ranking the mayoral candidates_running the schools

PhiladelphiasSchool ReformCommission out-lived its useful-ness years ago,

so its disturbing that somecandidates to become thecitys next mayor haventgrasped that reality.The SRC was created in

a state takeover of Phila-delphia schools in Decem-ber 2001 with only twogoals: get the School Dis-tricts finances in orderand improve students aca-demic performance. Four-teen years later, it hasfailed miserably in both re-gards, though some of itspast and current membersdo deserve an A for effort.

Despite the SRCs dismalrecord and scant evidencethat it could do better giv-en more time, two of theDemocratic respondentsto the Editorial Board ques-tions presented on the op-ed page still believe in thehybrid school board.Jim Kenney says dissolv-

ing the SRC would give thelegislature an excuse tocontinue inappropriatelyfunding our schools.Doug Oliver says the SRCwould improve with morelocal accountability by giv-ing the mayor three ap-pointments to the commis-sion instead of two, andthe governor two appoint-ments instead of three.Democrats Lynne Abra-

ham, Nelson Diaz, and An-thony Williams, along withRepublican candidate Me-lissa Murray Bailey, allwant to end the SRC, butthey differ on whether itshould be replaced by anelected, appointed, or com-bination school board.Since Gov. Wolf has said

he also wants to restore lo-cal control of the schools,the road to that future ap-pears to be at least partial-ly paved. But it would becounterproductive to rushto install a new governingbody that would be no bet-ter equipped than the SRCto correct the School Dis-tricts financial and aca-demic condition. The nextmayor, the governor, City

Council, and others musttake time to figure outwhat should replace theSRC.There is no magic formu-

la to guide them. A studyreleased in December bythe independent group Re-search for Action found noconclusive evidence to pre-fer an appointed board toan elected one or vice ver-sa. Poor voter turnout canlead to disappointingchoices for an electedboard, while appointedboard members may showmore allegiance to whoev-er appointed them than tothe general public.Whether appointed or

elected, however, controlof Philadelphia schoolsshould rest with Philadel-phians. That wouldnt ab-solve Harrisburg of its re-sponsibility to adequatelyfund not just this cityspublic schools, but the en-tire states. But it wouldend a state takeover thatwas supposed to ensureadequate school fundingand hasnt.Local control would also

put more pressure on lo-cal leaders to stop wrap-ping bandages around theSchool Districts fiscalwounds every year andthen acting as if they haveperformed major surgery.

H.F. Gerry Lenfest PUBLISHERMark Frisby ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER

StanWischnowski VICE PRESIDENT, NEWS OPERATIONSWilliamK.Marimow EDITOR

SandraM. Clark MANAGING EDITOR / FEATURES, OPERATIONS, AND DIGITALGabriel Escobar MANAGING EDITOR / NEWS AND DIGITAL

TomMcNamara DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR / SUNDAY AND SPORTS

Harold Jackson EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORAcelMoore ASSOCIATE EDITOR EMERITUS

See Hillary ride in a van!Watch her meet everydayAmericans! Witness her or-dering a burrito bowl atChipotle! Which she did

wearing shades, as did her chiefaide, Huma Abedin, yielding securi-ty-camera pictures that made themlook (to borrow from Karl Rove)like fugitives on the lam, wanted inseven states for a failedforeign policy.Theres something sur-

real about Hillary Clin-tons Marie Antoinettetour, sampling cake andcommoners. But whatelse can she do? AfterPresident Obama, shesthe best-known politicalfigure in America. Shehas papal name recogni-tion. Like Napoleon andCher, shes universally known byher first name. As former queenconsort, senator, and secretary ofstate, she has spent a quarter-centu-ry in the national spotlight morethan any modern candidate.She doesnt just get media cover-

age; she gets meta-coverage. Thestaging is so obvious that actualevents disappear. The story istheir symbolism campaign assemiotics.This quality of purposeful ab-

stractness makes everything soundand seem contrived. Its not reallyher fault. True, shes got enoughgenuine inauthenticity to go around decades of positioning, framing,parsing, dodging but the percep-tion is compounded by the obviousstaginess of the gigantic political ap-paratus that surrounds her and di-rects her movements.Why is she running in the first

place? Because its the next inevita-ble step in her career path. Butthats not as damning as it seems. Itcan be said of practically every pres-idential candidate. The number ofconviction politicians those whorun not to be someone but to dosomething is exceedingly small.In our lifetime: Ronald Reagan.And, arguably, Obama, although

with him (as opposed to Reagan) aheavy dose of narcissistic self-fulfill-ment is admixed with genuine ideo-logical conviction.Hillary Clintons problem is age,

not chronological but political.Shes been around for so long thatwho can really believe she suddenlyhas been seized with a new passionto champion, as she put it in Iowa,

the truckers that I sawon I-80 as I was drivinghere?Or developed a new per-

sona. She will, of course,go through the motions.Her team will produce amessage, one of themost corrosive, debasedwords in the lexicon ofcontemporary politics: Analleged synonym for be-lief or conviction, it signi-

fies nothing more than a brandedmarketing strategy.She will develop policies. In Iowa,

she had already delivered her topfour, one of which is to take unac-countable big money out of politics.This is rather precious consideringthat her supporters intend to raise$2.5 billion for 2016 alone, and thatthe Clinton Foundation is one of themost formidable machines ever de-vised for extracting money from therich, the powerful, and the unsa-vory.She will try to sell herself as

champion of the little guy. Not easyto do when you and your husbandhave for the last 25 years made limo-liberal Davos-world your home.Hence the van trek to Iowa, lest aGulfstream 450 invade the visual.Clintons unchangeability, howev-

er, is the source of her uniquenessas a candidate: Shes a fixed point.She is who she is. And no one ex-pects nor would anyone reallybelieve any claimed characterchange.Accordingly, voters views about

her are equally immutable. Theonly variable in the 2016 election,therefore, lies on the other side,where the freedom of action is al-most total. It all depends on whom

the Republicans pick and how thecandidate performs.Hillary is a stationary target. You

know what youre getting. She hasher weaknesses: Shes not a greatcampaigner, she has that unshak-able inauthenticity problem, and, re-garding the quality most importantto getting elected, she is barely, inthe merciless phrase of candidateObama in 2008, likable enough.But she has her strengths: disci-

pline, determination, high intelli-gence, great energy. With an im-mense organization deploying anobscene amount of money. And be-hind that, a Democratic Party unit-ed if not overly enthusiastic.Thats why 2016 is already shap-

ing up as the most unusual open-seat presidential race in our time:one candidate fixed and foregone,the other yet to emerge from a wildrace of a near-dozen contenders,with none exceeding 20 percent.So brace yourself for a glorious

Republican punch-up, punctuatedby endless meta-coverage of theDemocrats coronation march. Af-ter which, we shall decide the fu-ture of our country. Just the waythe founders drew it up.

Charles Krauthammer is a WashingtonPost columnist.+letters@charleskrauthammer.com

Gov. Wolf, seen here withstudents at KensingtonHealth Sciences Academy,runs city schools throughthe SRC. MICHAEL BRYANT / Staff

EDITORIAL BOARDHarold JacksonEDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR

Josh GohlkeDEPUTY EDITORIALPAGE EDITOR

Kevin FerrisASSISTANT EDITORIALPAGE EDITOR

Russell CookeSENIOR EDITORIAL WRITER

Cynthia BurtonEDITORIAL WRITER

Trudy RubinCOLUMNIST

By Maud Lyon

P hiladelphia is finally beingrecognized as one of theworlds great cities. Wordis getting out that there is some-thing special happening here:We have the fastest-growing mil-lennial population of any majorU.S. city; we were third on theNew York Times 52 Places toGo in 2015 list; and Pope Fran-cis is making his American de-but here in the fall.Why is the world beating a

path to our door? The excite-ment about Philadelphia is large-ly driven by one of the richestcultural communities of any ma-jor city, rich in attractions, pub-lic art, independent artists, the-aters, museums, historic sites,music, art galleries, and more.But what dont we have? We

dont have a comprehensive cul-tural plan that is fully integratedinto the citys business plan.The time has come to stop the

divisive arguments about thearts vs. the social and economicproblems that challenge the city.Nonprofit arts and culture is a$3.3 billion industry that attracts17 million visitors to the regionannually. It is a powerful re-source in our fight to end pover-ty, educate our youth, attract

and retain workforce talent, andincrease tourism.Instead of being able to focus

on a long-term vision, culturalgroups and individual artists areconstantly fighting against annu-al cuts to the Philadelphia Cul-tural Fund; recent or threatenedlosses of singular historic sites(including the Boyd Theatre, theBlue Horizon, and the Royal The-ater); decay of public art and mu-rals that go unrestored; andshrinking funding from govern-ment, corporations, and individ-uals (as noted in the GreaterPhiladelphia Cultural Alliances2014 Portfolio research report).This is all happening at a timewhen attendance is increasingand the impact of arts and cul-ture has never been greater.Back when Michael Nutter

was running for mayor, we pub-lished a 13-city analysis by theRand Corp. (Arts and Culturein the Metropolis) that madethree key recommendations:8 The city has to have a long-term vision for its cultural assets;8 The city needs civic leader-ship to champion this plan;8 Those plans need to focus onhow the arts contribute to thelong-term goals of the region.Philadelphia is not alone in

needing to address these issues.

Bostons new mayor, MartinWalsh, recently snatched Chica-gos director of cultural planning,Julie Burros, to develop a com-prehensive 10-year cultural planfor Boston. Pittsburgh, Denver,Charlotte, Portland, and SanFrancisco have all produced inte-grated cultural plans that includebroad community input and dedi-cated cultural funding for cultur-al assets and arts education.While our city has developed

Philadelphia 2035, a physicaldevelopment outline for the city,

that plan does not specificallyaddress the long-term develop-ment of the citys cultural assets.The Office of Arts, Culture, andthe Creative Economy did pro-duce Creative Philadelphia: AVision Plan for Arts, Culture,and the Creative Economy in2010. That document was an im-portant aspirational start, but itdid not engage the broader com-munity, and it was not action-able or tied to specific broadercivic goals for the region.We need to make sure that

whoever the next mayor is, he orshe is committed to bringing civ-ic, arts, and political leaders to-gether with concerned residentsto develop a long-term, action-able cultural plan for the city.The new mayor must be pre-pared to make the citys Officeof Arts, Culture, and the Cre-ative Economy a permanent de-partment and committed to pro-viding stable city funding for thearts.To hear the candidates views

on the future of our citys quality-of-life assets, our GroundSwellcommunity engagement pro-gram will partner with the Phila-delphia Parks Alliance to host amayoral forum from 5:45 to 7:30p.m. Wednesday at the CentralBranch of the Free Library ofPhiladelphia. (To sign up, visitwww.groundswellpa.org.)If the next mayor does not de-

velop a long-term plan for ourarts and cultural assets, we (asThe Inquirer has said in the past)put at risk the tourism and popu-lation growth the city has workedhard to achieve. That is a riskwe cannot afford to take.

Maud Lyon is president of theGreater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance.+maudl@philaculture.org

COMMENTARY

CHARLESKRAUTHAMMER"@krauthammer

Inquirer.com/opinion"@PhillyInquirer

BILL DAY / Cagle Cartoons

The SRChas to go

The surreal Clinton campaign

Hillary Clinton at the Jones St. JavaHouse Tuesday in LeClaire, Iowa. AP

Next mayor must back long-term cultural plan

A mass dance number in front of the Art Museum kicked off 2012sLive Arts Festival/Philly Fringe. File

| EDITORIALIts time for the discussionto move from whether toreplace the school panel towhat should take its place.

A10 | THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER | MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2015 C | PHILLY.COM