{"id":829051,"date":"2026-05-29T01:58:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T01:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/829051\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T01:58:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T01:58:19","slug":"philly-school-board-approves-4-6b-budget-that-includes-225-million-in-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/829051\/","title":{"rendered":"Philly school board approves $4.6B budget that includes $225 million in cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up for Chalkbeat Philadelphia\u2019s free newsletter<\/a> to keep up with news on the city\u2019s public school system.<\/p>\n

The Philadelphia Board of Education approved a $4.6 billion budget Thursday night that includes millions in cuts and will result in schools losing climate staff, teachers, counselors, and substitutes.<\/p>\n

Superintendent Tony Watlington said cutting some $225 million<\/a> is necessary to begin to plug the district\u2019s $300 million budget deficit while balancing rising salaries, healthcare premiums, and charter school payments. No staff will be laid off, Watlington has previously said. Instead, teachers and school-based staff might be reassigned to other vacant positions across the district. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m agnostic to how we get the dollars, but we desperately need additional revenue,\u201d Watlington said.<\/p>\n

The budget passed 8-0.<\/p>\n

We’re here to help.<\/p>\n

Every day, Chalkbeat Philadelphia reporters are answering your questions, following the money, and digging into what’s happening in the city’s public schools. Keep up with our free newsletter, delivered every Wednesday and Friday morning.<\/p>\n

The cuts come amid a cloud of bad news for Philly schools. Ahead of the meeting, City Council members rallied outside of the district building and blasted board members for their April vote approving the district\u2019s plan to close 17 schools starting in 2027<\/a>. Enrollment declines and other funding challenges<\/a> mean schools will lose more staff, advanced placement classes, and after-school programs than the district is discussing. <\/p>\n

Board member Joyce Wilkerson blamed state and federal underfunding<\/a> for the district\u2019s financial position. Philly is the only school district in the state that can\u2019t raise its own tax revenue and is nearly entirely dependent on state and city funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a national disgrace, and a disgrace to this commonwealth\u201d that Philly schools don\u2019t receive more public funding, Wilkerson said.<\/p>\n

Voting to approve the budget amounts to doubling down on the closure plan, City Council member Kendra Brooks said.<\/p>\n

City Council member Jamie Gauthier called for the six board members who voted for the closure plan to resign. \u201cWe need a school board that is actually accountable to our community,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Though elected officials are publicly fuming<\/a> about the closures, no City Council member has proposed a plan to help the district close its budget deficit.<\/p>\n

Mayor Cherelle Parker has been pushing a proposed $1 per ride tax on Ubers and Lyfts <\/a>to funnel more money to the school district. But the tax has become one of the central political battles in the city<\/a>, and city council members do not appear poised to approve it as is. <\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s vote locks the district\u2019s budget cuts in while negotiations around the rideshare tax continue. <\/p>\n

City Council member and Chair of the city\u2019s Education Committee Isaiah Thomas said at Thursday\u2019s rally that the rideshare tax is not part of his negotiation strategy.<\/p>\n

Also on Thursday, the board approved a $266 million amended capital budget<\/a> that lays out major renovations, building additions, system replacements, and playground construction for dozens of schools to be paid for with bonds. The district\u2019s facilities plan intends to modernize some 170 schools in addition to the closures, but there\u2019s no guaranteed funding for that plan<\/a>, so it\u2019s unclear how realistic those projections are.<\/p>\n

The city has a July 1 deadline to enact a budget. Thomas said if school board members and district officials don\u2019t come back to the table to discuss changes to the closure plan, council members will continue to put them on notice.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll just keep going,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Carly Sitrin is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Philadelphia. Contact Carly at csitrin@chalkbeat.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sign up for Chalkbeat Philadelphia\u2019s free newsletter to keep up with news on the city\u2019s public school system.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":829052,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,12515,1448,2830,1311,10325,340333,175106,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-829051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-america","tag-isaiah-thomas","tag-pa","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-city-council","tag-school-board-headquarters","tag-school-closures","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116655391114583509","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=829051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829051\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/829052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=829051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=829051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}