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Bill Green Says He Won't Give Up SRC Chairmanship Without Court Fight

By Mike DeNardo and Tony Romeo

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- One day after Gov. Tom Wolf replaced Bill Green as chair of the School Reform Commission, Green maintains he's still the chair.

He says he plans to go to Commonwealth Court for a ruling on whether the governor had the authority to strip him of his SRC chairmanship.

Green says he'll pay the lawyers' fees himself, and that his challenge won't cost the school district anything.

State house speaker Mike Turzai says the Republican leadership may also offer legal help.

"We may join in it," Turzai (below) said today.  "We would not initiate it, but we may join in it."

turzai_mike post-green _romeo
(Pa. House speaker Mike Turzai, at event this morning near Harrisburg. Photo by Tony Romeo)

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Green says concession talks with the teachers' union are "going backwards," and the governor's move may embolden the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers.

"I'm afraid that they are getting encouragement for that intransigence by this action," Green told KYW Newsradio.

Green says if he loses his challenge, he plans to remain on the commission.  He says he wouldn't be comfortable giving Wolf the opportunity to make an SRC appointment.

 

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