Thomas K. Gilhool, Pennsylvania’s former secretary of education, has applied for a teaching position in the Philadelphia public-school district.
Mr. Gilhool, a lawyer who was often criticized during his tenure as education secretary for not being a professional educator, recently passed the exam for elementary-school teachers, thereby making him eligible to apply for temporary certification.
Pending the results of a criminal-records check and the state education department’s approval of his application, said William Thompson, a spokesman for the district, Mr. Gilhool could be appointed to fill a teaching vacancy by the end of the month. In compliance with state guidelines for temporary certification, the former schools chief has also agreed to earn the academic credits required for full certification.
Mr. Gilhool resigned his state post in June amid a public furor over plans to shift more of the costs of special education to the state’s general fund. If given a teaching assignment, Mr. Gilhool, currently a lawyer with the Public Interest Law Center in Philadelphia, would earn $55 a day, the wages of a substitute teacher.
Two Milwaukee businessmen have launched a national health-care foundation for underprivileged Hispanic children.
Darryl D. Hanson, the president of a local fund-raising firm and a former Democratic candidate for Wisconsin secretary of state, and James F. Parks, a lawyer, formed the nonprofit Hispanic Children’s Foundation of America because, they said, no national fund-raising efforts are aimed at helping the nation’s growing population of poor Hispanic children.
Neither of the men is Hispanic, although Mr. Parks and his wife, Patricia, have adopted three Ecuadorian children. Ms. Parks is president of another Milwaukee foundation that supports an agency working with poor families in Ecuador.
Mr. Hanson, whose interest in the cause stems from contacts with friends and business associates in Central America, said foundation officials hope to raise $50 million over the next five years. The money will be raised by selling permission to companies that would display the foundation’s logo on their products. The foundation will also receive a percentage of the sales from those products.
