We have to "rely" on people like Hurts because the system is broken and any attempts to fix it gets painted as hating children and education.
After filtering through the school admin requirements and union labor requirements Jalen hurts was able to use that money provide air conditioning for one teachers lounge.
A school I went to in NY had no AC. the district offices were in the school in a part closed off to students—but the only elevator on that floor was in the district office so when I blew my knee out I had to use the elevator. Quickly realized there was AC in the district office. I always had LOTS of volunteers to help carry my books bc everyone wanted to walk through the AC.
cool that we can send trillions to arms dealers to kill more people overseas but not 200,000 to make sure our kids aren't dying of heatstroke.
what a normal country.
With how much money is wasted in the US in general, how are we not able to come up with $200k for air conditioning in schools. Like how is it on Jalen Hurts to make that happen?
Oh I can answer this one! It's because if the government tried to put in $200k worth of ACs, it would've cost like $1.6b.
$200k for the ACs and another $1.4b to the CEOs of the HVAC companies and the state representatives from Philly of course. Also it would take 11 years to pass and another 6 years for installation.
"Also it would take 11 years to pass and another 6 years for installation."
Yes. This part. It's *amazing* in the *worst way possible* how much protocol and procedure there is. Unless, of course, someone "important" is inconvenienced.
I have a cousin who worked for MDOT that said certain projects would take literally years to even get approved. And then there was a turn from an off ramp that a government official got stuck at "too long" waiting to turn left and they put a traffic light in immediately.
That's funny a Michigander responded bc as I was writing that post I was thinking that no where is that statement more true than with MDOT.
I lived in Michigan for a lot of years, and what you guys still have to deal with in regards to the roads is legitimately insane. I remember while I was there, a somewhat busy 2 laned road, not a highway or anything, was just adding another lane on both sides for a few miles. They had signs up during the project that said the estimated completion time was like 2027 lol. This was pre-pandemic. Like, nearly a decade of construction lol
This is like the 10th time Ive heard this in the past two weeks. It is a fantastic story and shows a lot about Jalen’s character, if it even needed to be further shown how much of a good dude he is.
Outrageously based, people think because when they were younger they dealt with heat stroke everyone has to. I'm pretty sure studies show actual percentage in grade difference
Duuuude I went to school in a relatively wealthy district and we STILL never had decent AC. This is gonna make him a HERO among Philly kids, especially those of us who tend to run warm lol
It's crazy to me that there are schools without air conditioning, that 200k can make a huge difference for, and we have scum sucking useless pieces of shit with hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars that won't do jack shit about it.
Awesome on him to see a problem and put his money toward it, but why the fuck aren't we using taxes to take care of our god damn schools? Nope, can't use taxes for that, we'll just have to wait for a millionaire to give a shit.
This is one of the few educational adjustments that actually leads to better student outcomes, good for Jalen
When he’s on, he’s electric. I love watching a good player embarrass his opponents (local governments that strangle public schools budgets)
Just like an air conditioner
When he’s off, the Eagles find themselves in a sticky situation
When he's off, the fans get loud
If he’s off this season, sirianni will be in the hot seat
Cool!
> good for Jalen Good for Jalen, and an absolute fuck up by the politicians and tax payers. $200k is a drop in the bucket for a city budget. Not a heartwarming story, but Jalen's great for this. Any time a player makes a donation like this the owner of the team and the city should be embarrassed.
Yeah like when Joel Embiid paid workers for the Wells Fargo center who were laid off by the owners during COVID. And Harris was so embarrassed he had to change policy. Highly paid, but still nothing compared to owners, athletes doing good and embarrassing the rich into being forced to act is truly leveraging your position for good.
I hadn't heard of that, what a badass move.
I think Zion also did this is in NOLA
While I agree with your general sentiments, it's worth noting that there *are* other people working to address it. Hurts and other athletes have arguably the easiest solution because they can directly donate $$ for AC units but for the money to come from the state, there's a lot more that goes into it than writing checks. This [article](https://www.chalkbeat.org/philadelphia/2023/4/26/23698251/philadelphia-school-facilities-crisis-construction-renovation-authority-thomas-building-asbestos/) is a good read about how last year was best opportunity to fix schools given the State's education budget surplus but the big hurdle is going to be getting that $ approved, especially since Harrisburg doesn't exactly look at Philly schools with much concern. It's always great to see Hurts and other athletes do real philanthropy but it's also important to remember that there are people on the ground working to address these issues throughout the year
I imagine having the money donated with the explicit intent to spend on something like AC units basically "removes" much of the difficulty of the process that comes from allocating funds? I mean you still have to solicit bids for the units and installation work I imagine, but you know the money is fixed with a certain goal. I feel like I've also heard that sometimes the donated money is too stringently defined and basically leads to surplus that could get spent somewhere else useful, but I'm not sure how often that actually happens.
Temporary delay to the orphan crushing machine celebrated by all
The city had to cough up $190M a couple decades ago for the stadium.
And yet it's the players, not the owner, who has to give kids basic comfortability in schools in the richest country on the planet.
Absolutely true, My unconditioned classroom in a pa rural school, so usually a little cooler than Philly, would get up to 100 degrees pretty regularly at the start and end of the year. Basically couldn't teach the afternoon classes and had to buy 5-6 box fans to create some sort of meaningful air current to literally stop kids from passing out. You wouldn't be surprised to learn that attendance dipped significantly when it was going to be hot.
This is awesome, especially considering the last guy only gave them laptop batteries.
Hey Mr. Scott, whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do to make our dreams come true! Hey Mr. Scott, whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do, make our dreams come true!
Of all the empty promises I’ve made, that was *by far* the most generous!
The world needs a sitcom about a sports team ran by a Michael Scott type.
We already have the Dallas Cowboys
If you would have said buster bluth, I would have pointed you towards the bears
They were lithium!
Philly and batteries go hand in hand
Only long enough to aim
Johnson Controls has reported that this will pay for one condenser replacement on a roof top unit
As an HVAC rep for another manufacturer, this isn't far off hahaha
Haha I'm in HVAC too. Long long before I was though, I had a condo that had this big assessment and part of that was the replacement of the chiller. When I saw how much that was going to cost I was flabbergasted. Economies of scale didn't apply when this was going to be twice the cost of simply giving everybody a window mount AC unit (which would have been not as nice of course). Yeah, our units aren't cheap.
Yeah I was gonna say I hope whatever school this is going to is tiny as shit. Good on him though
The money is being used to purchase 300 portable air conditioners.
"We are so happy to receive these 200 portable units" - Philly school system
"The 100 brand new units will be such a blessing to the children" - Superintendent
"Fuck them kids. The 1 unit goes in the staff breakroom."- The Principal.
Alternate headline: Philadelphia Schools Rely on Quarterback's Donation Because of Underfunding
Unfortunately, I think you would be hard pressed to find any large school district that isn’t badly underfunded
my district is trying to pass a millage, and I made the mistake of looking on NextDoor to see what people were saying the amount of people who have ZERO idea of how taxes work, how different levels of jurisdictions and levels of government work...purely astounding
They also fail to grasp that the past 40 years of tax cuts for businesses and the rich is what has led to them footing more and more of the bill. People don’t appreciate that shit costs money and that money has to come from somewhere. Then they complain when things start deteriorating or they actually need something for the first time and it’s not there.
100%. The money is there, it just continuously goes to businesses and the rich and not normal people. We could easily have a very strong middle class.
It's sort of what capitalism is predicated on, for better or for worse Not that it's ever for the better
System working as intended. It's better for some people. Not my ass, though. I'm a fucking teacher. Edit for clarity; I don't teach fucking.
> I don't teach fucking. i have two jokes to make about this: a.) Then what's the point of you? b.) I would hope not.
They have a 4 billion dollar budget and no ac, it's being embezzled...
A good many don't want any public money spent on anything that doesn't benefit them _right now_. You can argue the benefits of an educated society, or how parks improve liveability and house prices, or any number of things, but they do not care unless they are using that program right now.
It takes a logical leap that many refuse to take to understand that better schools equates to lower crime rates. There’s also a concerted effort to villainize public education at all levels, and it’s especially heinous when it’s coming from the people who get to decide how money is spent.
> People don’t appreciate that shit costs money and that money has to come from somewhere. Perfect example was the town I grew up in. They had this deal worked out where everyone paid literally a couple of dollars a month on their city trash/water/sewer bill and fully funded the ambulance service. Someone eventually pitched a fit and it snowballed into removing the fee, which of course screwed everyone else who ever needed emergency transport.
> Then they complain when things start deteriorating or they actually need something for the first time and it’s not there. Schools being underfunded can cascade into entire neighborhoods deteriorating. Basically 1) Schools get underfunded because people refuse taxes 2) Schools then lose teachers and other programs leading to lower educational standards. 3) Young parents see school ratings and don't buy houses in that district. Hell some might even straight up move out and away eventually. 4) Because young professionals no longer want to be in the district housing prices tend to lag, local businesses get less traffic, etc 5) Steps 2-4 repeat until all the old retired people go "What happened to our neighborhood, it used to be such a nice place!" unironically completely ignoring they are the ones who set their own downward spiral path.
I’ve seen the opposite happen a lot in my area. Good schools lead to a lot of demand for housing. My hometown was mostly white/Jewish, with some Asians (like myself), but now that young Asian parents got the word that the schools were good, the elementary schools are about to become majority Asian. I read about a private equity fund whose whole algorithm is just buying houses in areas where the school districts are rising in the rankings… which is pretty gross but makes sense, financially.
It's wild whenever people act like it would be the downfall of America if we increased taxes for corporations or the extremely wealthy. Anyone who can read a graph can see that those tax rates are currently at a near 100-year low already.
One of the biggest hoodwinks was managing to convince most of the USA that things like small businesses, monopolies, healthcare, insurance, etc. aren't part of the "economy". When people talk about the "economy" they just talk about inflation and the price of gas really.
Paying schools via property tax is a Segregationist "innovation". It was created to go around Brown v BoE and is highly successful. By changing to a property tax model and drawing district lines on racial boundaries, they were able to keep non-white schools underfunded. And the scheme was approved by a SCOTUS recently packed with Segregationist sympathizers by Nixon. They claimed the scheme wasn't racist because the laws never mentioned race, which is highly dubious. Once SCOTUS approved it, the model quickly spread throughout the rest of the US. It also allowed states to be as racist as they want, just so long as they don't actually say out-loud they're being racist. And now all these people complain about their property tax.
This isn't how school funding works in essentially the entire US, and it hasn't been that way for decades. Yes, schools do receive funding from property taxes, but they also receive funding from the state and federal Government as well. In the majority of instances, schools in wealthy areas get the majority of their funding from local property taxes, and very little from the state and federal government. Meanwhile, it's the reverse for schools in poor areas: they receive most of their funding from state and federal, and a tiny percentage of it from local property taxes. New Jersey is a good example of this (and generally considered one of the better school systems). There, local taxes in Camden (which is very poor) only account for 3% of the school budget; 92% of their funding comes from the state. Compare that to Princeton, NJ (a much wealthier area), and they only get 16% of their school budget from the state, and local taxes pay for 75% of the school budget. It's also worth noting that if you base it on per-pupil spending, we spend more per kid in Camden than we do in Princeton. https://www.nj.com/education/2017/05/the_50_school_districts_that_spend_the_most_per_pu.html But it's not just Jersey. Across the US, on average, students in poor areas receive the same or more funding as kids in rich areas. https://www.justfactsdaily.com/the-school-funding-inequality-farce/ https://www.educationnext.org/progressive-school-funding-united-states/ https://www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2017/05/25/do-school-districts-spend-less-money-on-poor-and-minority-students/ https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2018-02-27/in-most-states-poorest-school-districts-get-less-funding "Nationwide, per-student K-12 education funding from all sources (local, state, and federal) is similar, on average, at the districts attended by poor students ($12,961) and non-poor students ($12,640), a difference of 2.5 percent in favor of poor students." "We find that, on average, poor and minority students receive between 1-2 percent more resources than non-poor or white students in their districts, equivalent to about $65 per pupil." (ignore the title of the last link. If you actually read it, it even points out that poor students on average receive the same or more funds, it simply argues that the distribution is "inequitable"). Of the top 5 places in the US with the highest per-pupil spending, every single one of them are in areas where black people are a disproportionate % of the population, and in 2 of them (Atlanta and Baltimore), they're over 50% of the population. https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2020/school-system-finances.html
Why should I have to pay for schools when I don’t have kids?? /s
Step 1: RAH taxes are evil they can't tax business owners like that!!! Step 2: How dare they raise our taxes??? Grrrr Step 3: I don't understand why the schools don't have money, does our government do nothing????
Also state budgets generally fuck cities over in lieu of helping out rural areas.
It probably varies state to state somewhat, but I’d argue that they tend to fuck over both the cities and rural areas (in different ways and for different reasons) and affluent suburbs tend to get more than their fair share. It can—perhaps counterintuitively—actually cost more, per capita, to serve rural areas due to access and supply chain issues. There’s also often the need to incentivize skilled labor to live and work in these areas that aren’t otherwise attractive. Look at what’s happened to state hospitals in rural areas over the past 20 years (it’s not good).
I'm not saying that Cities need the exact proportional amount they put in, because economies of scale are a thing and rural towns/counties should still be able to have modern infrastructure and such even if they can't afford it, but they also shouldn't be sending legislators to state congress who want all taxes slashed and for the cities to be squeezed. As for rural health, I *definitely* agree with you there, but that's also a tricky topic in that if the Government is going to subsidize rural hospitals to *that* degree, why are we not just doing public healthcare rather than over subsidizing a hospital network to stay in a region?
and then people complain "all the tax money is going to to the city" I love when downstate Illinois people think they should get rid of Chicago. Or when rural red states want to secede. Bitch where you think your funding comes from!?
I hear that about Boston all the time. Where do people think the majority of tax revenue comes from? It comes from the large populations centers, like cities!
"I'm not giving the government my money, they don't know how to use it, look at what little they can achieve with what they get now..... oh also corporations need more money to be able to innovate duh, not their fault"
> the amount of people who have ZERO idea of how taxes work, how different levels of jurisdictions and levels of government work...purely astounding The older you get, the less astounding it becomes. Nobody fucking bothers to learn how anything works. If they did, we might actually do something about it. But no, we better focus our efforts on culture wars instead. Why help people when you can hurt them instead?
I would argue it's a failure of media as well but 100% people just say shit without understanding what it means
"Schools need to be better funded!" "Ok well here's a new tax proposal that will let us pay for these improvements." "Woah, woah, who said anything about taxes??"
This is why I deleted all my social media, and I'm living life like a hermit with its head in the ground. Except Reddit. I still have this, but honestly, even Reddit is becoming exhausting to me with all the whining.
Voting yes on a millage for the school district in which I live was the easiest vote I’ve ever made. Not only does it benefit my kids, but it helps to nourish an educated society. How can anyone not want that?
People barely know how money, credit and debt works.
Philly spends $22k per student which is higher than every OECD country's elementary and secondary 2019 average except for Luxembourg. US was fifth at $15.5k, also behind Norway, Austria, and S Korea. Edit: [This is my source. If I am misinterpreting the data or there is something baked into the numbers that I am missing that makes the comparison illegitimate, I am genuinely all ears.](https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cmd/education-expenditures-by-country) The Philly data is per their new $4.5 billion budget which as noted elsewhere in the thread, is a 5.3% annual increase and an even more dramatic increase from their prior budget.
People just say things. US schools are underfunded is a meme completely unreflective of reality. The way the money is spent, well.... that's another story
About 5 years ago, my school district raised $6.7 million dollars to put into a fieldhouse at the high school so fucking big, it's never been more than 60% used at one time. It has 7 basketball/volleyball courts to go along with the 5 we previously had. Yet, the school district bitches year after year about the outdated classrooms. Maybe you could have built a 4-5 court field house and took the other $3.3 million and put it into the classrooms!
I get that athletics and fitness are really important for kids but yeah... over-investment in *competitive* sports seems like a gross misuse of funds for most schools. Especially when like maybe 1 out of 100 kids might expect to get an athletic scholarship, whereas we can hope that ~all of our kids become smart, productive members of society
The problem is if you get given money, it has to be spent as the giver wishes. So plenty of times schools are kinda hamstrung sometimes, since they have to listen.
> It has 7 basketball/volleyball courts to go along with the 5 we previously had. I wonder if they are able to lease those courts out to sports camps in the summer and/or weekends as a source of revenue?
I’m convinced that the amount your parents give a shit is the biggest determinant of educational outcomes. You can’t just throw money at schools without acknowledging that lots of kids don’t have parents that prioritize their education.
People also have a terrible understanding of what is and isn't waste spending. Our last referendum was a few months ago and people said that our superintendent was paid too much, nearly 300k a year, despite the fact that it's the fucking superintendent, who manages 7 buildings, two thousand employees, and oversees the operations of a couple thousand kids and all the bullshit government bureaucracy throws at you. There are smaller organizations in my private sector job where the director is paid more than these supers.
New football stadiums and jerseys ! Screw the library
Then where the fuck is that money going is they don't have AC? I bet to administrators at the top.
Thank you for this. All the people whining that 'people who don't want to raise taxes are destroying our education system!' seem to be conveniently ignoring the fact that school systems are being funded at unprecedented levels yet still performing worse than ever.
My school district in the upper middle class suburbs (aka one where the homes have a higher rate of financial and family stability, lower population, and land is cheaper) requires less infrastructure and have less at-risk kids than the impoverished communities. Making the schools better is a two pronged effort - actually fund the schools, and create overall economic stability in the surrounding community. One is easy, one is very hard. And even with that, we still had to struggle to get more funding to get our day to day operations up to snuff. There's still a lot of work that we need to do and a lot of equipment that needs repairing and we don't have funding for. Philly and Baltimore spend a whole lot of money on the schools because they have more problems with the older buildings, more kids, and also need to accomodate for the larger amount of at home issues that stem from poverty and America's segregated past. Its a very complex, multi faceted issue.
Hard to parse and I'm not seeing the distinction in the source but important to see spending per student in a district/city/country with the pay of district administrators removed. Obviously there is some value to higher level district administrators but education funding and the amount of funding that actually reaches a classroom/building are important to look at.
This is my big gripe. Superintendent pay/perks that are rivaling some CEO packages, umpteen “administrators” who haven’t actually spoken to a student in 25 years yet make 6 figures with gold plated benefit packages, etc.
One of the reasons why schools are expensive is that schools have to compete with the US labor market, which isn't cheap. And for the most part, the advanced technology that has allowed businesses to slim down labor doesn't exist for schools. Think how many employees a typical McDonald's used to have. Now, you have to order on the app or on some kiosk. You can't outsource teachers. You can't have a kiosk teach children. So comparatively, yes, education will cost more than in the past.
> You can't outsource teachers. You can't have a kiosk teach children. Hey, I just got a great idea to balance the school's budget!
Districts are well funded. You can see the funding in the new cars and McMansions of all the administrators
Yes I live in the burbs with a school district with a decent amount of funding and the one middle school still doesn’t have AC
Was talking to my local school board rep (who I happen to work with) the other day. What I learned: * Funding is basically determined at the state level * Tax increases are capped: if property values in our district increase greater than a certain amount, they must lower rates in order to cap the total revenue increase * If our taxes bring in more money than the state has basically budgeted for us to spend, the excess gets Robin Hooded away to other districts * Spending is targeted at low performing and special-interest districts * As a result of the above, our suburban district gets more than $1000 less funding per student than rural or inner-city districts * Because of said underfunding, our facilities are slowly deteriorating because we can basically only afford the necessities/operating costs, and not necessarily the capital costs required to update our half-century-old school buildings * Also, as a side note, our best teachers are capped in terms of pay (no incentive pay for better teachers allowed), so their only opportunity for more money lies in becoming course instructors, then assistant principals, then principals * Going on that path removes our best teachers from the classroom, and by the time you make assistant principal/principal, you haven't interacted with kids in years * Course instructors are loved by superintendents but not loved by teachers, who don't feel like they get much value out of the course instructors * Additionally, course instructors pull teachers from classrooms to train them, which further depletes actual teaching resources * There is a large amount of resistance to having course instructors perform training in the classroom, as well as a large amount of resistance to having course instructors, assistant principals, and principals dedicate some portion of their time to teaching to remain connected to the classroom Honestly, sounded like a fucking nightmare.
Which reinforces their point
Lots of private schools are doing just fine. And they want to suck even more money out of public schools with voucher programs, the GOP's only approved means of wealth redistribution.
conversely, you'll find an excess of people who complain about crime, underfunded schools and extracurriculars, and undereducated kids, and not wanting to pay taxes because the school is underfunded, the kids don't want to be there, and they don't have any kids going to school anymore. but that's only half of the problem. My school district in the upper middle class suburbs (aka one where the homes have a higher rate of financial and family stability, and land is cheaper) requires less infrastructure and have less at-risk kids than the impoverished communities. Making the schools better is a two pronged effort - actually fund the schools, and create overall economic stability in the surrounding community. One is easy, one is very hard.
>The philadelphia school system projects a $407 million deficit in its $4.5 billion spending plan. - Dec 7, 2023. 10 years ago the budget was $2.5B, so it's almost doubled in 10 years and it's still not enough.
10 years ago I could get a fast food burger for $2
Well the cost per student is $23K for 2024 for an education where most kids can't pass a standardized math test. Does that sound like a great deal now? Should it be $40K per year per student for an average public school education? Basically private school prices for way worse outcomes. >In 2021-22, the proficiency rates were 34.7% in English, 16.2% in math, and 37.1% in science (Phiadelphia school district totals)
You should add a little perspective: Public schools are education of last resort for the most downtrodden and unsupported youth in the country. Schools have to handle *all* of the consequences of cyclical poverty, institutional bigotry, and horrifically mauled communities. They aren't working with two-parent, high income, socially stable youth with supervision and parental expectations. Naturally, in my book, this implies that the cost of educating students is going to be *higher* than your standard private school education because it has to cover far, far more about a child's life than just education. Food, life experience training, guidance and psychological counseling, a far, far higher ratio of learning disabilities and working youth... At the same time, urban tax bases continue to struggle in the face of capital flight. Folks who *can* move out of these poor districts do so, harming the whole process of taxation and spending on students. Conversely, the *good* public education environments often use municipal tax burdens as basically an income barrier to keep their student populations lower and therefore classroom size and facilities needs more stable. In comparison, most urban districts are burdened by having assets *far* exceeding their current needs because of mid-century buildup in urban cores, and those assets need far, far more maintenance than stuff built after the '90s. This is a good example of that. This AC problem is a global warming one, exacerbated by Philadelphia schools having an average building age well over 35 years. Practically, the solution shouldn't *just* be investing in school district budgets (though that helps). General poverty remediation, housing investment, work and labor reform, prison and judicial reform, early childhood education and parental support tools, community unification and creating pathways through education for personal betterment, a rationalization of regional tax rates to help manage natural economic migration...
Instructions unclear, tripled the police budget instead.
Nope been short officers for years (at least from the budget) >(2022)Philadelphia's Police Department Is Short 1,300 Officers Aug 29, 2022 — All told, the force is already some 1,300 officers short of its full complement of 6,380 >(2024)The department said it is currently short more than 800 officers. "We're looking to get out there, get in the field with officers on foot and bikes," Captain John Walker said. "But, we can't do that if we don't have the people."Jan 8, 2024
Less underfunding and more horrible allocation of funds. Our school district has a higher budget than most European militaries
They spent over $22,000 per student in 2023. How much more funding do they need?
Yea, public school shouldn’t cost more than college lol
Wait till I tell you about the 3.875% Phila school income tax
Funding isn't the issue with school districts in America. Our local, state, and federal leaders are so incompetent and corrupt that it causes our institutions to consistently be inefficient and have issues.
4.5 billion for a school district is insane. I'm sure it's not directly comparable but Calgary is roughly the same size and the public school budget is about a billion. Teachers make good money too
Philadelphia government is famously corrupt and has been for a long long time. No idea if he's still on the council, but years ago there was a member that would never show up to a meeting unless they were voting on a contract one of his friends' businesses could get.
The problem is how old the buildings are, it's the same issue here in CT. In the suburbs they just tear the old building down and build a 50* million dollar new highschool, cities like Philly don't have that luxury
>5 million dollar More like 50
Thanks a lot Harrisburg.
More like because of corruption.
We have 100's of billions for other countries' wars, though
Why cool by Jalen (pun intended) I'm not sure $200k would be enough to pay for a HVAC system for one school building.
I'm pretty sure it's a ton of window units they're getting.
In reality after the administrators get their cut it'll be about 3 window units.
Yeah, that was my thought initially. But the article said the money will be used for 300 classrooms. That comes out to $666/classroom. Sounds like [portable](https://www.homedepot.com/p/Whynter-NEX-12-000-BTU-Portable-Air-Conditioner-Cools-600-Sq-Ft-with-Invertor-Dehumidifier-Wifi-Enabled-in-White-ARC-1230WN/318926775) units. /u/fenris_maule
He is one cool customer
Some say he has R404-A in his veins.
Jalen "Freon™" Hurts
He has plenty of fans
It is boiling in Philly in the summers, that's great from Jalen! I just wish he didn't have to do this and the state/city had handled it, but funding issues...
My high school in Philly did not have central air or window units. It was all fans and keeping the windows open, and half the windows you couldn’t even open because they were so old. Only good part of that was it was a sign that school was almost over for the year
This is how I grew up in Pennsyltucky. My school campus was in the middle of a cattle field, and the farmer had a grudge against the school district for annexing part of his land for school use. 90 degrees and humid, windows open, and fresh manure spread during school hours by the disgruntled old farmer. Even the young ladies graduated with a brass pair after that experience.
Thankfully my high school had AC, but my elementary school in Pennsyltucky was originally a two room brick schoolhouse that had a long wing put on. 4th and 5th grade didn't have AC since they were in the old part. It was awful. I'm not even sure the rest of the school had AC though. I remember my class was so big it needed a 3rd group (usually it was only 2 separate classes for grades, so class 1-1 and class 1-2, we needed 1-3), our 3rd class used to use a modular trailer that had AC in it and everyone hoped to get that class.
[What most people don't realized about Philly is that it has the same climate classification as the rest of the US Southeast Region \(hot and humid\).](https://www.plantmaps.com/koppen-climate-classification-map-united-states.php) Having lived in both Philly and TX, the only difference in the summer is that Philly does get cool at night, while TX can be still in the 90's (F).
We broke a record here last winter — we’d gone nearly two full years without measurable snow. While growing up, we’d get a good foot at least monthly. Now we see 100 degree days every summer and winters are in the mid 40s/50s. The climate here has changed dramatically in the last 30 years.
Yeah, it was wild. I kept looking out my window hoping for snow...
Keep hoping. The world isn't changing back to a colder time in our lives.
Thats interesting. Yeah it can get very hot here. Probably more so than most would think. It hit 89 yesterday which is crazy for april. But it does get cold s well which is nice in the summer but not great in winter. One year about 9 yrs go it was getting around 0 some days. But usually it doesnt go lower than high teens.
There aren't funding issues. There are issues with the fundamental measures of success that our government/economics prioritizes. If the school district operates at the smallest financial loss possible, that's a success. If kids have comfortable rooms to learn in, that is not a success.
You're sadly correct. So many high schools and colleges around the country are removing the arts because they don't make enough money, for example. The college my mom taught at for decades, well, there's no longer any music or theater programs/departments there.
Have you seen Kensington ave? The city isn’t gonna do a damn thing unfortunately
Actually, I refuse to step foot in Kensington, but yes, I have. Funny story about Kensington. A friend from childhood was living in NYC, and thinking about moving to Philly unbeknownst to me. So he and his wife saw this listing for a great looking condo for only 90k. They didn't/couldn't see anything wrong with it, so they drove down to Philly to see it. Predictably, it was in Kensington and they got to see addiction at its finest. When they told me the story, I stopped them as soon as they told me the price and asked if it was in Kensington.
The funny thing is that place might turn into a crazy investment opportunity. There’s a conspiracy (and historical precedent) that the city allows the open-air drug market to drive locals from the neighborhood, and after property values tank, the city co-ops with contractors to buy it all cheap, level the neighborhood, and rebuild new and swanky apartments and coffee shops. Dishonest gentrification. See: Fishtown and NoLibs.
Literally one street. Would you rather all the junkies stay on one street or just run all over the city?
ESPN headline: Does Jalen Hurts care enough about winning football games, or is he too focused on school?
Classic Orphan Crushing situation
it's good on Hurts for helping out but he really shouldn't *have* to.
Dude just trying to get a cameo in Abbott Elementary
Another one?
In person this time.
Him, Kelce, and Graham were already on it haha
He's already been in it! With Jason Kelce and Brandon Graham. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IQvg6fp-tI
Quinta's budget for guest stars has to be CRAZY. Bradley Cooper for absolutely no reason. I didn't realize it was Rob Belushi as the marketing guy in the Eagles episode until it was almost over. She's just doin it cause she can now. I mean why not?
I gotta think it gets easier with how popular the show is and in Cooper's case, it's Philly! Quinta being so lovable and highly regarded in her own right, is also a plus.
TURNS OUT HE HIS INDEED THE THERMOSTAT
It still boggles my mind that in America have to rely on millionaire athletes and crowdsourcing to get AC in schools. What are we doing?
Wasting money on administrators and no-bid contracts. Last year they passed a budget that works out to $22,800 per student per year. We have to "rely" on people like Hurts because the system is broken and any attempts to fix it gets painted as hating children and education.
Well, as one who grew up in the D.C. area and college football team is Auburn, I should hate this guy. But you can’t. Kudos to Jalen Hurts.
After filtering through the school admin requirements and union labor requirements Jalen hurts was able to use that money provide air conditioning for one teachers lounge.
Quinta furiously writing him in to next season of Abbott. Again. Though maybe this time not a Zoom call
Jalen is a good dude. I hope he never wins another game as an Eagle, but he is a good dude and a class act.
Good on Hurts but man is that fucking grim
Big "gofundme for my medical bills" energy.
I bet there isn't a single administration building in a school district without A/C. Just schools.
A school I went to in NY had no AC. the district offices were in the school in a part closed off to students—but the only elevator on that floor was in the district office so when I blew my knee out I had to use the elevator. Quickly realized there was AC in the district office. I always had LOTS of volunteers to help carry my books bc everyone wanted to walk through the AC.
Legitimately one of the best things you could give.
Love this gesture. But I wish that money could have gone elsewhere instead of something that should have already been fully funded.
Pretty cool but he shouldn’t have to. Fix your shit, Philly
This isn't a heartwarming story it's a story about the system failing horrifically.
cool that we can send trillions to arms dealers to kill more people overseas but not 200,000 to make sure our kids aren't dying of heatstroke. what a normal country.
Hurts seems like a GREAT guy. Lions fan, so no real bias. Everything he does and says seems awesome
dub
Everyone deserves air conditioning, literally cool of him
Nice job in getting that partnership Abbott Elem
Another dystopian story poised as heartwarming Good for Hurts and I applaud him, but the richest country in the world cannot afford school facilities?
Fuck that. Why aren't you airconditioning your schools - wtf
Great fucking first world country my ass. We gotta get our priorities right.
You think it’s the norm in other first world countries to have air conditioning?
With how much money is wasted in the US in general, how are we not able to come up with $200k for air conditioning in schools. Like how is it on Jalen Hurts to make that happen?
Oh I can answer this one! It's because if the government tried to put in $200k worth of ACs, it would've cost like $1.6b. $200k for the ACs and another $1.4b to the CEOs of the HVAC companies and the state representatives from Philly of course. Also it would take 11 years to pass and another 6 years for installation.
"Also it would take 11 years to pass and another 6 years for installation." Yes. This part. It's *amazing* in the *worst way possible* how much protocol and procedure there is. Unless, of course, someone "important" is inconvenienced. I have a cousin who worked for MDOT that said certain projects would take literally years to even get approved. And then there was a turn from an off ramp that a government official got stuck at "too long" waiting to turn left and they put a traffic light in immediately.
That's funny a Michigander responded bc as I was writing that post I was thinking that no where is that statement more true than with MDOT. I lived in Michigan for a lot of years, and what you guys still have to deal with in regards to the roads is legitimately insane. I remember while I was there, a somewhat busy 2 laned road, not a highway or anything, was just adding another lane on both sides for a few miles. They had signs up during the project that said the estimated completion time was like 2027 lol. This was pre-pandemic. Like, nearly a decade of construction lol
This is like the 10th time Ive heard this in the past two weeks. It is a fantastic story and shows a lot about Jalen’s character, if it even needed to be further shown how much of a good dude he is.
Outrageously based, people think because when they were younger they dealt with heat stroke everyone has to. I'm pretty sure studies show actual percentage in grade difference
I'll bet the teachers appreciate Hurts joining the fight against teenage BO.
Duuuude I went to school in a relatively wealthy district and we STILL never had decent AC. This is gonna make him a HERO among Philly kids, especially those of us who tend to run warm lol
How the fuck do they not have A/C? This is 2023 someone needs to look into their mismanagement of finances
Peak Orphan-Crushing Machine content.
This country is so fucked. We are beyond 100% on track for Idiocracy being reality.
TAXES SHOULD PAY FOR THIS! Good on him, but goddamn we treat our schools like shit.
It's crazy to me that there are schools without air conditioning, that 200k can make a huge difference for, and we have scum sucking useless pieces of shit with hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars that won't do jack shit about it.
how am I supposed to be expected to despise the eagles as a cowboys fan when Jalen is such a good guy and also so handsome?
Awesome on him to see a problem and put his money toward it, but why the fuck aren't we using taxes to take care of our god damn schools? Nope, can't use taxes for that, we'll just have to wait for a millionaire to give a shit.
It’s nice to see something tangible as opposed to a donation to some organization that’s gonna use 75% of the money on administrative fees
r/HumansBeingBros
Every time an athlete in Philadelphia donates to something i can’t believe that thing needs donations.
Alright that’s dope as hell. I’m a fan now
The city has a budget of $6.3 billion.
why doesnt the city pay for them?
Most of those will go to Abott Elementary.
This is one of this orphan crushing machine things. We as a country should be able to afford air conditioning in our schools.
Fucking bravo for him BUT WHY IS THIS FUCKING NEEDED
I love this guy. I’m bummed he’s an Eagle, but damn Philly has a good one.
Why are there schools without air conditioning in 2024?
I know Abbott Elementary got a few
Love him as a player and even more as a human
Meanwhile, the Bears ownership is asking for $5b from the public for a new lakefront stadium.
Can't wait for this episode on Abbott Elementary.
/r/OrphanCrushingMachine
All but 4 classrooms at my school had no ac. August and September sucked. That’s where I learned what swamp ass was. The third floor was brutal.
This is so going to be referenced on Abbott Elementary