Some numbers hit the public with the impact of, well, an
earthquake.  Like this one: $905,000. That's nine hundred and
five thousand dollars. A 9, followed by five digits.  That's how
much Philadelphia's ex-Superintendent Arlene Ackerman will be
paid to take her Sade imitation to some other city, and leave
our public schools alone.  A cool half million of that is
taxpayer money. The rest comes from a still secret circle of
donors who apparently thought much civic good would flow from
putting that "ex-" in front of Ackerman's title. They were
willing to pony up just to see her ride out of town.  The buyout
figure—which amounts to roughly 43 times the average per capita
income in Philadelphia—leads to an obvious question: What could
that money have bought for the school children of Philadelphia
and the people who are going to stick around to do the hard work
of teaching them?  Particularly in a deficit-riddled school
system that this year laid off 2,418 people, half of them
teachers, and accepted another 1,200