Excerpt:
The work of another educational entrepreneur in Philadelphia has been recognized by the federal government.
Universal Community Homes, part of music legend Kenny Gamble's South Philadelphia development empire, is one of 21 organizations nationwide awarded a $500,000 planning grant to create a Promise Neighborhood -- or a full-service, cradle-to-grave web of health and social services and schools modeled on Geoffrey Canada's Harlem Children's Zone.
The planning grant, however, doesn't guarantee that Universal will get implementation money -- that will be the subject of a whole new competition. And Congress has yet to approve the $210 million that President Obama has asked for in the 2011 budget to fund the initiative.