According to information provided by the Coalition of Schools Educating Boys of Color, Sankofa had a 98 percent graduation rate for seniors last year, a 94 percent promotion rate, and those in the program had 89 percent fewer violent incidents.
The district was not able to provide statistics on the success of the Sankofa program. District spokesman Fernando Gallard said the contract, which contained a clause that it could be canceled due to the unavailability of funds, was canceled for just that reason.
Nutter’s chief education officer, Lori Shorr, provided an emailed statement regarding the closure of Sankofa.
“Clearly, this is a population we believe needs additional supports to succeed in school,” she wrote. “We hope that when the District has sufficient funding, programs like Sankofa are the types of investments we will see return.”
But for the boys who were to be in Sankofa this year, that offers little comfort.
“Those boys had so many barriers and so many walls up, and it took so much to break through to get them to buy in and say, ‘I can rely on you,’ ” said Edison High’s Bennett. “If another program comes around, why should they care? Why should they let their guard down now?”
Please call Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter at (215) 686-2181 or email michael.nutter@phila.gov and ask him to find the money to mentor and educate Black and Latino young men in Philadelphia.