Awesome

Thanks for electing an evil Republican governor...

In a pre-School Reform Commission budget briefing, Philadelphia School District Chief Financial Officer Michael Masch said that to close a $629 million budget gap, the district will lose about 16 percent of its workforce - 3,820 jobs. That includes a reduction of 1,260 teaching jobs, or about 12 percent of the teaching force. It's not yet clear how many layoffs that will mean.

The district will also lose full-day kindergarten. It's going to a half-day program, as was in place years ago. Kindergarten is actually not mandated by the state - though everyone offers it, Pennsylvania doesn't require children to attend school until age 7 in Philadelphia, and even older in the rest of the state. That doesn't mean that cutting K is a good idea, but it's possible because it's not required.