Arlene Ackerman, Ex-Philadelphia Schools Superintendent, Applies For Unemployment

PHILADELPHIA -- The former Philadelphia schools superintendent who received more than $900,000 in severance pay is looking to collect unemployment.

A district spokesman confirmed Tuesday that Arlene Ackerman had applied for jobless benefits. She's eligible for the state maximum of $573 a week, based on her former salary of about $350,000.

Ackerman abruptly left the district last summer. Her leadership saw increased test scores and graduation rates but also clashes with community members, the teachers' union and elected officials.

Her $905,000 buyout was initially going to be paid using public funds and anonymous private contributions. The donors later backed out after critics blasted the deal's lack of transparency.

Ackerman's attorney tells KYW-AM that his client qualifies for unemployment because she is jobless and wasn't fired for cause.

Comments

[fortressfountain]

03:45 PM on 12/06/2011

"She is one of the nations top superintendants." Says who, the global elite who put her in power.
Have you seen all of the huge administrative staffs at the schools in the nation? Who pays for this.
We have never had so many executives and ceos-top talent good only at running the country into the ground and everyone else should want crumbs.
Pleaaaze.

[fortressfountain]

03:40 PM on 12/06/2011

In the state of PA -the application is sent to the Unemployment office-if the employer does not respond-the claim is paid.
Many do not respond because they are out of state or do not want to be sued etc.
I think I hear she is in another state at this time.

I like the way it would be o.k to lay off tenured teachers to save the city money-but when someone like this costs the city lots of money that is o,k.


Do you ever see any of these people making sacrifices themselves?

[Bigjimi]

02:51 PM on 12/05/2011

Milk the cash cow,ie the Philadelphia school district.. "Greed is Good " NOT !!!!

[tampamurray]

01:43 PM on 12/05/2011

I smell a rat. The way I understand this story is that she wasn't fired, but instead happily agreed to a golden parachute buy-out of almost $1 Million. If the Gov't doesn't now go after her for welfare fraud, then there's something really dirty going on here. Moreover, I'm stunned that she was making $350,000/year. No wonder there's not enough taxpayer money trickling down to the actual schools .... the higher ups are getting it all.

[milleshe]

03:11 PM on 12/02/2011

The money was taken out of her check and she's entitled to it like everybody else. You'd do the same thing if you were in her position.

[MrTown3]

08:21 AM on 12/02/2011

Hey she earned em like everybody else....

[harriettubman]

04:17 PM on 12/01/2011

If she "abrutly" left how is she entitled to those benefits?

[GlennWatson]

12:22 AM on 12/01/2011

Where do people get that kind of gall?

[InfinteShibumi]

12:07 AM on 12/01/2011

She is considered among the nation's top superintendents. Even in DC, she made significant strides during her short tenure: http://www.dcpswatch.com/dcps/000517.htm

I wish her well.

[mrskorn]

12:10 AM on 12/01/2011

She left Philly in shambles...and a million dollars for doing it!

[InfinteShibumi]

12:19 AM on 12/01/2011

Wow.

[maester]

01:32 PM on 12/01/2011

You must be kidding. Arlene Ackerman is yet another high profile superintendent who makes a living going from district to district, never seriously changing anything. It's an embarassment to our education system that people like her are ever hired.

[harriettubman]

04:20 PM on 12/01/2011

There seems to be a lot of those these days. Locally, a supt.'s last school district showed he had been fired but he was hired by another district anyway!!!

[Allthosewhowander]

01:37 AM on 12/02/2011

Superintendents are mercenaries.

[ricklexus]

03:03 PM on 11/30/2011

No character, pride or integrety....guess they stopped teaching those attributes long ago. So goes America and our pathetic educational system.

[joyz41]

02:10 PM on 11/30/2011

There should be a resource cap for qualifying for unemployment benefits and social security benefits. These programs were created to help people in need, not those who just got paid about $1 mil.

[Robert Schwartz]

01:58 PM on 11/30/2011

Sorry - i just threw up in my mouth

[westphilly726]

01:53 PM on 11/30/2011

Just because you can,doesn't mean you should.

[Mimi Rothschild]

12:30 PM on 11/30/2011

Was she fired or did she leave?
If she chose to leave, she is not entitled to unemployment benefits.

Mimi Rothschild
CEO, Learning By Grace, Inc.
http://www.LearningByGrace.org

[Ablecynic]

12:15 PM on 11/30/2011

Having just seen the debacle in Atlanta, with a black female school superintendent who led the largest cheating scandal in the history of Georgia public schools, to see another inner city school crisis, with almost the same cast of characters forces the obvious question -- are inner city school districts listening to the Affirmative Action music too much? Do they hire completely unqualified, or suspect superintendents based on race and gender and nothing else? If you read beyond the HuffingtonPost propaganda pancake, and do a few searches on this story, you will find that a school district in deep trouble picked one of the lesser qualified candidates, but who had the prerequisite physical attributes and passed over other, very qualified candidates, because of their race. How far this country has fallen. I know her defenders will squeal, but it won't change the obvious -- she leaves with a million dollars, the school district is just as bad as when she came, and the taxpayers are stuck, and the children suffer. A criminal school board and a criminal superintendent -- I think we know their political affiliation without asking.

[Michael Gene Sullivan]

01:28 PM on 11/30/2011

It's not a question of race, as the unqualified come in all colors. Finding a person of color who abuses their position is not quite as easy as finding a White person who does the same thing. In fact more White are still hired over equally qualified Non-White simply because of their race. This does not excuse the criminal ineptitude of any person, but if you are so heated about hiring the unqualified because of the color of their skin shouldn't you be condemning the millions of cases of hiring Whites? No? Never made those arguments? Tell me: does the fact that most of those CEOs who ripped off the country, and most of the politicians of both parties who enabled them, where White Men. Have you drawn a conclusion regarding that? Is your dander up about them? No?

[Ablecynic]

01:53 PM on 11/30/2011

Michael, stick to this story. If you read the history of this particular superintendent, she was hired by a minority school board against the recommendations of the search committee because they thought her race and gender would be an inspiration for the children of Philadelphia. In other words, this was a racial hiring. Is my dander up? Only because I once lived in Philadelphia and know that city well enough to care about what happens to its children. So the racially motivated decision by the school board to hire this person has backfired. Why are you in a dander over it? Do you support it?

[mrskorn]

12:13 AM on 12/01/2011

The amazing part is that she had some questionable behaviors in her previous superintendent job in San Francisco, yet she still got hired in Philly. The sad part is, that the teachers are blamed for everything, yet these leaders just move around the country wreaking havoc, AND getting paid a pretty penny.

[Ablecynic]

06:51 AM on 12/01/2011

And that shows the criminal behavior of the School Board. They knew there were problems in her past, but overrode all objections. It is a form of racial corruption since this same school board is the one that let her go without being "fired for cause" and gave her all the buyout bennies.