Right. Unfortunately, the Philadelphia media has done little that I can see to explain to parents how incredibly bad a school has to be before it will be given to outside management under the current cautious and slight reform regime. As a result, parents of children in the schools being "turned over" (unfortunately, an exaggeration) to Edison Schools, Inc. are in many cases buying the teachers union line that this is some kind of right wing plot to hurt their kids.
Our kids go to public schools in Lower Merion Township, right across the city line from Philadelphia. In terms of what we talk about on FR, the Lower Merion schools are pretty bad, with extensive sex ed and environmentalist indoctrination nonsense. But in terms of caring about every child, maintaining order, fair grading, and administrative help/intervention for weak teachers, the positive difference on the suburban side of the line is astounding. As this great article explains, a lot of what goes on in Philadelphia schools is pretty close to child abuse. With the right kind of journalism, families in Philadelphia would realize the solution in their hands of switching their kids to one of the many charter schools.