Art School Grant Raises Eyebrows

A new art school in Philadelphia has scored a major grant from the Delaware River Port Authority, and some officials are asking how a small-scale start-up operation could be awarded a quarter of a million dollars in bridge toll proceeds (nearly twice the school’s entire annual operating budget) while other, more established arts groups go begging. The answer appears to be that school officials have friends in very high political places – friends who lobbied hard for Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell to approve the grant quickly and quietly.