{Reproduced from the Almanac}

Over the past several decades, Penn has made increasingly significant financial and educational investments in its West Philadelphia community. Those efforts should be acknowledged with respect and indeed with pride by all of us who are associated with the University.

Now, however, Penn must do more. One of the nation’s 10 wealthiest universities is located in the poorest of the 10 largest American cities. The consequences of that poverty for education are profound. Philadelphia’s public schools have for decades been grossly underfunded, their students the victims of inexcusable Commonwealth indifference and systemic political incompetence. The pandemic will cause further reductions in budget allocations to public education and further harm to the city’s public school students.

Penn cannot by itself solve all the many problems the School District’s students and teachers confront: from the elimination of vital student support services, to the remediation of toxic asbestos, to the educational deficits incurred by too-large classes.

However, while Penn cannot solve all those problems, it can assist in addressing some of them. The proposed Educational Equity Fund, administered independently of Penn’s administration, offers the most democratic and effective mechanism for the allocation of the funds that Penn would contribute.

Recall that 86% of the students in Philadelphia’s public schools are young people of color, 52% African-American. These students and their families and their teachers deserve better, and Penn can and must play a substantial part in the effort to make things better.

The time has always been right for Penn to join the other universities that have agreed to enter into PILOT arrangements. But the time has never been more crucially right, in the wake of the pandemic, the resulting economic impact, and the growing nationwide awareness of the racism that has for centuries so profoundly disfigured our civic life, and continues to do so today. 

I join with my colleagues in urging Penn’s administration and trustees to move expeditiously toward the implementation of the necessary PILOT agreements. The University’s participation in this program will confirm our dedication to Philadelphia and its citizens, and especially to the city’s young people. 

—Peter Conn, Vartan Gregorian Professor of English Emeritus; Professor of Education