String Theory Schools (STS), an education management nonprofit group, is looking to help Philadelphia’s educational system through a $1 billion offer to fix up the city’s schools and build new ones.
Dr. Jason Corosanite
STS Co-founder Dr. Jason Corosanite recently made the announcement at a mayoral forum on education, innovation, and technology, saying that he was committed to the dollar amount.
"We can go as fast or as slow as the communities want, but we have the ability, I don't think the limitation is on the money-side,” Corosanite told Diverse, adding that the $1 billion amount was flexible, based on the needs and requests of the school communities. “It's really about the communities that want to build schools."
The School District of Philadelphia’s (SDP) older facilities have “aged components that are beyond their service life, obsolete or no longer energy efficient,” according to a 2017 SDP Facility Condition Assessment. The report also documented 11,480 deficiencies worth $4.5 billion.
STS currently manages two charter schools, the Philadelphia Performing Arts Charter School (K-12) and the Philadelphia Charter School for the Arts & Sciences at H.R. Edmunds (K-8). The schools are tuition-free and offer a wide-range of programming in the arts and sciences, including vocal and instrumental music, ballet, visual arts, and technology.
The two schools – they span four campuses right now – also employ a majors-based approach to education that allows students to choose what their specific academic pursuit and focus will be, said Anthony Miller, chief of climate and culture at Philadelphia Performing Arts.
“When you major in something, you do better overall,” Miller said. “We are one of the few schools in middle and high school that offers majors-based programming for students. So you can come and study anything from instrumental music to vocal music to fine arts or digital arts to robotics. We have a host of majors that students can choose here, and they can focus on that major for four to eight years. And we've seen successful results because of this model. They're more excited to be high-performers in their academic classes because they're pursuing something they're passionate about."
