For over a year, the Our City Our Schools coalition has demanded the abolition of the School Reform Commission and the return of the Philadelphia schools to local control. With three new members appointed by Mayor Kenney and Governor Wolf to the SRC over the past year -- Commissioners Wilkerson, McGinley and Richman -- this SRC can play a historic role in calling for a simple majority vote to abolish the SRC once and for all and return Philadelphia's schools to Philadelphians. In 2015, over 75% of Philadelphians voted in support of abolishing the SRC.

Nearly a year ago, the Our City Our Schools coalition met with representatives from the Mayor's office who promised to release a timeline for local control as soon as the third new SRC was confirmed. Since the beginning of the summer, when the third SRC member was confirmed, the Our City Our Schools coalition met with SRC Commissioners Wilkerson, McGinley and Richman, who expressed support in local control. In late July,  members of the coalition met again with the Mayor's Office and asked for a public commitment to sign on to the Our City Our Schools timeline that calls for abolition of the SRC by the Fall of 2017.

Now, there are signs that Mayor Kenney "may be rethinking his support of local control." Mayor Jim Kenney campaigned on an education and local control-based platform, promising the people of Philadelphia control over their schools. Sign the petition to Mayor Kenney and SRC Commissioners, asking them to commit to the Our City Our Schools timeline to return the schools to Philadelphia by the beginning of the 2018-2019 school year.