This time, the revolution has come with the scratching of pencils and shuffle of children's sneakers. David Hornbeck, public school reformer Hornbeck does not look like a revolutionary. A graduate of Union Theological Seminary in New York City, a lawyer and a longtime children's advocate, Hornbeck currently chairs the board of the Children's Defense Fund. These past expectations of failure have been fulfilled by the nearly 50 percent of the students who drop out or do not graduate on time. The other central component of Hornbeck's reform is a system of standards, assessment and accountability.
Plans are under way for parents to make compacts with the schools affirming their accountability.
Despite this progress, the goals of the reform could be affirmed as laudable but then largely ignored if it were not for the two most radical steps Hornbeck and Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell have taken. First, they declared they would never again cut school programs in Philadelphia. We simply were not going to cut books or computers or reading teachers or kindergarten or sports or art teachers or after-school programs. We were prepared to be good stewards, to look for efficiencies in administration. We would continue to do fund-raising.