Faced with a multi-stakeholder force that has been advocating strongly for the University of Pennsylvania to make regular payments in lieu of taxes (PILOTS) to Philadelphia public schools, Penn has made a concession worth about a quarter of what had been asked for in dollars, and even less than that in terms of a permanent commitment.

The Philadelphia Inquirer went on record yesterday with an editorial calling upon the University of Pennsylvania to make an annual payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) to support Philadelphia’s public schools.

The activist group, called Penn for PILOTs, demands that Penn enter into an agreement to make “payments in lieu of taxes,” or PILOTs, directly to a fund that would benefit city public schools, where 52 percent of students are Black and 21 percent are Latinx. By contrast, 7.8 percent of Penn undergraduates are Black and 10.2 percent are Latinx; as for faculty, 3.9 percent are Black and 4 percent Latinx.