Thom Nickels: What has happened to the Philadelphia public school system?

What has happened to the Philadelphia public school system?

A high school teacher I know informed me that the school where he works has a principal with far-left views. While that in itself is not surprising, this particular woman apparently wants all the teachers at the school to adopt her political beliefs. 

My friend confessed that he was “being marginalized by the principal of the school.” 

“I’m pretty sure it is politically related, i.e. she thinks I am not onboard with her far-left views,” he added. “I can’t prove it but it seems the most likely reason.  But like many on the far left, they say they believe in diversity but in practice they don’t accept any deviance from leftist orthodoxy.”

He went on to say that his public high school is making a huge deal out of Ramadan. “But of course no mention is ever made of Lent. At the peak of the pro-Palestine rallies, the principal allowed students to leave school carrying Palestinian flags to protest downtown. Lately, the same principal has been allowing students to leave school early to protest ICE.”  

Novelist Lionel Shiver, whose latest novel, “A Better Life,” details the bitter consequences of a progressive New York woman who invites a migrant to live with her family, told Douglas Murray in an interview, “We need a CATASTROPHE’ to save the West from illegal migration and woke culture.” That might very well be true, since woke culture is a luxury culture that will be the first go given a planetary disaster.  

In the meantime, what will happen to Philadelphia if every city public school is indoctrinating its students in leftist ideology?

That ideologically crazy principal my teacher friend talks about should be fired. But how can that happen when so many high schools in the city are doing the same thing?

Edison High School is one example. This month, 6ABC reported that students at that Hunting Park school were allowed to leave class to attend an ICE protest. In January 2026, a similar situation occurred at Girard College.

We might also ask why these schools are going out of their way to promote Islam. These schools go out of their way to create designated prayer spaces and fasting rooms for Muslim students. Why? Imagine if a group of Catholic students wanted a space to pray the rosary. Do you think a leftist high school principal would honor such a request? 

To date there are two official Muslim holidays in Philly public schools, Eid-al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. The latter holiday was added later. Is a third addition on the way?  

And yet there’s something strangely attractive about a religion that makes its adherents stand out. Unfolding a colorful prayer mat in a parking lot at sunset and kneeling down among parked cars is not only great theater, it provides an ad hoc advertisement for the religion itself.

The behavior of most Christians and Jews in the public square is mostly invisible, whereas Muslims aren’t afraid to show their faith in places that might– by any definition — be deemed queer or “inappropriate”: shopping malls, the hallways of hospitals, the cereal aisle in a grocery store or parking lots.

Unlike Dearborn, Michigan, where the Arab Muslim majority population stands at 55 percent of the city’s 110,000 residents, Philadelphia’s homegrown Muslim population has not caused it to be called “Muslim Town” and the “Mecca of the West.” The overwhelming majority of Muslims in Philadelphia are not Middle Eastern but black Muslims. Ironically, black Muslims continue to be disparaged by Middle Eastern Muslims as wannabe or “fake” Muslims. (If you doubt my word on this, just talk to a so-called “real” Muslim from the Middle East). 

Philadelphia, as it becomes an increasingly black majority city, will in time have many more Muslims than it does in 2026. Someday, in fact, the city may rival Dearborn, only in Philadelphia’s case the Muslim growth will be homegrown. 

My teacher friend also had this to say:

“We [in the public schools] cannot say Easter but over the school loudspeaker they have no problem announcing the ‘Holy month of Ramadan.’ Students are allowed to leave class to pray. A special area is set aside for that to happen. I wonder what would happen if Protestants asked for a Bible prayer group! Why don’t the church / state rules — the separation of church and state — apply to Muslims? It’s also a shame that so few children in Philadelphia identify as Christian. Their parents should demand equal time.”  

The situation is far worse in Britain, where freedom of expression is heavily restricted and Christianity is approaching extinction. 

I recently read a 2024 Action News report about a family that enrolled their 12-year-old daughter in a Philadelphia Catholic school before their conversion to Islam. Initially the family knew of the school’s prohibition against the wearing of head coverings. Later, however, during the month of Ramadan, the daughter went to school in a head covering but was told by officials at St. Francis de Sales Catholic school in Southwest Philadelphia that she could not wear her khimar, given that it was against the rules as outlined in the school’s handbook which is distributed to all families at the beginning of the school year. 

The family staged a protest but eventually transferred their daughter to another school when the Catholic school would not give in.

Thom Nickels is Broad + Liberty’s Editor at Large for Arts and Culture and the 2005 recipient of the AIA Lewis Mumford Award for Architectural Journalism. He writes for City Journal, New York, and Frontpage Magazine. Thom Nickels is the author of fifteen books, including “Literary Philadelphia” and ”From Mother Divine to the Corner Swami: Religious Cults in Philadelphia.” His latest work, “Ileana of Romania: Princess, Exile and Mother Superior,” will be published in May 2026.