It’s going to take someone with the wisdom of Solomon, or a hell of a lot more than I have, to solve the Chester Upland School District conundrum.

It’s no secret that Chester Upland has struggled for years, too often failing its students with too little funds, too little staff, too little supplies and too little hope for the future.

So bad was the situation that the state assumed control of the district, first with a Control Board and more recently with an Empowerment Board.

Students and parents were in dire need of an alternative to dooming their kids to the steep odds stacked against them in these failing schools.

Enter charter schools. Some see them as part of the solution. Others point to them as part of the problem.

Here’s why: These private facilities are funded in large part by public money. Funds that could be used in the district schools.

With more and more students fleeing district schools and seeking some kind of salvation in charters, the Chester Upland Empowerment Board looked to reverse a previous ruling by the Board of Control and put a cap on charter enrollments. Parents and the charter schools went to court. And won.

The district appealed. Last week Commonwealth Court rejected their argument, and backed the ruling knocking down the cap on enrollments.

Right now Chester Upland has 4,022 students enrolled in district classrooms, and 2,720 in charter schools. If the ruling stands, another 1,000 kids could head for the charters.

There are those who believe that the continued growth of the charters could threaten the existence of the school district. And there are those who believe that would not necessarily be a bad thing.

In the meantime, too many kids in Chester Upland continue to be failed by a system that too often appears in a perpetual state of flux.

The city is on the rebound. In the meantime, its schools continue to lag behind.
And the city’s recovery will not be complete until that is rectified.