To: Maria Quinones-Sanchez, Alfredo Calderon, and Fred Ramirez

Don't hand over our neighborhood school to an unaccountable, union-busting charter company

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Against our will, the Philadelphia school district is planning to turn over a neighborhood public school—Luis Muñoz Marín Elementary School—to ASPIRA of Pennsylvania, an outside charter operator. ASPIRA of PA is in the news because of an ugly anti-union campaign at one of its Philly charter schools and for shady financial dealings at all of them. We call on City Councilwoman Maria Quiñones-Sánchez to stop promoting a union-busting charter school operator tainted by suspicious finances, and to step up for her constituents and our children—and for our neighborhood public schools.

Why is this important?

Although Luis Muñoz Marín Elementary School has been stripped of staff and resources during Philadelphia’s ongoing budget crisis, this year there was good news: The school is making a comeback under the guidance of a new, much-loved principal.

But now the school district has targeted Muñoz Marín for a charter school takeover by ASPIRA of PA—and local parents are crying foul. ASPIRA of PA, a charter organization, is currently under scrutiny for suspicious financial practices and misuse of funds that never made it to the classroom. ASPIRA of PA is also engaged in an ugly anti-union fight at another Philly school, pitting its expensive lawyers against its own teachers who are seeking a voice and a union. The National Labor Relations Board has filed numerous unfair labor practice charges against the charter operator; in every case, ASPIRA of PA has been forced to concede, settle and correct its practices.

Sadly, ASPIRA of PA has a powerful advocate in Councilwoman Quiñones-Sánchez, who was once its executive director. She pledged to support unions and workers’ right to organize, but was quick to endorse ASPIRA of PA, a union-busting organization, in its takeover attempt of our public school.

We, the parents of Muñoz Marín students, do not want our children’s destiny in the hands of ASPIRA of PA—with its financial problems and anti-union values.

We call on Councilwoman Quiñones-Sánchez to stay true to her constituents, to request a City Council investigation into the troubling allegations around ASPIRA of PA, and to protect our children from the School Reform Commission’s apparent strategy of abandoning our public school system.

Rather than declaring our school a failure, we ask Councilwoman Quiñones-Sánchez to advocate for our school’s funding, staff and resources to be restored. That loss of resources is the real plague at Muñoz Marín.

Our school deserves a fair chance.