Philly will get its first new charter school in 8 years

Philadelphia is getting its first new charter school in nearly a decade — a major milestone for a district that had not granted a new charter since the days of the state-run School Reform Commission.

Early College Charter School of Philadelphia will give about 800 sixth through 12 graders early college and career exposure and either college courses or industry certifications. It will open in 2026 in Center City but recruit students from underserved neighborhoods.

The school board voted 8-1 to approve the application Thursday. It was the second try for the school, whose application got voted down in February over concerns about finances, student interest, and academics.

But the revised application, and $2.6 million in private donations secured in a reserve account, helped seal the deal and sway votes from board members Sarah-Ashley Andrews, Cheryl Harper, ChauWing Lam, Joan Stern, and Reginald Streater, all of whom had voted no last time. Board member Joyce Wilkerson cast Thursday’s lone no vote.

Mayor Cherelle L. Parker is viewed as more charter-friendly than former Mayor Jim Kenney, emphasizing unity in the sector and across the city. And board member Whitney Jones acknowledged that in expressing support for Early College, which he said presented a strong application.

“When we made our oath for these seats, we said that we were looking to support Mayor Parker in her vision for one Philadelphia, governing one system of public education that includes both traditional public schools and charter schools,” said Jones, who has worked in the charter sector. While the board has work to do in authorizing and monitoring charters, “I do not think we can hold one individual applicant for the gaps in the system.”

Streater, the board president, signaled he had mixed feelings about the vote — he said he had “serious and legitimate concerns” about Early College’s application, including its level of public engagement and its ability to attract high-quality teachers amid an educator shortage. Still, he said, the application improved, and that to him was a good sign.

Detractors raised concerns about the charter’s impact on traditional public schools, but Streater said “a denial based on broader ecosystems concerns rather than on defects in the application itself will likely not survive charter appeal board or judicial review. And it would not be fair to penalize an applicant for issues that the law does not clearly require them to address.”

Wilkerson said she appreciated Early College’s work to strengthen its application, but her concerns outweighed any improvement. The district is now making its way through a facilities planning process that will likely result in closing schools, and many district and charter schools are already under-enrolled, she pointed out.

“I believe the approval of additional seats at this time before this process is complete flies in the face of our responsibility to create a system of public education,” Wilkerson said. “We have too many seats now. Charter and traditional empty seats exist across the city, cheating our children of the education they deserve.”

While charter schools are publicly funded, Early College, which proposes a college and career preparation model that would give all students access to both college-level courses and industry certifications, had built its budget relying in part on private grants. It had commitments for that money, but some school board members voiced concern that the funding was not guaranteed.

Now, “we turned significant portions of pledges into cash,” said Anna Winter, codirector of the Philadelphia Middle College Foundation, who along with fellow codirector Keshema Davidson is spearheading the planned charter. Winter said in an interview that the charter anticipated additional financial support from foundations.

Early College had some powerful backers, including Ryan Boyer, business manager of the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council. (Most charters do not employ unionized teachers.)

Boyer and other backers of Early College packed Thursday’s meeting, some in T-shirts bearing the school’s name. A number of parents said the school would provide their children with experiences not now open to all students.

Boyer called Early College an “innovative new middle and high school that will support diverse career pathways for students upon graduation” and said he did not take his decision to back the model lightly.

“As we know, our students and our youth in Philadelphia need more opportunities,” Boyer said. “They need more choices to have high-quality educational experiences, and we believe that Early College Charter completes that vision for options as well as quality.”

While other Philadelphia schools have early-college programs, Davidson said, Early College’s college exposure would be universal, through a partnership with Community College of Philadelphia. After taking two college courses, students will get to choose whether to pursue an associate’s degree, industry certification, or both.

Davidson and Winter said they are not looking to start a network of charters but hoped Early College would provide a model that could be used by schools across the district.

While the board heard from a number of speakers backing Early College, the support for adding a new charter was not universal.

Robin Cooper, president of the Commonwealth of School Administrators Local 502, the union that represents Philadelphia principals, alluded to “tough choices on today’s agenda” and urged the board to “watch who we invite into our homes because the death and destruction they leave behind will not allow us to recover, but maybe that is the plan.”

The district has served her and thousands of others well, Cooper said, and she and her members continue to work to improve it and attract students back to traditional public schools. Cooper suggested charter schools were “an offer that seems too good to be true. Again, I implore you to be careful with that knock you answer, and remember the carnage that will be left will be that of our beloved school district.”

LeShawna Coleman, chief of staff of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, asked the board to say no to Early College.

“The School District of Philadelphia is still in no position to authorize new, privately operated, and unaccountable charters that pull precious resources away from our struggling district schools," Coleman said. “Every dollar in funding and revenue intended for our schools is precious. The district is currently forced to spend $1.5 billion — or nearly 35% of its operating budget — on unaccountable charter schools, including ones infamous for mismanagement, dysfunction, and mistreatment of students.”

In addition to approving the first new charter since 2018, the board also passed a $4.7 billion 2025-26 budget.

The only reason the spending plan was able to stave off layoffs and classroom cuts was the board’s decision to spend $300 million in district reserves. The Philadelphia district is alone in the state as unable to raise its own revenue; it depends on the state and city for funds.

Fixed costs — salaries, charter school costs as prescribed by state law — are now outpacing those revenues, and the district faces a structural deficit of millions by fiscal 2027.

Superintendent Tony B. Watlington Sr. described the budget, which passed unanimously, as a “one-year, get-us-to-where-we-need-to-get-without-any-cuts” budget, and said officials were “sure hopeful that we’ll either get additional funding for fiscal year ’26-27, or when we sit here before you next year, it is very likely that we will have to recommend some cuts.”

Board member Lam said she approved the spending plan with reservations.

“I recognize that our revenue situation is not static, that it’s constantly moving, and I do believe that these expenditures are necessary — that we cannot not approve these investments in our classrooms.”